The letter came in over the winter. A KidNews reader was in downtown Chicago and saw a carriage horse on the street. It looked cold. It doesn’t seem fair, she thought. And she wondered: How are the animals treated? So she put KidNews on the case.
What KidNews discovered is that there are lots of rules to protect carriage horses in Chicago, but questions remain about how often the rules are enforced.
There are 14 pages of ordinances that cover the carriage-horse industry in Chicago. The key ordinances are these:
– Carriages are allowed to operate in the downtown area only during evenings and weekends.
– Horses’ work shifts are limited to six hours in any 24-hour period.
– Horses are required to get 15-minute breaks each working hour for water and rest.
– Horses cannot be worked in extreme heat or cold.
If a company is issued a citation for breaking one of the rules, it must face an administrative hearing. At the hearing, the city decides on a penalty — either a fine or a recommendation that the carriage license be revoked. If officials think the violation is particularly bad, they can skip the hearing and ask the mayor’s licensing committee to put the carriage company out of business.
Carriage operators say they take care of their horses because they’re a valuable investment.
Debra Hay, owner of Antique Coach and Carriage, says she rotates her horses weekly. “I keep six in the city and 10 on the farm,” she says. She says her horses work shifts of “six to 10 hours,” but claims the 15-minute breaks make up for the overtime. (According to our calculations, they don’t.)
Finn Ryan, manager of Noble Horse, the city’s oldest carriage company, says that, unlike some other firms, Noble Horse doesn’t tie the horses in stalls when they return from a shift.
“The stalls are large and they can lie down,” she says. “We also have a large indoor arena where they can roll around.”
Two city departments — Animal Care and Control and Consumer Services — oversee the carriage-horse business in the city.
Nikki Proutsos, director of the city’s Animal Care and Control department, is in her second year on the job. When she took over, she says, she went out and inspected every horse and carriage.
Animal Care and Control does an annual inspection of the carriage barns. Carriage companies also are required to submit quarterly reports on each horse from a veterinarian confirming that the animal is healthy enough to work.
“We also do spot inspections of horse-drawn carriages throughout the year to make sure everything is as it should be,” said Connie Buscemi, spokeswoman for the city’s Consumer Services department.
Animal Care and Control says its annual inspections are usually done in December or January. Though that makes sense legally — carriage licenses are renewed at the beginning of each year — it’s unclear whether that’s the best time to see how the animals are being treated. Carriage rides are generally by appointment only in the winter, and most carriage barns are relatively empty; most of the horses are housed on farms throughout northern Illinois at that time of year.
Donna Ewing, executive director of the Hooved Animal Humane Society, says she and Gene Mueller, a veterinarian and president of the Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society, visited a carriage barn on the West Side in the summer of 1999 — the busiest time of year — and issued a citation to the company over what they saw there.
“It was unbelievably sweltering, and all the horses were sweating and packed together in a barn,” Ewing said. “The building was long and narrow with just a small window in the back, and the door was shut and locked. They had a fan blowing this 100-degree heat around.”
Speaking of heat, if you’re worried about how the horses fare out on the streets in the summer, check this out: A key amendment added to the city ordinances last June is designed to protect horses from weather extremes. According to Rule 7.1, no horse can be worked if the National Weather Service reports that temperatures are below 0 degrees Fahrenheit or if the service has issued a heat warning. Roughly, a heat warning is issued when the temperature is 95 degrees plus humidity during the day.
Anti-Cruelty’s Mueller says the new law is “a good beginning.”
“We’re very pleased that a tangible measurement has been put in place,” he says.
Ewing, of Hooved Animal Humane Society, wishes Chicago’s carriage horses were running free in the country, but accepts that the equines have to work. “The reality is, it’s their livelihood,” she says. “They’re earning their keep.”
The carriages aren’t heavy for the powerful animals, she says, and traffic doesn’t bother them. The horses would probably rather be outside getting exercise than cooped up in a barn, she adds.
But she is concerned about the horses being worked for too many hours, housed in less than ideal conditions and driven by riders who often don’t have a lot of experience before they begin training for the job.
After some bad publicity last fall involving a runaway horse and an unlicensed driver, the city pledged to increase random inspections. But even inspections may not solve the problem of horses being overworked, Ewing says. Though horses are required to have identification numbers, inspectors would have to be at the carriage posts 24/7 to keep track of which animals are working what shifts. If an unscrupulous firm gets wind of an inspection, it could simply rotate its horses more frequently until the pressure dies down. As it stands now, the city must largely take the owners’ word for the horses’ treatment.
The carriage-horse industry is very visible in Chicago. It gives the city a quaint atmosphere. But it is not a big money-maker for the city. The Department of Revenue says carriage-horse operators are taxed $3.50 per carriage per day. There are 60 carriages licensed to operate in the city, so that’s a potential total of $210 per day. Annual licensing fees are $400 for each carriage and $8 per driver.
ONE VIEW . . . .
‘We do spot inspections of horse-drawn carriages throughout the year to make sure everything is as it should be.’
Connie Buscemi of Chicago’s Consumer Services
. . . ANOTHER VIEW
‘It was unbelievably sweltering, and all the horses were sweating and packed together in a barn.’
Donna Ewing of the Hooved Animal Humane Society
If you’d like to let the city know how you feel about carriage horses, write to:
Caroline Shoenberger
Commissioner
Department of Consumer Services
City Hall
121 N. LaSalle St.
Room 808
Chicago, IL 60602
Or:
Nikki Proutsos
Executive Director
Commission on Animal Care and Control
2741 S. Western Ave.
Chicago, IL 60608
