AP - Feature Stories
Animal Lovers Protest Horse Diapers
Thu Sep 19,12:33 PM ET
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Animal lovers and horsemen are protesting a plan by Vienna's leaders to diaper carriage-drawing horses in order to keep city streets clean.
Donning diapers themselves, animal rights activists on Thursday lined up at Heroes' Square in front of the former imperial Hofburg palace to protest the plan.
The protesters claim that the proposal — meant to keep horse droppings from sullying the streets of the historic capital — would inflict unnecessary suffering on the animals.
"The diapers would restrict the horses' movement and would rub, causing wounds," said Attila Cerman, a spokesman for Four Paws, the group that organized the protest.
Some of the 20 activists who came out to protest stood side-by-side with their rears in the air to spell out their slogan — "Stop Pooh Bags."
The drivers of the traditional carriages, whose rides through the city's historic downtown streets are popular with tourists, said they, too, were opposed to the diapers.
Members of the pro-environment Greens party have also spoken out against the plan, noting that the bag-like diapers would prevent the horses from being able to flick away flies with their tails.
The animal rights activists urged city officials to instead try to reduce the number of horse-drawn carriages and to deploy more cleanup teams armed with brooms and scoops to clean up the droppings.
They also claimed that the diapers would do nothing to fight the main source of horse-caused stench, urine.
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