Thaindian News

Mumbai, Oct 3 (IANS) Salsa dancer Sandip Soparrkar and his supermodel wife Jesse Randhawa have written to Mumbai’s civic corporation chief to stop plying of horse-drawn carriages in the metropolis.

The letter came a few days after an exhausted horse collapsed after pulling a heavy carriage along Marine Drive in south Mumbai.

“We were terribly dismayed to come across the news item where an exhausted horse collapsed after being forced to pull a heavy carriage for ‘joy rides’ along Marine Drive. On behalf of our friends at PETA India, we implore you to put a stop to cruel horse-drawn carriage rides in Mumbai,” said the letter addressed to Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar.

Stating that dancers and models know all too well what it is like to push our bodies to their limits, the letter said: “But we can choose for ourselves when to work hard and when to stop and rest. Horses required to pull carts have no such choice; they are regularly pushed beyond the point of complete fatigue. But they are forced to get up - often through vicious beatings - and keep pulling carriages after they collapse.”

The letter said that such forced carriage rides not only put horses at risk but also endanger people.

“As all Mumbaikars know, the city is congested with cars, bikes and pedestrians. Horses must exert extra effort to avoid collisions, and they are not always successful. Over the years, there have been numerous accidents, in which both horses and people have been seriously injured and even some in which humans have died,” the letter said.

Soparrkar and Randhawa join a growing list of celebrities that includes Hema Malini, John Abraham, and former Miss Sri Lanka Universe Jacqueline Fernandez, among others, who have teamed up with PETA India to call for taking the horse-drawn carriages off Mumbai’s roads.