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What the Media WON’T Say About NYC’s Explosive Horse Carriage War

December 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment


The News

It’s official. After a nine year campaign by grass roots advocacy groups, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has introduced a bill to ban horse-drawn carriages from the streets of NYC.

All of the advocacy groups rallied at City Hall in support of the bill

All of the advocacy groups rallied at City Hall in support of the bill

Unfortunately, NYC’s pro-carriage newspapers have not only lied about the Mayor’s motives, claiming that he’s merely re-paying a campaign donor who wants to buy the stables, but they have also largely failed to provide fair balance. If the media shared this information, then elected officials and members of the public would at least have the chance to make an informed decision about whether or not to support the Mayor’s bill.

Horses are flight animals who sometimes flee when spooked by sirens, potholes, bright colors or other stimuli. The blinders, which partially restrict their vision, aren’t foolproof. Over the years, spooked carriage horses, who become weapons when running frantically down a busy street, have caused many tragic accidents. It was the 2006 death of Spotty, a carriage horse who galloped down Ninth Avenue and crashed into a car, that triggered the current movement to ban horse-drawn carriages.

Spotty died after spooking and crashing into a moving car.

Spotty died after spooking and crashing into a moving car.

Horses are grazing animals, but New York City has no pasture. The horses are either confined to their stalls or between the shafts of their carriages, burdened by equipment. Denying the horses the chance to graze and move around unencumbered each day is inhumane. As herd animals, horses should also have the opportunity to interact physically. Without a pasture for daily turnout, the horses are unable to fulfill their most basic instincts.

Carriage in snow on CPS

NYC’s dangerous streets are no substitute for a pasture

Horses live in multi-story firetraps. Most of the carriage horses are kept in stalls on the 2nd and 3rd floors of four stables on the far West Side of Manhattan. If a fire broke out in one of these buildings, in which highly flammable hay is stored, the panicked horses would be unable to escape down the narrow ramps, assuming someone opened their stalls one-by-one to let them out. In 2011, NYC’s Department of Health recommended that the City prohibit new stables from having stalls above the ground floor, but that change, if implemented, would have done nothing to help horses trapped in the current stables.

One of four stables in midtown Manhattan

One of four stables in midtown Manhattan

Working in the streets with aggressive taxi drivers, ambulances and other motor vehicles is dangerous and unhealthy. Over time, ingesting car exhaust during their “nose-to-tailpipe” workday can cause respiratory disease, and the hard pavement can cause lameness. In December 2013, a horse-drawn carriage driver was charged with animal cruelty for working a lame horse.

Manhattan

Manhattan

Horse-drawn carriages jeopardize the safety and quality of life of people. Slow-moving contraptions add to traffic congestion; increase the response times of emergency vehicles; and cause accidents. Pedestrians, bicyclists and passengers in motor vehicles have been injured in horse-drawn carriage crashes, as have customers who ride in these open buggies with no seat belts or helmets. Finally, horse manure contaminates the streets and leaves a stench in and around Central Park, where people walk, jog and bike.

carriage human injured

Our country was built on the backs of horses. It’s time we reciprocate by taking them out of harm’s way and giving them a humane retirement.

Your Turn

1. If you live in NYC, please join NY-CLASS in its efforts to rally support among lawmakers for the Mayor’s bill to ban horse-drawn carriages. If you live elsewhere, please sign their petition.

2. To learn more about the issue and keep apprised of news, subscribe to the weekly newsletter of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages by sending an email to coalition@banhdc.org.

3. Watch the award-winning documentary film BLINDERS to see why people have been fighting for years to take the horses out of NYC:



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TheirTurn.net Comments

  1. Rene Wright says:

    People are cruel, cars are cruel, breathing smog is cruel, animals are cruel. What isn’t cruel in this world? We have an epidemic of idiocy in our country. Horses, donkeys, mules are all bred to work. That has been the way since the beginning of time. They have a purpose, to be used. What happens when a person stops working? They don’t have money to pay their bills, or put food in their bellies, nor gas in their car. The HUGE difference is this: When a horse stops working, it doesn’t get to go on welfare and live off of the state. That horse either starves to death from neglect or gets sent to a slaughterhouse. What the people DON’T know or realize is this: You, the tax payer are going to pay for that horse one way or another when it stops working. When the horse works, it pays its way. How many horse related accidents have you heard of, compared to cars? How many people have died in horse related accidents, than in a motorized vehicle of some kind? If this is more about politics, than it is about the safety and well being of the horses, then you have much bigger issues to deal with. Blinders on horses is for their safety as well as the public. Shoes protect their hooves from being eaten down by the pavement and let’s face it, they’re not running at Mach 10 down the streets of New York are they? Or any other city for that matter. Just my opinion… but those who are against having carriage horses in the city, have much bigger fish to fry than sending horses to an untimely death all in the name of “doing what’s right by them”.

  2. For the love of horses says:

    I totally agree with the posts by Barbara Reader & Rene-Takoda Bartlett Wright. Banning horses would be like saying the working conditions in some big company aren’t good so we should lay off all the people who work there, “just send them home so they can go on permanent vacation”, no, what is going to happen is that they will be homeless and no work to feed themselves.
    Better stables can & should be made, if people breath the air horses can too, and there are shoes that give extra padding if needed, although I don’t think that would be necessary as they are not going at high speeds. I am a professional & have horses of my own. If you take the livelihood away from horses they will be sent to kill.

  3. ANN WILLIAMS says:

    i dont understand why this was not enacted years ago. i lived in riverdale and i saw these tragedies when in the city. reminds me of the street begging elephants in thailand, they need to make a living they say. how cruel.

  4. Animalover says:

    The carriage horse ban has become an issue about our Mayor, and not the horses. This is unconscionable, unacceptable. Those of us who support the media, and their advertisers, by reading their newspapers, watching their TV channels, must speak out now about this outrage,and take our lead from the the protestors out on the streets now, who say ENOUGH! “I can’t breathe”! We have waited far too long for this opportunity, to sit quietly now! Donny Moss has been a true champion of horses with his campaign against Quinn, who supported this abusive industry, because of generous donations? the Irish connection? out of ignorance and insensitivity? All of the above? Our time has come to make a stand that is loud and clear! End this cruel and inhumane industry now! Let every councilmember know that the land-grab, story is a ruse and the job story a cover-up, as there are opportunities to earn an honest living being proposed and offered, without the corrupt and shady dealings of a cash business that answers to no one!

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