Alderman Nick Palumbo is actively voicing his concerns as the Savannah city council prepares to discuss and decide on safe operating temperatures for horse-drawn carriage tours.
This initiative follows an incident over the weekend involving Palumbo and another carriage worker, who threw what seemed to be a shared water source for the horses during a peaceful demonstration in City Market.
The video has garnered thousands of views on social media, which has only sparked Palumbo to continue to speak out for animal safety.
Palumbo mentioned that tours are currently halted if the heat index reaches 110 degrees. The council is considering various options to implement new regulations and possibly change the method of temperature measurement.
The city uses dry bulb which measures air temperature. The same method could be used, but at a lower temperature.
“It would be either lowering it to 92 degrees dry bulb, which corresponds to 107 heat index or 85 degrees dry bulb, which corresponds to 100 degrees heat index maximum,” Palumbo said.
There is also a push to switch to what is called, ‘wet bulb globe temperature’, a more advanced way to measure heat. It detects heat, humidity, and sunlight to show how hot it really feels for animals.
“We’re not seeking to ban an industry,” said Palumbo. “We’re not seeking to ban any practice. We just want the same thing that other cities have litigated, discussed and adopted that are backed by veterinary science, best practices and experts.”
He said dozens of cities have already lowered their temperature limits without shutting operators down completely.
“…of course it means some change, but our ability to operate a business end at harming the welfare of others,” Palumbo said.
He continued, “what makes this meeting special is this is the first time that I’ve served in five and a half years on council. We’ve been continually raising this issue, but it’s never had a public hearing.”
Savannah Carriage Tours released a statement condemning the incident on social media. They said the person is now a former employee and was not on duty during the incident.
Council will discuss the proposed ordinance revisions at Thursday’s city council meeting.
