As many of our readers are aware, in August 2013, on an afternoon when temperatures soared to 98 degrees, a horse named Jerry collapsed on State Street near South Temple in Salt Lake City. His driver and passersby tried in vain to cool him off by pouring water on his body. But he laid on the hot asphalt of South Temple for over an hour, barely able to move.
Eventually, Jerry had to be hoisted and dragged into the back of a trailer with ropes and pulleys.
Then, Jerry was transported back to the carriage stable near 400 West and 200 North.
Jerry’s body was then lifted with the help of heavy machinery into a barn out of public view, never to be seen again. Jerry was only 13 years old when he died.
UARC Board Member Amy Meyer captured all of these powerful images, which quickly went viral and grabbed the attention of the local and national media. Almost immediately, calls to ban horse-drawn carriages from Salt Lake City streets grew louder, with Salt Lake City Councilmembers Charlie Luke & Luke Garrott being especially powerful local voices for change to make our streets safer and more humane.
Initially, the carriage company tried to claim Jerry survived the incident, even going so far as release a photograph of a different horse to the public claiming it depicted Jerry on the mend. Once the carriage company was caught trying to lie to the public, local elected officials demanded to see Jerry and his vet records, and PETA put out a reward for information concerning Jerry’s actual whereabouts. Eventually, the carriage company was forced to admit Jerry died, but they never released any of Jerry’s veterinary records indicating his diagnosed conditions. After watching video and photos from the day of his collapse, equine veterinarians stated that it appeared Jerry died from overexertion and heat exhaustion.
UARC and other animal protection organizations began actively campaigning for a city ordinance that would ensure no other horse would ever meet this fate in Salt Lake City. We began regularly meeting with elected officials and showing up at City Council meetings. The city launched its own investigation, which found that there had been several other unreported incidents of horses spooking & causing accidents, or dying on city streets following a collapse.
The fallout from the ordeal was massive. Less than a year later, the horse carriage company responsible for Jerry’s death went out of business. Soon after, in late November 2014, the Salt Lake City Council banned horse-drawn carriages. The vote was unanimous, 7-0. Prior to her vote in favor of the ban, Salt Lake City Councilmember Erin Mendenhall (now Mayor of SLC) publicly stated that she had received an enormous amount of communications from her constituents about the proposed ban, almost all of which was in favor of the ban.
When the ban became law, UARC thought the matter was settled. Then, earlier this year, we began to receive unconfirmed reports that another carriage company was spotted operating in Salt Lake City. UARC investigators began to dig in to the matter, and quickly determined that a Davis County-based company called “The Carriage Establishment,” was regularly hauling a trailer down to Salt Lake City with a horse to illegally operate on our city streets on an impromptu basis.
UARC learned that this business was typically parking outside the Hilton near 200 S. West Temple to pick up rides in blatant violation of our city ordinance. UARC snapped the below picture on August 6, 2022.
The owners of this business, Dale and Karen Greenwell, had previously attended the City Council meeting where horse carriages were banned, to speak in opposition. This meant that Mr. Greenwell’s violations of the Salt Lake City ordinance appeared to be knowingly.
UARC immediately fired off an urgent letter to Salt Lake City officials regarding The Carriage Establishment’s apparent violations of our city ordinance. To their credit, representatives from the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office responded to our letter immediately, took our report seriously, and reached out to the Carriage Establishment to warn them not to return and violate our city ordinance any further. By all indications, it appears that the city was genuinely unaware of this unlawful carriage business until UARC brought it to their attention, and once they were made aware, the city acted swiftly. UARC extends our sincere gratitude to Salt Lake City officials and representatives of the Mayor’s Office for being responsive.
Just to confirm compliance was occurring, UARC investigators went out to the usual pickup spot last weekend to see if the Carriage Establishment returned. Fortunately, it appears the city’s warning worked, as the carriages were nowhere in sight!
If you see horse drawn carriages operating in apparent violation of Salt Lake City’s ordinance, please TAKE PICTURES and reach out IMMEDIATELY to UARC at [email protected]. Please note that this ordinance only applies to Salt Lake City proper, and not any suburbs or other jurisdictions in Salt Lake County.
