Horse falls on Basel Carnival Monday: Animal welfare organizations alarmed

A horse harnessed to a carriage fell during the Basel Cortège on Monday afternoon. According to eyewitnesses, the animal was unable to get up for approximately 15 minutes and suffered a minor abrasion. PETA points out that serious accidents involving horse-drawn carriages and processions are not uncommon. The animal welfare organisation has now written to the Basel Carnival Comité urging that future parades be held without horses.

The use of horses in carnival processions is irresponsible. These easily startled animals are under considerable stress due to the loud music, flying sweets, and the exuberant crowds surrounding them. If a horse bolts, it can become life-threatening for both people and animals.

Peter Höffken, specialist adviser at PETA.

Horses uncontrollable in stressful situations

Even in trained horses, minor disturbances can trigger the flight instinct. At the Rose Monday parade in Cologne in February 2018, five people were injured, some seriously, after horses bolted in front of a carriage. The city of Düsseldorf subsequently decided to ban horse-drawn carriages from the Rose Monday parade. In 2015, a serious horse-drawn carriage accident at a folk festival in Troisdorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, left 26 people injured, some seriously. An expert report concluded that "the horses had followed their flight instinct — and could no longer be made receptive to human commands from the coachman's box using reins and whip." As early as 1991, the Koblenz Court of Appeal established that unpredictable behaviour — such as bolting during a carnival procession — cannot be ruled out even in horses that are ordinarily “gentle as lambs.”

Training methods contrary to animal welfare used to prepare horses for parades

Part of PETA's motto is: animals are not here for our entertainment or for us to exploit in any other form.In addition to the stress placed on horses during processions, the animal welfare organization also criticizes the animal welfare-violating training methods used to "desensitize" these sensitive flight animals beforehand. During training, they are regularly subjected to loud music or startled by banging noises. Sharp bits are also used to control the horses through pain.

Accidents involving horse-drawn carriages often end fatally

In 2018, 42 accidents in German-speaking countries (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) resulted in ten fatalities and 92 injuries. In addition, four horses were killed and six more were injured. PETA points out that the frequently severe consequences of these accidents are primarily due to the lack of safety features such as seatbelts and airbags, as well as inadequate lighting and insufficient braking systems.