By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

VETERINARIAN Kwesi Smith said poor health may not have played a factor in the death of a surrey horse which collapsed in downtown Nassau on Tuesday.

Speaking yesterday, Dr Smith said although its still too early to determine a definitive cause and blood tests are still pending, the death might have been caused by the age of the animal.

The 22-year-old female horse, named Bloody Mary, was drawing a yellow and blue surrey near the corner of Dowdeswell and Christie Streets when it collapsed.

Witnesses at the scene said tourists were in the carriage and that after the horse’s collapse, the animal was tied to the back of a truck and dragged out of the street – reportedly at the insistence of the police.

One woman, who asked to remain anonymous, called the scene “disturbing” and called for an investigation into the working conditions for horses.

“It was just so disturbing looking at that horse,” she said. “It’s a poor reflection on our society because that horse looked hungry, it looked starved and we need to do better.

“Those guys downtown need to be investigated. We need to shed the light on that.”

President of the Bahamas Humane Society, Kim Aranha, also weighed in on the horse’s death and hinted that the incident could be related to alleged poor working conditions for carriage horses.

“We have been trying to improve the conditions that these poor animals work in, for years,” she said. “The conditions are appalling.”

She added the Bahamas Humane Society is “unequivocally opposed” to surrey horses, stating: “This is 2012 and there is no place for horse driven carriages in the city of Nassau.”

She also revealed the Humane Society gets frequent emails and phone calls from tourists who are “upset” about the working conditions for the animals.