End of the road for Chicago's horse-drawn carriage industry

The end of the road is near for Chicago's much-maligned horse-drawn carriage industry.

Starting Jan. 1, the carriage rides - popular with tourists, newlyweds and prom-goers, but criticized by animal welfare activists as cruel to horses and dangerous to motorists - will be banned under a long-stalled ordinance that finally cleared the City Council's Committee on License and Consumer Protection Committee on Wednesday.

Downtown Alderman Brendan Reilly said he "spent the better part of a decade trying to regulate" the industry and convince carriage operators to "treat their animals in a humane way."

It didn't work. In each of the last 10 years, the city has issued "hundreds of violations."

"There are folks that have an issue with this industry entirely related to traffic and public safety. There are others who care about whether these animals are being treated in a humane fashion. For me, it's a combination of both," Reilly said.

"I grew up surrounded by farms and horses. They're bred to work. But they were not bred to be sucking gas fumes from the back of CTA buses and co-mingling with cement mixers. That's not ... humane treatment of animals. They do not belong in downtown busy traffic. In other cities, we've seen people and animals killed because they're co-mingled with traffic."

He noted only three companies and 10 licenses are left in Chicago. That's down from 60 licenses at the industry's peak. It shows "people are voting with their feet," he said.

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