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.
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 the face of the 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 fuel use in vehicles and "to slow down urban life".
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. As of last week, more than 25,000 people had signed a petition demanding an end to the practice.
Questembert Mayor Boris Lemaire, himself a left-wing ecologist, said he would not "give in" to pressure to end horse-drawn waste collection. "The horses are well treated," he told Ouest France. "It seems to me that there are more pressing issues, like the collapse of biodiversity." | 
