EDITOR, The Tribune.

It was with great dismay that I and other animal lovers read of the return of the Surrey industry to downtown Nassau.

With all due respect to Mrs Colby-Davis, I very much doubt that she, or anyone else involved knows much about equine husbandry. Owning a horse is nothing like owning a dog or a cat. Horses have many specific needs that require knowledge of their requirements. I would really like to answers to the following questions:-

1. Where are they stabled at night? Do they have proper stabling or are they left tied to a tree in the bush somewhere at the mercy of the elements? Many years ago this is what I was told.

2. Who takes care of their feet? Horses hooves continue to grow like our fingernails, and every six weeks or so need to have their shoes removed, hooves cut back and shoes replaced. This is a job for an expert farrier. Do we have such a person or persons here qualified to do this? Improper shoeing can cause lameness in horses, sometimes bad enough that they cannot take any weight on the affected foot.

3. Who takes care of their teeth? Again, this is something that needs attention every year or so as their teeth never stop growing and need to be filed down occasionally. If left undetected or ignored, this leads to poor mastication leading to digestive problems.

4. What are they being fed? When I owned horses many years ago the cost of horse feed was high, it must be exorbitant now. How can these Surrey owners possibly afford to feed these animals properly on the income they get from tourists? I have calculated the cost of feed for an average sized horse to be about $120.00 per week. That does not include bedding if that is even provided!

5. In this part of the world many horses suffer from a condition known as anhidrosis, or the inability to sweat. If this is not diagnosed immediately and a horse shows these symptoms it leads to overheating and death.

On a visit to New York City a few years ago, I was informed that the carriage rides through Central Park during the summer were not permitted between 10.00 am and 5.00 pm as it was too hot for the horses to work in the heat of the day.

To see our Surrey horses working in the heat of the day, in heavy traffic, breathing exhaust fumes from the cars is tantamount to cruelty.

A testament to this is the number of times in the past that horses have literally dropped dead in the street. What does this make us look like as a nation?

I applaud Mrs Colby- Smith and the Ministry of Tourism for doing all they can to revitalise the tourism industry, but not at the expense of the lives and well-being of innocent animals.

JOANNA ROBERTSON

Nassau,

August 6, 2022.