Rome to Ban Horse Drawn Carriages from City Streets

"When current mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi was elected, she made it quite clear that banning botticelle was one of her aims. These traditional horse-drawn carriages  are, as romantic as they are, alas, unjust. Throughout the years, episodes of animals abuse, of horses dying in the heat of summer while forced to work along the city’s boiling hot roads, filled the pages of our newspapers with worrying regularity. Italy’s animal rights associations have been campaigning for years to finally ban a practice considered by many useless and inhumane. Daniele Draco, representative of the capital’s city assembly and  president of theCommissione IV Ambiente Roma Capitale saluted the decision positively: “by approving this regulation, the city finally enters a new time in its history, one where the will of the administration is to safeguard the rights and well being of our friends, the animals.”  The idea is to ban botticelle from the streets and limit their activity to Rome’s main parks, Villa Borghese, Villa Pamphilj and the Parco degli Acquedotti, exclusively along itineraries specifically designed by  equine experts to reduce at a minimum risks for the animals."  Chiara Dalessio, L'Italo Americano  

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