Stink over horse nappy plan

Press, 26 April 1989, Page 1

Stink over horse nappy plan

NZPA-AP New York Carriage drivers in New York are raising a stink over a plan to clean up the streets by putting horses in nappies. “The people proposing this don’t know one end of a horse from the other,” said a driver, Alan Nugent. Sitting behind a grey beauty named Rover, Mr Nugent was one of more than 30 drivers who rode their carriages to a hearing yesterday to protest against the plan. Drivers say the nappies — re-usable

vinyl sacks strapped to a horse’s rear — leak, smell bad, attract flies and bees and can cause sores and infections. They also say all mares would have to be replaced because their anatomy cannot tolerate the nappies. “We feel it’s inhumane,” said a carriage owner, Randy Grill, who testified at the hearing while drivers chanted “clean up crime, not horse manure.” The New York Horse ? and Carriage Association pays SUS2OOO ($3279) a month to a private sanitation service to remove manure from Central Park carriage

routes. Mr Grill said drivers would be willing to pay to double the clean-up effort if the city dropped the nappy idea. Dr Fay Smimmo, a veterinarian consulting for the Department of Parks and Recreation, said the nappies should not bother horses if adjusted properly. Many of the nappies were made by Amish communities where horses were used every day, she said, and special models were available for mares. The nappies are scheduled to go into use on May 1.