Smelly messes lead to horse diapers

MANCHESTER, England, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Horses in the British town of Blackpool are being forced to wear diapers to cut down on smelly piles found throughout the area, public officials say.

Blackpool Council deputy head Ian Fowler said after area carriage horses were blamed for the odorous deposits in the town's streets, officials mandated that carriage operators keep their horses in diapers to obtain an operator's license, The Daily Telegraph said Thursday.

Yet Fowler warned operators of the carriages that many have not properly fitted their animals with the mandated "manure traps."

"There are, however, some owners who seem not to have taken on board the spirit of what we are trying to do in Blackpool, and who still insist on not fitting the manure traps correctly," the official in the county of Lancashire said.

Blackpool Landau Association officials have defended a number of the manure-based discrepancies, blaming the out-of-place traps on the carriage's sudden stops and starts at area traffic lights, the Telegraph reported.