Horse carts have been a staple of Keşan, a city in the northwestern Turkish province of Edirne, for decades. The local municipality new project seeks to eliminate the practice where the inhabitants transported loads and people in rustic horse-drawn carts and give a new animal life of burden. The horses have been replaced with electric tricycles and are now sheltered in a care center home for stray animals.
Sevinc Cebeci, who runs a local animal charity in the city, said the horses would be given to their new owners – on the condition that they are not used for transport of property – after undergoing rehabilitation and treatment for wounds they have suffered for years of work pull carts. Hasan Nural, a veterinarian at the shelter, told Demirören News Agency (DHA) on Monday that they had so far received 12 horses and 34 more would like arrive soon.
“They are in stables now and we treat and care for their. They will then be shipped to farms or private individuals wishing to own them, but only as pets. They will not be forced to transport tasks”, he said. Nural said most of the horses were untreated for correctly by their past owners and they looked after them back for full health. “It will take another 10 or 15 days for that they recover in full”, he said. “They were confused when they first arrived here. It was the first time they roamed freely, without any burden, in one if grand space. They now feel comfortable,” he said.
Cebeci hailed the municipality projectthat it says addressed a public worry for animal rights. “We hope they will be better cared for for. Horse cart owners received tricycles, but authorities should do something to prevent them from buying horses again. They can impose fines so that this practice will be history”, she said. She swore that they would watch the new ownership process for horses so that they do not fall into the hands of owners using to transport heavy goods.
Last year Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) and other municipalities fire when on discovered that several IBB horses sent to other cities for adoption would have disappeared. These horses were earlier rescued from the much criticized practice of used to pull cars serving tourists on The Princes’ Islands of Istanbul. Animal rights activists had welcomed the decision while several other municipalities had joined Istanbul in scrap the practice.
Although they are less common see nowadays, thanks to electrical alternatives like tricycles, horse carts are still used mainly in disadvantaged communities in rural parts of Turkey or in small towns like Kesan. Owners say they are well cared for while animal rights activists say extended use of horses and donkeys for transporting goods or transporting people amounts to torture, something punishable with prison terms under a landmark animal rights bill introduced last year.
