The affiliation's venture Horse in Seine, it’s a reality, is engaging: from the beginning of the 2020 educational 12 months, it goals to prepare college bus pickup, 20-seat horse-drawn carriage drawn by two draft horses. All this within the Grieu district of Rouen (Seine-Maritime), to drive the youngsters within the morning to the native college, Anatole France. A three.5 km spherical between the institution and the eco-pasture sheltering the horses, going from rue Grieu to rue des Hallettes, from rue Sœur Marie-Ernestine to that of Berne … The concept is so engaging that it’s one in every of 17 projects elected by the Rouennais a year and a half ago, as part of a call for projects for green citizens.
However since mid-December, a petition for the elected representatives of Rouen denounces this initiative within the title of animal welfare. Named “No to high school pickup in a carriage in Rouen”, it collected greater than 34,000 signatures in two weeks.
“We simply wish to take into consideration the connection we have now with animals”
On the origin of this petition: Manu Tritz, main instructor in Cléon (Seine-Maritime) for 17 years.
– Simon de Faucompret
“We needed to launch the talk … For as soon as, it’s properly launched“, he reacts with an amused air to the success of his petition. Earlier than recalling what he thinks important:”We simply needed to weigh in on a debate. It’s a petition, not a vote. It’s a political determination! We subsequently problem politicians. “
“A number of cities have banned carriage transportation.”
The “debate” is about animal welfare. “I discovered three research performed to seek out out if the horses have been doing the job they have been requested to voluntarily“Conclusion, says the Norman instructor who additionally holds a grasp's diploma in biology:”If given the selection, a horse doesn’t work. If he does, it’s as a result of he’s pressured to. Even with the bit, which may trigger severe accidents!“
In different phrases, the antispecist (who refuses the prevalence of man over animal species, editor's word) needs to lift an ethical query: “What’s our relationship to animals?” And the variety of signatories because the context push him to ask it. “A number of cities have banned carriage transportation. In Montreal for instance, when it was an actual establishment. ”
And if he salutes the ecological dimension of the venture in its want to scale back car air pollution close to the varsity … “There are different options. Only one instance, the vélobus! It exists in Louviers (Eure, editor's word), And it really works very properly. Right here, we struggle towards air pollution, the scholars perform a little sport, and we don’t consider that the answer is to make use of animal labor. “
“They’re within the improper struggle”
Even whether it is meant for elected officers of the Rouen municipality, the petition clearly made Fantine Costil react, president of the affiliation on the initiative, Cheval en Seine.
– Simon de Faucompret
“On the time, I didn't take it very properly“, she admits.”However in hindsight, I simply assume these persons are within the improper struggle. I wish to clarify how we work with horses. Because of us, draft horses may also final, whereas they’re endangered. ”
“We’re coming again to the horse as a result of we are attempting to vary issues and the local weather change.”
If the petition exploded rapidly, it’s due to the participation, in response to Rouen elected officers who help the venture, of a majority of international Web customers: Canada, United States, and so on. A press release denied in passing by Manu Tritz, which recollects that Web customers haven’t all indicated their geographical origin. Anyway, the president of the affiliation and keen about horses would have “favored that we focus on it earlier than it occurs on social networks in a reasonably violent method. We are able to discuss in regards to the venture, I'm fairly open. “
Even when she understands the arguments, she reaffirms it: “We defend animals! The horse has been used for millennia, for plowing, transport … We’re coming again to it right now as a result of we are attempting to vary issues and local weather change.“
And for her, the ecological facet just isn’t incompatible with animal welfare, removed from it : “We’re not going to do like in large cities of the world, to make them work all day, with out cease. All this to take advantage of cash, that is mistreatment. “The horse-drawn carriage would do the morning pickup, about two or three hours spherical.”we have now a crew with two horses to distribute the load“, Fantine Costil bids.
Lastly, the horses might be put in in an eco-pasture within the Grieu district of Rouen, within the open air. A method, in response to the president of the affiliation, to keep away from transporting them by truck or locking them up, and to be solely a stone's throw from the town heart.
