A petition supportingĀ horse-drawn carriages has garnered more than 2,800 signatures since it was launchedĀ on July 6 with international support coming from England and Ireland.
Organizers Kimberley Hall and Richard Henderson sayĀ the carriage business protects horses by saving them from slaughterhouses.
The petition was started in direct response to anti-carriage protesters whoĀ have frequented NOTL for more than threeĀ years.
āWe just want council to know that (the protestersā) isnāt the only opinion, that there is an opinion by people who enjoy carriages and even like them,ā Hall told The Lake Report.
Sam Addario, of the groupĀ Ban Horse-drawn Carriages, wants the practice to end.
āOur position is that itās cruel and exploitative to put horses in traffic. Itās a position thatās dangerous and uncomfortable for them.ā
āThey suffer tremendously wearing all that gear and being in the heat. Being prey animals in a dangerous, fast-paced environment makes them suffer. We donāt think itās fair to exploit animals in traffic and make them work against their will.ā
Hailey Beattie, 17, who works for Sentineal Horse Carriages, noted their horse Ethan weighsĀ over 2,000 pounds “and can pull three-times that weight.”
“If he didnāt want to do something,Ā he wouldnāt. He would tell us, he would show us, we understand how to read horses,ā she said.
One of the anti-carriage protesters' suggestions to keep carriage operators in business is a switch to electric carriages.
āWe have the technology. We donāt have to be doing this. Thereās a reason we donāt ride horses any more for transportation,ā Addario said.
Queenās Royal Carriage owner Jeff Sentineal has previously suggestedĀ his company is open to transitioning to electric carriages, a stance theĀ protesters were eager to mention.
But Henderson wants the people who would see horse carriages takenĀ off NOTLās streets to consider where the horses would be without the industry.
āTheir horses are rescued,ā he said.
āThey rescue them from the slaughterhouses and protect them and let them have that life that they deserve.ā
Sentineal Carriages staff saidĀ thatĀ is the reality for work horses.
āWe get a lot of our horses out of slaughterhouses and meat auctions,ā said Sentineal driverĀ Jade McLachlan.
āA lot of them are old Amish work horses and they just canāt pull a plow like they used to. Itās harder for the horses to do that work than it is for them to pull a carriage.ā
She was standing besideĀ Ethan, an old show horse who didnāt quite fit in with the rest of the animals.
āClydesdales have a bit of a higher fancier step and he just didnāt have that,ā she said.Ā āHe could have ended up in a meat auction.ā
Unlike other industries, the carriage company doesnāt send itsĀ horses to meat auctions when they are too old to keep working.
The oldest horse that ownerĀ Fred Sentineal hadĀ was 42 when they ended up having to put him down, she said. “But he lived out a great retirement with us.ā
McLachlan saidĀ theĀ horses like to work, having been bred by humans for various jobs for thousands of years.
āWe had an old guy named Duke. We tried to retire him two years in a row,ā she said.
āEvery time summer picked up and we started to get our carriages out he would actually break down the fence and go and stand by the trailer because he wanted to go back to work.ā
She also stressed that theĀ horses are well taken care of.
āThey get their yearly shots, they get their fecal matter checked to make sure they donāt have worms and they have a full body check over.ā
The horses even have customized diets to make sure they are getting the specific nutrients they need, she said.
Hall said she and Henderson started the petition on change.org to represent the people who support horse-drawn carriages and not to change people's minds about the issue.
āIf somebody says they donāt want to sign we say, āThank you very much and have a nice day.āĀ We donāt want to influence anybody.ā
Another petition to ban all horse-drawn carriages in the Niagara region hadĀ more than 19,000 as of Monday.
A petition more localized to NOTL entitled āPledge not to visit Niagara-on-the-Lake until horse-drawn carriages are bannedā has gained 1,280 signatures in threeĀ years.
Henderson and Hall said the 2020 death of animal rights activist Regan Russell while protesting in BurlingtonĀ prompted them to get involved in the NOTL debate.
āWe saw the dangerous acts that the protesters were doing at Fearmanās and then we saw the, for lack of a better word, propaganda they were posting online about how safe their protests were and that led us to noticing what was happening down here,ā Hall said.
Russell was hit by a transport truck during a protest outside aĀ Fearmanās Pork Inc. slaughterhouse.
Some visitors seem divided on the issue.
āIāve never taken a ride on them because I actually think itās very cruel,ā Stoney Creek resident Rose Murdoch said while visiting NOTL with her husband.
āWe support animals. Do these horses even get water to drink?ā
Bolton resident Pat DāAlessandro took the opposite view.
āThis horse here was going to be slaughtered so I donāt have any problem with this,ā he said.
āOur driver has had her own horse since she was nine and it was sixĀ months old. They grew up together. If anyone knows how to take care of them, how to groom them, how to feed them and how to exercise them itās these people.ā
DāAlessandro thought the idea of releasing all work horses was ridiculous.
āCats and dogs are domesticated too. Do you want to release all of them?ā