The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

RESIDENTS and businesses in Harbour Island have formed a “coalition” to fight the reinstatement of a horse riding enterprise on the basis that the owner, Byron Bullard, cannot sustain the practice “humanely”.

The Coalition to Protect Harbour Island, a collective of local business owners and civic leaders, has also made public documents outlining a lengthy report of alleged inhumane treatment by Mr Bullard towards five horses in his care prior to 2012.

Coalition representative, Sonya Alvino, yesterday insisted that this is not a personal attack on Mr Bullard and that her group’s sole focus is to prevent the poor treatment of horses on the island. She indicated the community is pleading to all levels of government to take the requisite steps to stop the proposed pony trekking operation on Pink Sands Beach – and all future horse rental ventures on Harbour Island.

“Harbour Island can’t sustain that business because the island doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to support that operation,” Ms Alvino told The Tribune. She claimed that there is no government agency capable of monitoring a facility of this type in Harbour Island, of maintaining decent standards for the horses, or checking the quality of the experience and safety for the riders.

A letter from the Coalition to the Ministry of Tourism says opposition to Mr Bullard’s business application is “growing daily” and is signed by a number of the major hotel owners as well as residents on the island.

Mr Bullard has applied for a business licence to reconstruct the business, proposing to ship in horses from the United States on February 24 with a view to starting operations on March 1. Those deadlines have passed.

According to Ms Alvino, the primary issue is the lack of a veterinarian on the island. She explained that a vet visits the island once every three weeks, which is not enough “care time” for animals with the work load of horses used in a business like Mr Bullard’s.

“There is a lack of trained or professional caretakers for the horses,” Ms Alvino said. “In the United States, a basic stablehand has to have two years of training; the current applicant will receive 10 days of training by comparison. This is insufficient. There is no space in the middle of town, or elsewhere on Harbour Island, to satisfy the Bahamas Humane Society (BHS) requirements for adequate turn out and stabling dimensions that would allow the horses a decent quality of life. Add to this the odour of manure, which would be in direct contradiction to the quaint clapboard “village” feel of our marketing image for tourism.

“The financial sustainability of the horse riding ‘experience’ tour is seriously questionable. Horses are expensive animals to feed and care for, especially when there is little demand and no income during off peak times on the island.

“The romantic concept of horses galloping on an unspoilt, largely untrodden, beach is certainly an appealing tourism advertising campaign. However it is not one that is possible in Harbour Island. It is dangerous and irresponsible to expect tourists to safely share this landscape with horses and inexperienced holiday riders on their backs as part of a tourist experience,” she said.

“Given past experience of this business and the tragic circumstances that surrounded its demise under Mr Bullard’s management in 2011, we do not accept that this venture is a good thing for Harbour Island tourism and seek its prevention at every level.”

In 2011, after a number of complaints of abuse and poor treatment of animals were lodged with the Ministry of Tourism by residents and tourists, government officials intervened and implemented a number of restrictions and regulations on Mr Bullard’s business.

It was claimed then that the horses were in poor health and damaging local properties, that Mr Bullard was incapable of providing a continuous supply of food, water or shelter, causing the horses to forage for themselves in open areas on the island, often breaking water pipes as they dug their hooves into the ground to hydrate themselves.

Photographs on social media showed the horses to be malnourished, lame and without shoes. They were removed from Mr Bullard’s ownership and taken to Nassau, where two died, while one was adopted and two remain in the BHS compound today.

In official documents received by the Tribune, Mr Bullard agreed that the five horses in his care were not properly kept and needed “proper care”. One section of the document stated: “Mr Bullard shall have the right to request the return of the horses to his possession and control only when the BHS and Tourism, in their joint discretion, have determined that Mr Bullard has suitable business operations and can provide satisfactory living conditions for the horses.

“Upon any failure to meet the conditions after the return of the horses, the BHS and Tourism are entitled to call for the permanent forfeiture of the horses to the control of the BHS. Subsequently, two of the five horses died. The three horses that survived were never returned to Byron Bullard’s care. Presently, he is in the preliminary stages of restarting his business with promises of incorporating all the guidelines presented by Tourism officials.”

Officials from the Coalition to Protect Harbour Island claimed that none of the “stringent conditions” imposed on Mr Bullard by the Ministry of Tourism and the BHS in 2011 have been met to date. The group insisted that Mr Bullard should be restricted from conducting a business of this nature again.