I arrived in Palermo and walked around the city seeing the main sites - the Opera house, the cathedral, the Quattro Canti - and noticed several horse-pulled carriages at each square. Most of the horses were in the sun with no water. Some had ‘em their ribs showing. I saw more than one horse in clear distress from the heat and injury and the driver resting in the carriage. Not knowing sufficient Italian, I did a Google search to see if there were any local organizations that could help. There was! I took a few photos of the horse and sent an email with the location to the Italian Horse Protection Association. They responded within a few hours that they had sent a volunteer to the location to find and help the horse and contacted the local authorities to record the incident. There are many fun ways for tourists to get around Palermo - toy trains, tuk tuks, and scooters - that don’t punish horses. Please void the carriage rides, and if you see a horse suffering, take a video or photo and email it and the location to ihp (at) horseprotection (dot) it
Posted by
Tennessee
396 posts
I arrived in Palermo yesterday accompanied by a friend who owns horses. Like you, we would never consider hiring a carriage bc we feel sorry for the horses pulling them. My friend paid particular attention to the horses we saw yday and today. Some seemed better fed and watered than others.
This morning as we walked from Quattro Canti towards Palatine Chapel on Via Vittoria Emanuele at 8:20 a.m. one of the carriage horses who had broken loose galloped past us. Thankfully there were very few people on the street at the time. A minute later a police car sped by. I don’t know how the story ended. Hopefully no injury to horse or pedestrians (unlike recent spooked military horses near Buckingham Palace).
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15607 posts
All over Europe, not just Palermo. The only value I see is to let people have a tiny experience of what life must have been like before motor vehicles - the noise of hooves on cobblestones, the smell of horses and their excretions . . .
Posted by
2510 posts
There are several cities, throughout the world, where carriage rides are offered as a tourist attraction. Also, throughout that same world, are activist animal rights groups. The carriage rides are still being offered ... and I'll leave it at that.
Posted by
Southeast US
3877 posts
Hi, Zwiebel. Interesting first post. Welcome to the forum. I think you‘ll find it a pretty enlightened, informed, travel-savvy group.