The German Animal Welfare Federation renews its call for horses not to be used in carnival parades. The flight animals are sometimes exposed to considerable stress during the parades due to the unfamiliar surroundings, noise, crowds and unexpected contact. In addition to the animal welfare problem, this poses an incalculable safety risk for participants and spectators, as accidents involving horse-drawn carriages have repeatedly shown in the past.
“Horses instinctively react to danger by fleeing and carnival parades are extreme situations for these sensitive animals. With the crowds, loud bands, drunk and noisy people, it is not surprising that horses shy away or run away. Accidents have occurred time and again in recent years. These could be avoided if the use of horses at carnivals were finally abandoned. What's more, in most cases rider and horse don't know each other, so they don't form a trusting horse and rider team,” says Andrea Mihali, horse expert at the German Animal Welfare Federation. For reasons of animal welfare and the safety of all those involved, the association is appealing to all those responsible, cities and festival committees not to use horses in carnivals in future.
Supporters of carnival parades with horses rely on certain training methods to desensitize the animals and on stricter controls before and during the parades. However, the guidelines introduced in 2023 by the Ministry of the Environment, Agriculture, Nature Conservation and Consumer Protection in North Rhine-Westphalia do not change the animal welfare issue. According to the guidelines, it must be possible, among other things, to remove horses at several points along the train route. In addition, those responsible for the horses should regularly prepare their animals for their use - for example, by getting them used to certain stimuli such as projectiles, noise or fluttering ribbons. “However, all these efforts are not enough,” warns Mihali. “No matter how experienced the horses may be and how prepared they are for stressful situations, such events are still a major stress factor for the animals and the crowds at the roadside remain uncontrollable. What's more, they are only used for entertainment. So there is absolutely no sensible reason to expose the animals to this stress.”
DANGER FOR HORSES AND PEOPLE
Horses in carnival parades also pose an incalculable risk to revellers on the roadside. This was demonstrated by a serious accident during the Rose Monday parade in Cologne in 2018, in which five people were injured - horses in a carriage had run away. In Sonnenwalde in Brandenburg, the horses of a carriage also ran away during a carnival procession in 2023. The coachman was seriously injured. And in 2017, an accident also occurred during a parade in Bonn. A team of horses and carriage fled uncontrollably and collided with parked cars, among other things. While the Bonn Carnival Festival Committee drew conclusions and has refrained from using horses since 2023, carnival strongholds such as Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz are not backing away from the questionable tradition. In Cologne alone, 234 horses took part in the 2024 Rose Monday parade.
