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For weeks, Irish actor Liam Neeson has used the media tour for his movie as a platform to attack NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio for pledging to ban horse-drawn carriages from NYC. Neeson is connected to the industry not only because of his Irish descent but also because the husband of his son’s nanny is a carriage driver. John Carmody, spokesman for the Ireland-based Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN) is fighting back against his fellow Irishman, saying in a NY Daily News, “He may be able to act and string lines together, but when it comes to understanding the suffering horses endure in all weather extremes often in suffocating traffic fumes in the carriage trade, sadly Mr. Neeson has been a flop.”

Using words and phrases like “tradition” and “institution” to defend NYC’s horse-drawn carriage trade, Mr. Neeson sounds eerily like the people who say, “Marriage is a sacred institution between one man and one woman.” Like them, he is clearly on the wrong side of history, but he just can’t see it. In the meantime, he’s helping to set the movement back. Please boycott his movies. In the PR battle between NYC’s horse-drawn carriage industry and those who support a ban, the industry is winning at the moment. The extensive and favorable media coverage is probably be attributed to the industry’s PR firm, described in the Daily News as an “anti-animal rights consulting group.”

Taking the lead from NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, Chicago lawmaker Ed Burke has introduced a bill to ban horse-drawn carriages. According to the Chicago Tribune, Burke says “They’re a nuisance, they’re a traffic hazard, it’s cruel to the animals, and we should be able to beat New York City to the punch.”

Miracle Mile in Chicago

By forcing horses to pull carriages in the streets with aggressive taxi drivers, ambulances and buses, we are treating them like motor vehicles instead of living, breathing animals. For that and many other reasons, horse-drawn carriages cannot be operated humanely or safely in urban areas. Several major cities, including London, Beijing, Paris and Toronto have already banned horse-drawn carriages, and NYC and Chicago are on the brink of doing the same. But we need to help the horses pulling carriages in other cities around the world from Boston to Mumbai. To find out how you can help, please visit the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages.