Rome will introduce a special ambulance service for horses that carry visitors around the city, a national news agency reported on Tuesday.
Ansa said the service aims to ensure better protection of the animals' health.
The horse ambulance will help prevent recurrences of the case of Birillo, a tourist-cart puller who died in agony after an accident near the Colosseum over a year ago.
"The vehicle will be equipped with special straps that make it possible to lift a horse for examination, ultrasound scanners and other diagnostic instruments, and a well furnished stock of veterinary medicines," the agency said.
The ambulance will have a vet and a nurse and will carry animals in trouble to a special equine emergency room.
Animal rights campaigners, however, say this is not enough and insist that horse-drawn carts are banned from some particularly difficult uphill areas.
There are around 80 horses for tourist carts in Rome.
MOSCOW, June 1 (RIA Novosti)
