In its ongoing effort to cripple the Mayor’s plan to ban horse-drawn carriages from the streets of NYC, the Daily News, one of city’s top three papers, has created increasingly ludicrous news hooks to shift public opinion.

Last week, the Daily News reported that a Franciscan priest not only “delivered a brief equine prayer and splashed a bit of holy water on every horse’s mane” but also “saved enough water to deliver a blessing for the carriages and hay stored in the stables.”

Objective news organization? Most certainly not!

In May, the Daily News used a scare tactic:

The stories have been so ridiculous that some readers think, at first glance, that they’re satire. One reader wrote, “The Daily News has become The Onion.”

The public doesn’t know why the Daily News has compromised its credibility by using its opinion and news pages to advocate for the horse-drawn carriage trade, but some speculate that it’s an underhanded way to discredit the Mayor.

In the weeks leading up to the 2013 election, the Daily News frequently published mean-spirited stories about the progressive Mr. de Blasio in an attempt to derail his candidacy. Now that he’s Mayor, the “news” organization appears to be using his support of a ban on carriages as an ongoing hook to discredit him.

Logo included in each NY Daily News story promoting horse carriage trade

Horse-drawn carriages cannot be operated humanely or safely in NYC for many reasons – from the congested city streets where they work to the lack of a pasture when they can graze, move freely and interact with other horses, as herd animals do. To learn more about the plight of the carriage horses and join the fight, please visit the Coalition to Ban Horse-drawn Carriages and NY-CLASS.

Do horse-drawn carriages belong in Times Square?

By day, he teaches physical education in a public school. By night, he descends into the bowels of NYC to do vegan outreach in subway stations. Sometimes with friends and often alone, Jim Scotto, 42, distributes thousands of pamphlets – night after night, weekend after weekend.

Vegan outreach in NYC subway

“The subway is the perfect spot,” says Scotto. “During the afternoon rush, thousands of people who come through the stations wait on the platforms and ride the trains, both of which are conducive to reading.”

To capture peoples’ attention, he also puts out booklets on columns and sets up easels with posters, whenever possible.

Scotto is convinced that his mild-mannered approach is effective: “I always keep it positive. It’s the best way to distribute the greatest number of pamphlets and make a positive impression on people. Many won’t take a pamphlet, but plenty of people do. And I know they’re making a difference because people have returned to tell me that they’ve gone vegan or are moving in the right direction.”

Scotto does above ground outreach too

Scotto receives no rewards or recognition for his under the radar activism, but he probably should. After all, he is living proof that one person – working alone – can make a big difference for the animals.

A friendly reminder of why he advocates

In Scotto’s words, “More people leafleting means more materials distributed. And that leads to more change.” To find out how to leaflet in your area, please see Mercy For Animals’ Guide to Leafleting.

Like many other animal rights activists, Patrick Battuello doesn’t care about horses any more or less than he does other animals, so why is this 48 year man from upstate New York running the only organization in the country whose sole mission is to end horse racing?

Patrick Battuello

It started in the summer of 2012 when the NY Times published a series of articles exposing animal abuse at the top levels of the horse-racing industry. After learning about the abuse, Mr. Battuello searched online for ways to fight the industry and was stunned to discover a lack of information and leadership.

Not only has he, in just two years, filled these voids with his organization Horseracing Wrongs, he has also become the go-to person for advocacy groups and reporters who need detailed information about the “sport.” In addition, his group’s website is serving as a platform where anti-racing activists from around the country can collaborate.

Mr. Battuello and his colleagues at Horseracing Wrongs know that they can’t influence the racers, breeders and others who make a living off the backs of the horses, but they have identified one way to cut into their bottom line: convincing customers that their “$2 bet” can’t justify the widespread death on the tracks – over 2,000/year, in fact.

In their “Plea to Bettors,” Horseracing Wrongs recommends gambling options, like casinos and lotteries, that don’t rely on animal abuse.  It also succinctly describes the abuses built in to the industry:

Horseracing Wrongs’ Appeal to Customers

When in spotlight, race horses are pampered and massaged to make the public feel good about racing. But, behind the scenes, they spend their short lives being drugged and abused. To make matters worse, most of the horses who survive the track but can no longer make money for their owners are slaughtered for meat. Like all animals used for entertainment and profit, these horses are treated like commodities, not companions. Please see Horseracing Wrongs to learn more about this cruel sport and the group’s creative efforts to end it.

After spending several days stuffed in crates with no food or water, tens of thousands of chickens were swung in the air and slaughtered during the final night of Kaporos, the Yom Kippur ritual of transferring one’s sins to a live chicken.

Ritual practitioners line up to slaughter sin-filled chickens

Slaughter in the streets of Brooklyn

Following is a short video of the chaotic scene during the final hours of the ritual – the chickens, the butchers and the ritual practitioners debating the protesters.

In a bit of irony, a Mitzvah (good deed) mobile was parked near slaughter tent

Protesters clash with Kaporos practitioners

By and large, the practitioners cannot relate to the protesters’ concerns about the chickens

The 2014 Yom Kippur street protests are over, but the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos will, throughout the year, continue its fight to outlaw this barbaric ritual. Because of its size and voting power, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community is very powerful, but, through legal strategies, outreach to sympathetic rabbis, public relations and education, the Alliance is convinced that the chickens will ultimately prevail.

In an interview with the local press, prominent NYC cardiologist Robert Ostfeld states that his patients are telling him that transitioning to a plant-based diet has improved their sex lives. The Harvard-trained doctor, who runs the Cardiac Wellness Program at Montefiore Hospital, says “Erectile disfunction may result from a clogged artery to the penis.” Only animal products contain artery-clogging cholesterol.

Dr. Ostfeld says that five of the 250 patients in his practice who have adopted a plant-based diet have volunteered that they’ve experienced “significant improvements to erectile dysfunction.” He suspects that the number is higher.

Dr. Robert Ostfeld (photo: The NY Blue Print)

When patients argue that a plant-based diet seems “extreme,” Dr. Ostfield says that the effects of eating cholesterol-laden animal protein are far more extreme: “I think it’s extreme when someone saws my chest open, takes a vein from my leg and stitches it into my heart.”

In the article, Dr. Ostfeld describes many other benefits of a plant-based diet, but its impact on sex is what likely led the media outlet to publish the story.

To learn more about the benefits of a plant-based diet, watch the award-winning documentary film Forks Over Knives, which “examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting animal-based and processed foods.” The trailer is chilling: