PETA urges CP, Ajoy Mehta to enforce horse riding rules

Mumbai: In the wake of a six-year-old girl falling off a horse at Cooperage Ground and dying, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Thursday urged the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Mumbai police to enforce orders of the high court stating that horse-carriage and joy rides have been banned in Mumbai. It also requested enforcement of provisions of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, 1888, which mandate seizing horses from unlicensed stables and those used for joy rides.

PETA wrote to the BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta and police commissioner of Mumbai Datta Padsalgikar, requesting urgent implementation of the 2015 and 2017 orders of the Bombay high court in public interest litigation (PIL) 36 of 2011, Animals and Birds Charitable Trust and Others versus Greater Municipal Corporation of Mumbai. These orders ban horse-carriages and joy rides in Mumbai. PETA also requested enforcement of provisions of the MMC Act, 1888, which mandate that seizure of horses from unlicensed stables and those used illegally for joy rides in the city. In 2015, the Bombay high court ruled that none of the stables for horses in the city possessed a license under section 394 of the MMC Act, 1888.

Dr Manilal Valliyate, CEO, PETA India, told The Asian Age, “These horses are malnourished, overworked, and exhausted and are kept in highly vulnerable situations. They are forced to work without food. Offering joy rides and making the horses run from pillar to post after being fed just one time puts both the horses and their riders in immense danger.”

However, a BMC official told this newspaper, “We have already taken measures and urged people against joy rides. We will take action if we see such illegal activities. Earlier, the deputy superintendent of gardens used to issue license to these horses but following high court orders to put an end to horse carts, we have not renewed licenses.”