On May 4th, 2018 two horses collapsed at Ogden Point. A video of the horses laying on the ground, struggling to get up was captured by a tourist and shared with the Victoria Horse Alliance after the witness felt that the carriage industry, who she went to first, was trying to cover up what actually happened. That video has to date received about 385,000 views on Facebook. Don’t feel left out if you didn’t know about it, the mainstream media in Victoria failed to cover this major incident. Regardless, people from across the world saw the shameful side of Victoria’s carriage industry.
Two weeks later, the VHA decided to have a peaceful demonstration across from the carriages, where it has been done for years. This was the first time VHA had been out since December. Standing with signs, doing outreach with residents and tourists, and collecting signatures it was a very successful day with tremendous community support. However, there was something different about this event. Not on our side, but on the carriage side.
First of all, the carriage industry had sent someone undercover to our designated meeting place to videotape us. He was spotted in about 2min. Then as we approached our usual outreach location across from the carriages, two Victoria police officers were present. They could not give a good reason for their presence except claims of harassment by the carriage industry, before we had even arrived. This being the first time out since December, this didn’t make sense either. Then we found out that a press release had been sent out by the carriage industry as our demonstration was about to begin, claiming a “minority group of activists” being insulting and aggressive towards them. This all while we stayed on our side of the road and they sent several people over to harass our demonstrators to try and illicit a response.
There is, as far we know, not a single piece of evidence to support any of their claims of harassment. What we do know is that this was timed to try to discredit the legitimate, peaceful, and respectful demonstration that had been planned. Several media outlets ran this press release, only one asked for comment by those opposed to the horse carriages. As the Victoria Horse Alliance has nothing to do with any of the claims made, we can’t comment on them; except to say that these are lies being used by the carriage industry to try to distract from the negative publicity they have been receiving after the video was released.
Then we realized who it was that is harassing the carriage industry as they exploit animals for profit on the city streets, the public. At an event a few days ago, we were speaking to two children, about seven or eight years old, who said when they saw the horse carriages on the street, they yelled “free the horses!” at them. Indeed, the public are tired of the lies of this industry being propped up by the media and city councillors alike. It is time for them to be held accountable and if those in power won’t, the public will.
Victoria Horse Alliance
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