Diving horses' return scrapped by Steel Pier

HORSES AROUND the country can neigh a sigh of relief.

The owners of Atlantic City's Steel Pier, facing pressure from animal-rights groups, have scrapped a plan to bring back the diving-horse act that made the boardwalk venue famous for decades.

"Instead of trying to rekindle the past, we're going to preserve history and nostalgia in a new way," said Anthony Catanoso, Steel Pier's president.

Diving horses began plunging off Steel Pier platforms into pools in the 1920s. Animal-rights groups put an end to the show in the 1970s and again in 1993, when Catanoso briefly brought the horses back.

After presenting the diving-horse plan to the state Casino Redevelopment Authority earlier this month, Catanoso said "a small group of people" began trying to derail the project.

"Our research showed that the show would have been perfectly fine," he said. "There were more people who wanted to see the act."

But Kathleen Schatzmann, state director for the Humane Society of the United States, said animal-rights groups were mobilizing across the country to stop the proposal.

A Facebook group called "Horses don't fly in A.C." celebrated their victory.