Local Activist Wins Award for Spearheading Horse-Drawn Carriage Ban

PETA Recognizes Chicago Alliance for Animals Director for Documenting Horse Mistreatment, Lobbying Lawmakers, and More

For Immediate Release:
April 29, 2020

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

A Hero to Horses Award is on its way from PETA to Jodie Wiederkehr—the executive director of the Chicago Alliance for Animals and founder of the Partnership to Ban Horse Carriages Worldwide—for leading the charge to end the use of horse-drawn carriages citywide, which the Chicago City Council did in a landmark decision on April 24 to take effect next year.

For more than three years, Wiederkehr and the Chicago Alliance for Animals documented that horses were frequently denied water and forced to pull carriages in heavy traffic through extreme heat, thunderstorms, and blizzards. She lobbied lawmakers to support the ban, and now that it’s passed, she is liaising with reputable sanctuaries to arrange homes for the horses—if their owners choose to grant them a peaceful retirement.

“Horses have a true ally in Jodie Wiederkehr, whose unwavering commitment and compassion have helped make Chicago the largest city in the country to shut down the cruel carriage industry,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is recognizing her for getting sensitive horses off the streets and for making the Windy City a more humane place for animals.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview— hopes this will now ramp up the pressure on New York City, where a horse used for carriage rides died in Central Park earlier this year.

Wiederkehr will receive a framed certificate.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.