East Selma residents are dealing with a stinky situation.

Ward 8 residents say horses often roam freely, leaving horse droppings on city streets, according to councilman Michael Johnson.

Tellie Simpson, who lives near the East Selma Fish Pond, said many Ward 8 residents keep horses in their backyard. Occasionally, the horses escape roaming around neighborhoods.

“Sometimes they roam wherever they want, all over the place,” Simpson said. “They just [poop] wherever they want. I don’t think horses should be allowed in the city limits.”

Besides horses escaping and roaming freely, Simpson said some owners tie horses to posts in open lots to help control grass height.

“They just don’t want to cut the grass so they tie them up and let the horses eat,” he said. “If you just walk along the street you’ll see at least six horses just tied up.”

After receiving complaints from residents in Ward 8, Johnson set a public hearing for Thursday at 4 p.m. to hear possible solutions.

“Mostly, I’ve been getting a lot of calls about the smell,” Johnson said. “There are just too many [horses] in that area. I just want to have a public hearing so people can solve their differences and we can try to come up with a solution.”

Last year, the council passed an ordinance preventing horses from being in the city limits without a device to catch droppings.

“I know we have stopped a couple people and issued at least one summons,” Selma Chief of Police William T. Riley said.

The city’s code of ordinances contains multiple other sections relating to Ward 8’s current stinky situation.

Chapter 5, section 5-13 of the code reads: “Any person who ties or fastens any animal on the property of another, or who fastens any animal to any shade tree or to anything planted or growing in the streets or other public places shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”

Chapter 5, section 5-14 states: “It shall be unlawful for any person to allow any cow, horse, mule, sheep goat or pig to run at large, and any such animal found running at large shall be impounded.”

Council president and former Ward 8 councilman Corey Bowie said horses, roaming freely, have been a problem in the area.

“If people would just adhere to the ordinances we already have in place, I don’t think there would be a problem.”