by KYW's Hadas Kuznits

The City of Philadelphia has shut down an illegal horse stable in the city's Strawberry Mansion neighborhood.  Now, nearly four dozen horses living in unsanitary conditions will need to be relocated.

Lisa Rodgers with the Pennsylvania SPCA says the illegal stables, on Fletcher Street, were built on city-owned property and have not been kept up despite numerous warnings:

"There's no drainage, there's no electricity that actually is in the structure -- they've got extension cords running along these stables and they're up in the air, and the roof is leaking and there's water and manure all over the ground."

(Kuznits:)  "What are people doing with the horses in the city?"

(Rodgers:)  "Well, they've got this urban cowboy type situation. They're in such close proximity to the park that they take the horses out and they ride through the park. They claim that the children in the neighborhood take care of the horses and it's a way to keep them out of trouble. And some of that may well be true, but unfortunately, our concern is that the horses are in unsanitary conditions."

Ravi Muraka, director of animal health for the city, says all 46 horses must now be relocated before the city bulldozes the illegal and unsanitary stables on Friday:

"These horses are standing on decaying feces, there's no drainage system, they are urinating. I mean, you cannot even walk into this stable it's so filthy. You have dead rats in there. It's unacceptable. I've never seen this kind of horse stables at all."