Authorizing City Council's Committee on Streets and Services to hold public hearings to investigate the mistreatment of animals by the carriage industry within the City of Philadelphia, and in furtherance of such investigation authorizing the issuance of subpoenas or other process as the chairperson deems necessary or appropriate to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents to the full extent authorized under Section 2-401 of the Home Rule Charter.

WHEREAS, KYW News Channel 3 on February 1, 2004, reported that the Philadelphia Trolley Company was mistreating animals in the company's care, depicting animals that had no, dirty or frozen water, that had difficulty breathing, that had insufficient bedding and that were covered in their own excrement; and

WHEREAS, The City Health Department visited the site in question on January 29, 2004 and issued citations to the Philadelphia Trolley Company for many of the situations depicted by KYW News Channel 3; and

WHEREAS, The City Health Department felt it necessary to refer the treatment of the animals in question to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; and

WHEREAS, The carriage industry greatly affects the cleanliness and traffic flow of the City's streets; now therefore

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That authority be given to City Council's Committee on Streets and Services to hold public hearings to investigate the mistreatment of animals by the carriage industry within the City of Philadelphia, and in furtherance of such investigation authorizing the issuance of subpoenas or other process as the chairperson deems necessary or appropriate to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents to the full extent authorized under Section 2-401 of the Home Rule Charter.

End