Vic: Tourist horse carriages continue business

AAP General News (Australia)
08-26-2007
Vic: Tourist horse carriages continue business

By Simon Mossman

MELBOURNE, Aug 26 AAP - Horse-drawn carriages continued to take tourists around Melbourne's
city centre today, despite a ban on the movement of all horses across Australia in the
wake of the equine flu crisis.

Victoria's chief veterinary officer Hugh Millar said the state was now a declared control
area and warned heavy penalties of up to $24,000 fine and/or two years' jail could apply
for any breaches of the movement restrictions without a permit.

The ban extends to all horses, including non-race horses, as well as ponies and donkeys.

But tour operators plying their trade along Swanston Street said today the first they'd
heard about the influenza outbreak was in the morning newspapers.

"I've not been contacted by the authorities or anything - nothing," Judy Black, owner-operator
of Antique Victorian Carriages, told AAP.

"All I've read is what's in the paper but it's been spoken about in the last short while today."

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KEYWORD: STALLIONS TOURISM (PIX AVAILABLE)

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