I stood outside of VYNL Diner waiting for my lunch date in early January 2006. I looked up ninth avenue and saw a horse-drawn carriage, speeding out of control, heading downtown. The driver couldn't get the horse to slow and, as it approached fiftieth Street, they slammed into a passing car. The driver was thrown from the carriage and was badly injured. The horse ended up under the car.
It was a shocking sight that I won't soon forget.
PETA says of horse-drawn carriages: Forcing horses to pull oversized loads isn't romantic--it's cruel. Horses are forced to toil in all weather extremes, dodge traffic, and pound the pavement all day long. These gentle animals suffer from respiratory ailments because they breathe in exhaust fumes, and they develop debilitating leg problems from walking on hard surfaces. In some cases, horses have even dropped dead from heatstroke after working in scorching summer heat and humidity.
Banning horse-drawn carriages in New York City is the right thing to do. These animals are treated horribly and shouldn't continue to work long days on the New York streets.
On Friday morning Maria Derr and I went to City Hall to participate in a rally to ban horse-drawn carriages in NYC. A bill is being introduced in the City Council.
I'll keep you posted on what you can do to help get the bill through the city council. One group, League of Humane Voters of New York City, is leading on the issue and will always have the latest news.
http://www.youtube.com/user/horsesinnyc
http://www.youtube.com/user/donnyfmoss
it is not regulated and not enforced properly as per audit report. Thompson reported the rules are stale and broad to ensure the welfare of the horses
http://comptroller.nyc.gov/bureaus/audit/PDF_FILES/MH07_092A.pdf
Council Member David Weprin is pushing for a bill that not only increase their rates from 34 for 1/2 hour to 54 for 1/2 hour even though the national average hourly rate is under 19 dollars per U.S. dept of Labor. Also it will remove oversight from the ASPCA since they don't want the ASPCA since it spoke against the industry but the ASPCA did it job and spoke against the cruelty and inhumane conditions.
It's no wonder that Weprin would rather talk about the carriage drivers than his record dealing with financial issues facing taxpayers.
Under his watch, New Yorkers faced the highest tax burden of any American city for years and the cost of municipal government consistently went up each year.
No one, including Weprin, had the courage to automatically adopt last year's budget and spending levels. There was no real fiscal reform to restrict any new spending below the rate of inflation or adopting the principle of pay as you go.
Weprin never developed any plans to reduce municipal long-term debt. And he wants to be comptroller? Never
No matter - the true issue is that all life has inherent risk, and horse/human activities are certainly not excluded.
What is most important is that our safety record is STELLAR - 68 carriages operating approx 300 days a year /25 years = over 2 MILLION trips in traffic back and forth to the stables. (this does not even include all of the actual rides done!)
We have had THREE equine fatalities due to traffic accidents in those 25 years.
NO equine pursuit can claim a similar ratio (500 horses died onracetracks just since the Kentucky Derby last year - hell, 100 HUMANS were hit by cars and killed in 2008 in NYC alone)
While each of the three horse deaths was a tragedy (I knew each one - Chester ‘85, Tony ‘90, and Spotty ‘06), many, many more horses are injured or killed in eventing, jumping, racing, polo, etc. The humaniacs would eradicate all horses in order to eradicate all risk - something I do believe they could live with, & indeed, it’s something that many of them actively seek.
Anybody hell-bent on putting carriages out of business should hop on down to the auction & buy a slaughter-bound horse & care for it for the rest of its natural life.
But that
What I was saying is that buying and caring for a slaughter-bound horse would actually require effort, unlike attending a hearing & blogging.
http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=11306
The vast majority of these animals are treated very well, with a day off spent grazing in a field in Jersey or upstate for every day they work (i should be so lucky), so going after the few carriage companies that mistreat them would be a far more prudent tactic. Not to mention the fact that while there are "wild horses" out there, they'd be about the size of deer and wouldn't even be on this continent if not for human intervention in the form of eons of selective breeding and global trade/colonialism.