French town divided over horse-drawn bin lorries

A row has broken out in France over the use of horses for bin collections and other municipal tasks.

In Questembert, Brittany, two eight-year-old mares called Havane and Gladez, who are used for waste collection and school transport, as well as Christmas rides for local families, have been "dragged into a controversy", said The Times.

Although supporters of the scheme tout it as an eco-friendly return to pre-mechanised transport, detractors say the practice is tantamount to "slavery", and subjects animals to taxing and distressing forced labour.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Slowing down urban life

Horse-drawn rubbish carts have become a "familiar sight" in French towns in recent years. There have been equine waste collection services in Le Mans, west of Paris, and Orleans, south of the capital, as well as several smaller towns.

In Lunéville, in the northeast of the country, a 10-year-old stallion called Bayard hauls more than 600kg of recycled glass every Saturday, said France Bleu. And the streets of the Brittany town of Hennebont resound to a "clip-clop of hooves" as Dispar, a Breton work horse, starts the morning rubbish collection, said The Guardian in 2022. In the face of climate breakdown, an energy crisis and "modern stress levels", there have been calls across France to bring back the horse and cart as an alternative to fossil fuels and "to slow down urban life".

In addition to the supposed environmental benefit, local politicians have cited the need to safeguard France's dwindling work horse breeds, as well as the "feel-good factor" of seeing horses engaged in traditional tasks.

Source of suffering

The row in Questembert broke out when Serge Buchet, a councillor in the neighbouring town of Rochefort-en-Terre, said he was "shocked" that horses could be used as a "mere" work tool.

"This is of course a form of slavery," said Buchet, from the Ecological Revolution for the Living party. "Has the horse agreed to do this work? No one can say that."

As of last week, more than 25,000 people had signed a petition demanding an end to the practice. In the petition, Buchet said he was "revolted by this practice from another era", describing it as "a source of suffering" for the horses. He claimed the working animals are forced to pull excessively heavy loads along "tarmacked roads" as "terrifying" vehicles pass by.

A counter-petition wanting to keep using horses has gained 18,000 signatures, and paints opponents of the scheme as radicals who would want to ban horseriding and owning pets.

Questembert's mayor, Boris Lemaire, himself a left-wing ecologist, said he would not "give in" to pressure to end the use of horse-drawn waste collection. "The horses are well treated," he told Ouest France. Havane and Gladez only work for four hours a day, with two days off per week and flexible hours during hot weather. "It seems to me that there are more pressing issues, like the collapse of biodiversity," he added.