BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian The city of Cartagena on Tuesday began replacing its iconic carriages with electric carriages after years of protests from animal rights activists who argued that horses pulling 19th-century-style tourist carriages suffered from exploitation and poor health.
In a sunny square surrounded by elegant colonial-era mansions, Mayor Domecq Tourbay unveiled a new fleet of 30 cars with large wheels and open tops reminiscent of the city's traditional horse-drawn carriages. New cars are powered by batteries and have steering wheels for drivers instead of reins and rocker arms.
“Times are changing,” Turbay said. “For years, locals and visitors alike have rejected the cruelty associated with the use of horses to transport tourists.”
Cartagena is one of the most popular destinations in Colombia due to its location on Caribbean Seaand its well-preserved historic center, where visitors can still stroll along the stone walls built in the 17th century to protect the city from attacks by pirates and buccaneers.
Since the 1940s, tourists have also been able to navigate the city's lamp-lit streets in small horse-drawn buggies, whose clopping sound has become an integral part of city life.
But over the past decade, animal rights activists have lobbied municipal authorities to stop the tradition.
Fanny Pahon, a local activist, said that while horses are beasts of burden, they are not designed to work in the city with cement roads, cars and motorcycles. She noted that several times horses have fallen on the city streets due to the heat in Cartagena.
“Their joints suffer from the pavement,” she said. “And car horns can make them nervous.”
Colombian city, whose historical center UNESCO The world heritage site is now positioning itself as the first major tourist destination to replace horse-drawn carriages with electric vehicles.
The city government said 62 custom-built electric cars in China will be introduced into the city center over the next few weeks. The city is also building a warehouse with a small solar power plant and a charging station for the new tour vehicles.
The move has met fierce opposition from the city's traditional cart owners, who argue their industry is already regulated to improve animal welfare.
Bus travel was limited primarily to overnight hours under rules issued in 2015, which also stated that horses must be inspected by a local animal welfare agency.
“We are one of the most regulated industries in this city,” said Jacqueline Gonzalez, owner of two traditional buses in Cartagena.
Bus owners have threatened to go on hunger strike if the city does not compensate them for their losses. They claim city officials are pushing them out of businesses that working-class families built through decades of backbreaking labor.
“This is not a transition period,” said Yesid Soto, president of the association that represents carriage owners and their employees. “It was more of an imposition.”
A decree issued last week by Turbay bans the use of horse-drawn carriages from Monday. It states that the electric buggies that will now carry tourists around the city center will become the property of the city.
Soto said there are 26 carriage owners in the city who will be laid off under the new ordinance.
According to him, the owners of the carriages are asking the city to compensate them for horse-drawn carriages that will be removed from the city streets, but an agreement has not yet been reached with officials. Soto said that during the city's high tourist season, December and January, a horse-drawn carriage can bring in about $150 a day.
Cartagena's municipal government says it wants to hire bus owners and drivers to operate the new vehicles. He has offered jobs to horse-drawn carriage drivers, but has yet to explain how bus owners could be integrated into running the new fleet of electric vehicles.
Turbay accused the coach’s owners of “sabotaging” the negotiations.
