Their Turn - The Social Justice Movement of Our Time Their Turn - The Social Justice Movement of Our Time

Protesters Confront Belmont Stakes Horse Racing Fans

June 9, 2021 by Leave a Comment


The News

Horse racing fans wore more than just fancy hats and preppy blazers to the 2021 Belmont Stakes. As they walked past dozens of animal rights activists staging a protest at the main gate, they also wore blinders to avoid the images and messages on the posters. As one man said with a touch of guilt in his voice, “Let me just enjoy the horse race.”

The three hour protest, organized by the Albany-based advocacy group Horseracing Wrongs, generated mainstream TV and radio news coverage, so the messages about animal cruelty reached a mainstream public that is increasingly disenchanted with horse racing due to the spate of deaths reported in recent years. At Belmont Park alone, over 500 horses have died since 2009.

ABC News and other mainstream media outlets reported on the large protest at Belmont Stakes.

According to Patrick Battuello, the director of Horseracing Wrongs, the horses are victims of abuse for their entire lives. “They are torn from their mothers at birth. Their bodies are pounded years before they are done forming. They’re confined in stalls for over 23 hours a day. They’re socially isolated in spite of the fact that they’re herd animals. They’re drugged, doped and beaten with whips. They’re bought, sold and traded like inanimate objects. The vast majority of horses who don’t die on the tracks are killed in a slaughterhouse.”

Animal rights activists protesting the Belmont Stakes horse races confront patrons who put on their blinders while walking through a sea of images of horse racing cruelty

Support for a ban on the horse racing industry began to take hold in the mainstream public in 2018 and 2019 after 35 horses died over the course of a few months at the Santa Anita racetrack. At the time, the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “Over time, Americans have to decide how much death they are willing to tolerate in this ancient sport.” Since then, both The Washington Post and The Philadelphia Inquirer have published editorials calling for an end to the horse racing industry.

In 2020, The Washington Post and The Philadelphia Inquirer published editorials calling for an end to the horse racing industry

While speaking to reporters during the protest at Belmont Park, activists made another case for a ban on horse racing: New York gives Belmont Stakes and other race tracks across the state over  $220 million in taxpayer subsidies. Edita Birnkrant, the Executive Director of NYCLASS, said her organization is part of coalition of advocacy groups calling on state lawmakers to end the handouts and redirect the money to more worthy causes. “We want to defund horse racing,” said Birnkrant. “Our tax dollars should be used for healthcare or eduction, not for corporate welfare.”

The vast majority of horses who don’t die on the track are shipped to Canada or Mexico to be slaughtered.

Starting in mid-July, Horseracing Wrongs will stage protests at the Saratoga Race Track in Saratoga Springs, New York.


Filed under: Entertainment
Tagged with: , ,

Cockfighters Attack SHARK Investigators, Sending Them to the Hospital with Severe Injuries

January 3, 2021 by Leave a Comment


The News

On Sunday morning, January 3rd, two investigators from the animal rights group SHARK (Showing Animals Respect and Kindness) investigated a suspected illegal cockfighting operation in rural Lawrence County, OH. They were quickly able to confirm that the location was an active cockfighting pit.

Undercover investigators with the animal rights group SHARK identified an illegal cockfighting operation in Ohio

Soon after they arrived, SHARK President Steve Hindi was violently attacked, suffering multiple head and chest injuries. Another SHARK investigator, who was in a vehicle, was chased by cockfighters who hit his car multiple times and drove him off the road and into a ditch. He survived the attack.

Steve Hindi, founder of the animal rights group SHARK, was attacked by cockfighters on January 3rd, 2020

“These are serious crimes, and SHARK will be aggressively pursuing justice against these violent and disgusting cockfighters,” said SHARK investigator Stu Chaifetz. “We will have much more about this in the near future, but the cockfighters need to know that SHARK will never stop exposing them and their vile cruelty.”

Cockfighters in Ohio ran a SHARK investigator off the road, assaulted him and stole his video equipment

SHARK uses high tech video equipment to document many blood sports, including rodeos, pigeon shoots and cockfighting. During cockfights, which are illegal in all 50 states, roosters who are trained to kill fight each other wearing sharp blades on their legs.

In recent years, SHARK has used drones to film cockfights and farmers who are suspected of breeding roosters for cockfights. In 2019, the group announced a nationwide campaign called Crush Cockfighting to increase exposure of the bloodsport and to draw attention to the law enforcement officials who enable the illegal events.

Please call or write today to report suspected cockfighting operations. You can remain anonymous. tips@sharkonline.org or 630-385-0244.


Filed under: Entertainment
Tagged with: , ,

Animal Rights Activist Natasha Brenner Dies at 98

May 26, 2020 by Leave a Comment


The News

Natasha Brenner, a suburbanite who moved into New York City at the age of 87 and became a beloved fixture in the animal rights movement, has died at 98.

Animal rights activist Natasha Brenner moved from the suburbs of Long Island into NYC at the age of 87

In 2008, Natasha, then 87, and her husband Noah, who died in 2014, moved into the City from Long Island and dedicated the last years of their lives to fighting for the rights of animals. When she turned 97, Natasha gave an interview about her fascinating life, which started before the Great Depression and ended during the historic COVID-19 pandemic.

Throughout her late 80s and 90s, Natasha worked on several grass roots animal rights campaigns in the streets and online, but the one closest to her heart was the effort to ban horse-drawn carriages. She would always say the thing she wanted to see most before she died was for the horses to be taken out of harm’s way and given a humane retirement. She was therefore elated when, in 2012, Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio made a campaign pledge to ban horse-drawn carriages. She was crestfallen when he didn’t fulfill his promise. However, she died knowing that the horses, who were taken out of NYC due to the corona virus pandemic, might not return for a very long time, if ever.

Natasha Brenner participates in a protest in NYC during which participants were asking Mayor Bill de Blasio to fulfill his promise to ban horse-drawn carriages

Natasha was an extravagant woman – but not with herself. Instead of buying things, Natasha gave her money to charity. In fact, the spreadsheet with the list of charities she supported was breathtaking. But Natasha was generous with her time too. When they were mobile, Natasha and Noah participated in protests around NYC all the time. Because of their age, their mere presence captured peoples’ attention; they knew they were a secret weapon. After the protests, Natasha and Noah insisted on taking the subway home instead of a taxi. Their friends used to hover over them as they entered the subway station because we were terrified that they would tumble down the steps — canes and walkers flying through the air. Their bodies were fragile, but they prioritized helping others over their own safety.

Animal rights activist Natasha Brenner speaks to a reporter during a horse-drawn carriage protest at Gracie Mansion, the residence of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio

In 2018, the animal rights group Mercy For Animals produced a video about Natasha’s life.

As she aged through her 90s, Natasha stopped participating in the street protests, but she stayed active online. She also maintained a robust social life because her many younger friends loved her and enjoyed her company. She was sharp, funny and caring until the end. Following are two of the many testimonials published on social media:

For the past seven or eight years, Natasha’s friends hosted an annual birthday dinner for her. They thought that the tradition would continue until she turned 100, given her good physical and mental health. Unfortunately, Natasha fell and broke her shoulder a few weeks ago, and that was the beginning of the end.  She died in the comfort of her own home on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on May 25th, 2020.


Filed under: Entertainment
Tagged with: ,

Violent Carriage Horse Death Sparks Outrage in NYC

March 20, 2020 by Leave a Comment


The News

Distressing video footage of a carriage horse repeatedly collapsing on the street and being dragged into a trailer triggered a massive vigil at the site of the tragic incident and a protest at the midtown stable where she later died. The horse, Aisha, was 12 years old and had been pulling a carriage in New York City for one year when she died on February 26th.

At the request of NYCLASS, an animal rights group that advocates on behalf the horses, the NYPD Animal Cruelty Squad launched an investigation into Aisha’s death.

“To the carriage operators, these horses are commodities,” said Edita Birnkrant, the Executive Director of NYCLASS. “By forcing Aisha into the trailer in order to get her out of public view, the drivers prioritized optics ahead of the welfare of the horse, who should have been kept where she was until a veterinarian arrived to examine her. The carriage operators did not follow the protocol on moving a downed horse. The trauma they caused by treating her with such brutality may have contributed to her death.”

Aisha, a horse who pulled carriages in NYC, repeatedly collapsed and was loaded into a trailer. She was euthanized at a midtown stable later that day.

Footage of Aisha collapsing and a carriage driver blowing smoke into her face to force her into the trailer went viral on social media. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has been widely criticized over his failure to fulfill his campaign promise to ban horse-drawn carriages, said that he was “disgusted” by the City’s horse-drawn carriage trade.

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson called for an investigation:

Aisha’s death is the third carriage horse fatality on record in 2020. According to the New York City Department of Health (DOH), the other two horses died of colic.

In addition to the horses who died, one horse collapsed on the street after being electrocuted and crashing into a pole, and another horse was emaciated was documented on several occasions pulling a carriage. In spite of NYCLASS’ pleas, the DOH allowed the horse to continue working.

NYCLASS documented an emaciated horse being forced to pull a carriage in New York City

During the vigil for Aishi, NYC-based musicians Kiirstin Marilyn and Kirk Miller performed Sia’s I’m in Here as dozens of animal rights activists placed flowers on the ground where she collapsed.

The animal rights community in New York has been advocating for a ban on New York’s horse-drawn carriage trade since 2006, when a horse named Spotty spooked on Ninth Ave and crashed into a car, killing the horse and sending the carriage driver to the hospital with serious injuries.

Spotty died after spooking and crashing into a car, sending 3 people to the hospital.

In 2012, Bill de Blasio pledged to quickly ban the industry if he was elected Mayor, but his failure to act quickly after his victory gave the carriage operators, media, the Teamsters Union and actor Liam Neeson, an industry spokesperson, several months to build public support for the industry. NYCLASS, however, isn’t giving up. After the series of tragic incidents in 2020, the organization renewed its demand for horse-drawn carriages to be banned in New York City.

“This industry is out of control and must be shut down,” said Birnkrant. “We have been documenting the carriage operators breaking the law for months — from picking up passengers in Times Square to overloading the carriages.”


Filed under: Entertainment
Tagged with:

Anti-Rodeo Activists Protest at Home of Madison Square Garden President Andrew Lustgarten

December 17, 2019 by Leave a Comment


The News

Animal rights activists in New York have staged four protests at the Manhattan home of Madison Square Garden president Andrew Lustgarten, demanding that he cancel a rodeo scheduled for June 2020. The ongoing protests are being organized by Animal Cruelty Exposure Fund (ACEF) and NYCLASS, animal rights organizations based in New York.

During the protest, Janet Enoch, Investigator of Showing Animals Kindness & Respect (SHARK), an organization that has been exposing rodeo cruelty for three decades, told bystanders why the rodeo is cruel: “Rodeos shock the animals to make them buck and appear wild. Rodeo contestants rake horses and bulls with spurs causing internal hemorrhaging. Rodeos use the buck strap which causes abdominal pain. In an effort to get the buck strap off, horses sometimes crash into walls often causing injury or death.  Animals should not be tortured for human entertainment.”

Agitated by the ongoing protests, Mr. Lustgarten’s neighbors are lashing out at the participants. On the evening of December 8th, a woman wearing pajamas exited a nearby apartment building and angrily confronted protesters before attempting to enter Mr. Lustgarten’s building to complain to his security team.

An angry neighbor attempts to enter Andrew Lustgarten’s building to complain about the protest.

For the past several years, ACEF has staged protests at the annual Professional Bull Riders’ event at Madison Square Garden, but the organization decided to move the protests to Mr. Lustgarten’s residence when it learned that MSG would also be hosting the rodeo.

“Calf roping,  steer wrestling, and other rodeo events are acts of extreme violence masquerading as entertainment,” said Nora Constance Marino, the President of ACEF. “Rodeos are nothing more than horrific acts of violence towards defenseless terrified animals, many of whom are mere babies torn from their mothers.”

As part of its ongoing effort to compel MSG to cancel the rodeo, ACEF launched a petition with Change.org.

Both ACEF and NYCLASS have vowed to continue protesting Mr. Lustgarten until he cancels the rodeo.

 


Filed under: Entertainment
Tagged with: , ,