A Melbourne carriage driver has sparked outrage online after footage surfaced of him appearing to kick a horse in the head after the animal fell over on a busy road on Monday.
The horse, named ‘Tuesday’, slipped on the road near Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens.
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Footage of the incident then shows the carriage driver appearing to kick the horse as it struggled to right itself.
“Get up, fucking lazy bitch,” the driver yelled.
Veterinary nurse Krista Knight filmed the ordeal, urging the driver to call emergency services for assistance in righting the horse.
“She’s not lazy, she cannot get up,” Knight said.
Knight was in the area with her husband when the incident took place, according to 10Daily.
Throughout the footage, Knight sounds audibly more distressed as the animal is kicked and pulled by the driver.
The driver then turned his anger towards passersby, including Krista.
“Love, shut up alright,” he said.
Knight then proceeded to ask the driver not to kick the distressed animal, while urging him to call the fire brigade for assistance.
“People like you piss us off – piss off,” the driver said to Knight.
“The carriage driver was abusive to civilians and also the this beautiful mare causing her to thrash and bleed from the mouth,” she said in a lengthy Facebook post. “Just needed to keep the horse calm until it could be unhitched. Once standing he immediately attached her again to the carriage and continued on the ride, no water, no checking legs nothing.”
“We need a protocol for this situation not abuse.”
“It is out of character, but it was a very stressful situation,” the driver’s employer Dean Crichton of Unique Carriage Hire told 7News. “I don’t condone his language but at times like that, help is better than negative comments.”
Horse-drawn carriages have been banned on Melbourne’s busy Swanston St since 2017, but can still operate in other areas of the city.
Thankfully, Tuesday the horse suffered no lasting damage from the ordeal and was working again on Sunday.
