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Horse-Drawn Carriage Chaos in NYC

June 5, 2017 by Leave a Comment


The News

Just days after an untethered carriage horse ran wildly through the streets of midtown Manhattan and a whistleblower released a photo to the media of another horse living in squalor, animal rights activists held a press conference at one of the stables demanding an investigation from city officials and justice for the horses.

In reaction to the photo (below), which was taken surreptitiously by a city employee, NYCLASS Campaigns Director Jill Carnegie told reporters, “If horses are living in their own excrement, then the Department of Health, which is supposed to regulate this industry, is asleep at the wheel.”  Edita Birnkrant, NYCLASS’ Executive Director, added, “The stall in this photograph is so small that the horse doesn’t have enough space to spread out or turn around. What’s worse is that these horses, who are herd animals, can’t graze, roam freely or interact with other horses because NYC has no pasture.”

A city employee employee took this photo of a horse living in squalor at the West Side Livery, a carriage horse stable in Manhattan

Since 2007, animal rights activists in NYC have been campaigning to ban horse-drawn carriages from NYC, arguing that nervous prey animals who have a tendency to spook should not be forced to pull carriages in the congested streets of midtown Manhattan.

Animal rights activists argue that animals who spook and bolt should not be working in city streets.

This 2006 accident in which a spooked horse named Spotty died after bolting and crashing sparked the movement to ban horse-drawn carriages from Manhattan (photo: Catherine Nance)

In 2013, NYC Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio ran for office on a campaign promise to ban horse-drawn carriages if elected. To the dismay of the activists who helped him get elected, his “Watch me do it!” pledge has since been replaced with, “Take it up with the City Council.”

Your Turn

Please join NYCLASS in it effort to compel the Mayor and City Council to take horse-drawn carriages off the streets of NYC.



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TheirTurn.net Comments

  1. marianne says:

    Nancy, I’m assuming by your comments that you ARE a horse owner and thus familiar with it’s needs. This horse does NOT have enough room to comfortably rest in it’s stall, the size of a small freight elevator with a thin layer of sawdust on it’s floor. I have seen this facility and can attest to these horse advocates’ concerns. And yes, I have had a horse as a member of my family. Though not a human member, she was a living, feeling being and she was treated as such. These horses should be looked at with the same regard and cared for as such.

  2. Nancy Swanson says:

    Y’all need to get a life instead of acting like Don Quixote fighting the windmill. All this picture shows is a lovely, CLEAN, dapple grey horse resting comfortably in her stall. She seems like a fastidious mare who prefers to poop in one area of her stall hence the larger pile of manure. There appears to be plenty of bedding in the stall. If you do not own or have ever owned horses, let alone large draft horses (or any other animal), stop trying to pass yourselves off as experts as to what these animals needs and wants are as you clearly don’t have a clue. As to your “whistlebloer”, their blatant lack of knowledge of horses is obvious. Why not spend all your time, energy and money on the many dogs and cats in NYC shelters before they are FORCED to cross the Rainbow Bridge alone and unloved.

    1. Terry says:

      This sounds like a thinly veiled response from one of the stable owners.

      1. Nancy Swanson says:

        No I’m not a stable owner or carriage driver but as a horse person and tourist that frequents NYC that includes visits to the various stables in the city, I know that these horses care is far and above what is found in the majority of general boarding facilities. These horses get more daily exercise and personal attention than their counterparts in those boarding stables.

        1. Donny Moss says:

          How frightening that there are places where the horses have it even worse than in NYC, where they are forced to work in the congested city streets with motor vehicles and where they don’t even have a pasture for turnout. We will continue to fight on behalf of the horses in NYC, who are stripped of everything that makes life worth living for a horse, and I hope you will speak out against the awful boarding facilities to which you refer.

          1. Nancy Swanson says:

            No what’s frightening and sad is the number of horses constantly loaded onto the slaughter truck. Want to really save horses from abuse pull and home one from any auction. These are too late to be saved, a lot of pretty horses about to be cruelly killed and served up for dinner and not to the dogs ://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10213451412419399&id=1223096167&set=a.1446503202244.2062774.1223096167&source=48

    2. ANNE says:

      Nancy you are right; $-legged beasts of burden have a job doing what they like;:)

      1. ANNE says:

        If they did not pull Carriages; they would likely not “live”; Leave them alone;

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