More than 4,000 people have signed a petition making an urgent call for shelters, drinking water and drain facilities for karrozzini horses that are forced to endure the sweltering summer heat year after year.

As the weather started warming up this month, the Animal Rights Coalition yesterday called a press conference urging the immediate installation of these facilities for the horses.

“The authorities keep saying the shelters will be installed within a few months but the time never comes,” said coalition representative Myriam Kirmond, standing outside Parliament as other members of the group held up the petition and photos of horses in the scorching sun.

“The situation is not acceptable. Aerated shelters must be erected with water points and drain facilities to ensure proper work of these noble working animals,” she said.

Ms Kirmond added that the problem could be rectified by setting up low-cost shelters as opposed to the ones proposed by Transport Malta that cost a “ridiculously high” €20,000 each. The coalition has always insisted that the authorities should pay to set up the shelters.

In February, Transport Malta issued draft regulations for horse-drawn carriages that oblige operators to maintain and clean any shelters installed to provide shade for the horses.

Soon afterwards, Transport Malta held a meeting with horse-drawn cab operators but the two failed to reach an agreement on the financing of animal shelters. While the two sides agreed that cab operators should maintain the shelters, they differed on how much money each cab operator should fork out to put up the shelters.