Montreal, May 18th 2016 – SPA Canada is relieved to hear that horses will not be forced to pull carriages in the streets of Montreal this summer.

The one year moratorium on horse-drawn carriage permits, announced this morning by Mayor Coderre, represents a step in the direction towards a city that respects animals as sentient beings. The City of Montreal seems open to keep the promises they made in 2011 following the Berger Blanc scandal, and is slowly putting in place new regulations and practices with regards to ethical animal control on their territory. SPA Canada strongly encourages Montreal to make this year long moratorium permanent, as a reinstatement of this practice would be an important step back for the city.

“The use of horse-drawn carriages as a tourist attraction in cities is archaic, cruel and has no place in 2016. It is time for this industry to become part of our history, and not of our future” states Gabriel Villeneuve, Director of Campaigns for SPA Canada.

And what about the horse-drawn carriages of the City of Quebec? With their own lot of accidents involving the horse-drawn carriages, will Quebec follow the same direction as the City of Montreal? The City of Quebec still claims to be an important city, but when it comes to animal welfare, it is in reality far behind Canada’s main cities. “In fact, the City of Quebec is an important example of bad animal management” critiques Mr. Villeneuve.

It is important to note that other cities, including London, Paris and Toronto, have banned the circulation of horse-drawn carriages in their streets.