The Balearic Islands’ main city of Palma de Mallorca authorized a plan to switch from horse-drawn carriages to electric ones on July 28, 2022. The animal protection party, Progreso en Verde, has been urging a switch to electric carriages for a number of years and has often criticized the town hall administration for failing to implement this transition. In the end, the council approved the move with the right-wing parties Partido Popular and Vox voting against it.
Along with this resolution, another amendment was accepted, which will go into effect upon publication in August and forbid horse-drawn carriage operators from sending their horses out for work whenever a yellow, orange, or red weather alert for heat is in effect.
A horse hauling a carriage collapsed and fell to the ground in a square in the city of Majorca just a few days before, as shown in some pictures that immediately went popular online around the end of July.
Horse-drawn tourist carriages are no longer permitted in many cities, and many of them—including Barcelona, New Delhi, Oxford, Tel Aviv, and Melbourne—have already outlawed them entirely. Other cities are also moving forward with the phase-out of this activity, including Charleston, New York, and Prague.
Numerous worn-out horses are still required to draw carriages filled with tourists through congested streets in other well-known areas of the island of Mallorca, such as L’Alcdia and Sant Llorenç des Cardassar. The effects of global warming are making this much crueler as temperatures may rise over the typical summertime high of 35 degrees Celsius. PETA has petitioned these municipalities’ mayors to outlaw this antiquated mode of transportation.
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