BOGOTA, Colombia — The Colombian city of Cartagena began replacing its iconic horse buggies with electric carriages Tuesday, following years of protests by animal rights activists, who argued that horses pulling 19th-century-like coaches for tourists suffered from exploitation and poor health.
In a sunny plaza lined with elegant colonial era mansions, Mayor Domek Turbay introduced a new fleet of 30 vehicles with large wheels and open tops that resemble the city's traditional horse carriages. The new vehicles are powered by batteries and have steering wheels for their drivers, instead of reins and yokes.
''Times are changing,'' Turbay said. ''For many years locals and visitors alike had rejected the mistreatment that comes with using horses to pull buggies for tourists.''
Cartagena is one of Colombia's most popular destinations, thanks to its location on the Caribbean Sea, and its well preserved historical center, where visitors can still walk along stone walls built in the 17th century to defend the city from attacks by pirates and buccaneers.
Since the 1940s, tourists have also been able to get around the city's lantern lit streets on small buggies pulled by horses, whose clip-clopping sound became a quintessential part of the city's life.
But over the past decade, animal rights activists have been lobbying the municipal government to axe the tradition.
Fanny Pachon, a local activist, said that while horses are pack animals, they are not meant to work in a city with cement roads, cars and motorbikes. She pointed out that on several occasions horses have collapsed on the city's streets due to Cartagena's heat.
''Their joints suffer from the pavement," she said. ''And the honking of cars can stress them out.''
