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As a vote on the historic bill to ban NYC’s horse-drawn carriages approaches, some lawmakers will say just about anything to justify their politically-motivated support of the carriage trade. Here’s what one City Council Member said on January 28th in an email exchange with an advocate following an in-person meeting.

Advocate (in jest): “Do you believe that regulations can be introduced that would prevent a horse from spooking?
Council Member: “We hope that we can find a sufficient regulatory manner that leads to an environment where horses don’t spook, or if for some reason they do, they won’t be a danger to themselves or others.

A NYC carriage horse crashed into a tree and died after spooking in midtown Manhattan.

The vast majority of lawmakers have not yet declared how they intend to vote on the horse-drawn carriage legislation. That is not because they don’t have a point of view about the issue; they are simply waiting to determine which vote would be more politically beneficial (or less politically harmful) to them. One of the questions many are asking themselves is who they are more afraid to alienate: industry supporters (organized labor & media) or industry opponents (the Mayor and advocates). It is a short-sighted approach because, if self-interest is guiding their decision, then they should ask themselves how history will judge them. Future generations will assuredly look at the images of horse-drawn carriages in midtown traffic and ask, “What were they thinking?” Do these lawmakers really want to be on the wrong side of history?

Horse-drawn carriages in midtown traffic?

The ASPCA is well aware of the fact that politics, and not the merits of the issue, will drive the decision making process, but that has not stopped them from explaining why they unequivocally oppose the use horse-drawn carriages in Manhattan. Following is an excerpt from a CNN opinion piece written by Matt Bershadker, the CEO of the ASPCA:

“There is no better example of an obsolete and unacceptable tradition than NYC’s horse-drawn carriage rides. In the 21st century, using horses to pull heavy loads of tourists through congested city streets is unnatural, unnecessary and an undeniable strain on the horses. And that strain is not restricted to the streets. The stables to which these horses return — former tenement buildings — do not afford horses a paddock for turnout, the ability to graze or the freedom to roll and run. That’s why, as an organization that’s fought for humane treatment of horses since our founding in 1866, we think it’s time to end horse-drawn carriage rides. No counterargument stands up to the sheer absurdity of this antiquated practice, though many who profit from it keep trying.”

How can a Council Member refute that? Not well, if this email exchange with aforementioned Council Member is any indication:

Advocate: “Do you believe that the ASPCA is incorrect in its conclusion that horse-drawn carriages can no longer be operated humanely in NYC?”
Council Member: “We are definitely taking the ASPCA’s statements into consideration as we go forward.”

Beast of burden, NYC

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. Otherwise, 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.

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

Will the death of mule on the street during rush hour finally bring attention to the plight of the beasts of burden who pull 9-person carriages in the hot and chaotic streets of New Orleans? Evlin Lake, a local activist and one of the lone voices for the downtrodden mules, is desperately hoping it will.

Dead carriage mule in New Orleans (photo: Nola Defender)

On January 19th, the Nola Defender, a local newspaper, reported that “the death of a mule caused traffic delays” in the French Quarter. If it wasn’t for that article and the photo that accompanied it, neither Ms. Lake nor the Louisiana SPCA, which is responsible for humane law enforcement (HLE), would have learned about the mule’s death.

Amanda Pumilia, the SPCA’s Animal Control Supervisor, told TheirTurn, “We would have liked to investigate the death, but they dragged the mule away on a flatbed truck.” The SPCA does not know which mule died or the carriage company that hauled him or her away.

The SPCA’s HLE department responds to cruelty complaints, but it does not patrol the streets on a day-to-day basis to ensure that the mule-drawn carriage drivers obey the law. According to local activists, the lack of enforcement gives the drivers free rein to overload their carriages and work in the extreme heat.

From left to right: French Quarter revelers, beast of burden (photo: http://whatssospecialaboutneworleans.blogspot.com)

photo: Melanie Stetson Freeman/Christian Science Monitor

On January 19th, when the unidentified mule died in the street, Ms. Lake quickly organized a rally to raise awareness of the tragic incident. Two local carriage drivers posing as “reporters from Philadelphia” kept her fully occupied to prevent her from speaking to tourists, but a fellow activist did manage to capture video of a distressed mule, which, activists say, is a common site in French Quarter.

https://youtu.be/Vi_DLe26P1Q?t=13s

“In New Orleans, the mules really suffer,” said Ms. Lake. “They work in the sweltering heat and humidity amongst rowdy, drunk tourists. I often see them foaming at the mouth. How could anyone think this is okay? The mules here have it just as bad as, if not worse, than the horses in New York and mules in Charleston, but, sadly, our victims don’t seem to attract much media attention.”

Evlin Lake (photo: Craig Morse)

The mule-drawn carriage drivers argue that they treat their animals – the source of their livelihood – well.

Please sign the Change.org petition directed to city and state elected officials to ban mule-drawn carriages in New Orleans.

In the highly charged effort to ban horse-drawn carriages from the streets of NYC, activists can rarely anticipate the unseemly events that lurk around the corner  – from false accusations by elected officials and hostile media outlets to physical and verbal attacks by carriage operators. What they can – and are – doing, however, is moving mountains to help pass the Mayor’s historic bill to ban the city’s inhumane, unsafe and archaic horse-drawn carriage trade.

Following are some of the most compelling tactics being employed by NYCLASS, the animal rights group leading the lobbying effort, and the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, which started the movement in 2006.

1. TV Commercial: With the help of a pro-animal TV production company, NYCLASS created a commercial that has aired and will air again on local television in the months leading up to a vote.

2. Postcard Campaign: The NY Observer reports that NYCLASS “is turning up the heat on lawmakers by mailing graphic postcards to all 51 Council Members every day until the carriage-banning legislation is passed.” Each of the 7,000 postcards is signed by a NYC voter and will be sent to his or her Council Member.

One of many postcards being sent by NYCLASS to NYC lawmakers

3. Subway ads: In February, the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages is rolling out this provocative ad campaign in NYC subway stations. Since 2007, the Coalition, which is the go-to group for information about the issue, has been staging regular protests against the industry and producing a weekly newsletter sent to advocates around the world.

Subway ad campaign

4. An army of activists: Hundreds of NYC voters feel passionately enough about the plight of the horses to dedicate their free time to educating voters in the streets and lobbying lawmakers at City Hall. This week, activists with NYCLASS conducting outreach in front of the offices of two “undecided” NYC Council Members were unexpectedly invited inside to make their case for a ban.

Councilmember unexpectedly invites picketers in for meeting

Luckily, the activists were not carrying the dead horse replica that they sometimes use to attract attention in neighborhoods where local Council Members opposes the ban.

City Hall in Manhattan (Photo: NYCLASS)

NYCLASS and The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages are leading the fight locally, but they are not working alone. Representatives from national advocacy groups, including PETA, HSUS, FOA, the ASPCA and Last Chance for Animals, are also lobbying Council Members and/or running educational campaigns.

Since 2008, PETA has also lent major star power to the effort, rolling out billboards and videos with pro-animal celebrities like Pink, Lea Michele, Kathy Najimy and Kristen Johnston.

PETA billboard in Times Square

Actress Kristen Johnston

To date, the majority of Council Members have not publicly stated whether they plan to vote in favor of or against the horse-drawn carriage ban. Like most politicians, they will make their decision based on political expedience — not on the merits of the issue. In the unlikely event that the bill to ban horse-drawn carriages is voted down, it won’t be for a lack of effort by the advocacy community. But perish the thought!

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.

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

Following are eight reasons why horse-drawn carriages cannot be operated humanely or safely in NYC. No amount of regulation or enforcement can fix these issues:

1. Horses spook: Horses are prey animals who can be spooked by sirens, potholes, barking dogs and many other stimuli. When spooked horses bolt down congested city streets, they become weapons. Many horse-drawn carriages crashes in NYC have been caused by spooked horses.

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

2. Urban environment: Horses are living animals, but, by forcing them to work in the streets with aggressive taxi drivers, tour buses and emergency vehicles, the carriage operators are treating them like motor vehicles. They simply do not belong in the busy streets of NYC.

Who does not belong in this picture?

3. No pastures: Horses are grazing animals, but NYC has no pasture where they can graze, run, roll and interact physically, as herd animals do. They are either confined between the shafts of their carriages, encumbered by equipment, or kept in stalls.

In addition to blinders, which curb their vision, the horses eat with a cold metal bit in their mouths.

4. Housing: The horses are housed on the second and third floors of four stables on the far West Side of Manhattan. If a fire broke out in one of these buildings, where highly flammable hay is stored, the panicked horses would be unable to escape down the narrow ramps, even if 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.

After working in the streets, the horses aren’t turned out into a pasture. They come to this and other stables in Hell’s Kitchen.

5. Car exhaust: Ingesting car exhaust can cause lung disease in horses who live a nose-to-tailpipe existence – even in Central Park, where cars are permitted at certain times of day.

Nose-to-tailipe for up to nine hours each day

6. Hard surfaces: Hard surfaces can cause concussive injury to horses’ legs and feet, which were designed to walk on soft surfaces.

Horses legs were designed to walk on soft surfaces, like grass or dirt.

7. Lack of shade: Most of the horses are stationed in Grand Army Plaza, which has no shade. During the hot summer months, they bake in the sun for hours at a time. Over the years, many carriage horses have collapsed and died from heat exhaustion.

Carriage driver pours a bucket of water on a horse who collapsed from heat exhaustion.

8. Food & water: The horses’ feed is often contaminated with pigeon droppings, which is a violation of city code.  In addition, the horses are watered out of two communal basins, which is described by one expert as “a veterinary nightmare” because the horses can transmit diseases to each other and because humans use them as trash cans.

Feeding horses with grains contaminated with pigeon feed violates city code, but who is going to enforce that?

The horses have no choice but to wear blinders, but elected officials, carriage operators and patrons intentionally turn a blind eye to the obvious cruelty out of political expedience and greed. History will assuredly judge those who fought to keep horse-drawn carriages in the congested streets of New York City.

How can anyone think this is humane or safe?

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.

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

Natasha Brenner is showing no signs of slowing down, but, at 93, this NYC-based animal rights activist is living each day like it’s her last – not for herself, but for the animals. It is her desire to help the animals that keeps her going strong. Of course, her plant-based diet helps.

At a party in Greenwich Village to celebrate her birthday, Ms. Brenner sat down with TheirTurn’s Donny Moss to share a few thoughts about her advocacy.

Like many activists, animal rights runs through Ms. Brenner’s veins, and she never misses an opportunity to advocate. When one of her sons said that NYC’s horse-drawn carriage trade should be better regulated, Ms. Brenner, who has been working for years on the campaign to ban them, put the cake knife down and set the record straight: “You can’t put horses in the streets with aggressive taxi drivers. How can you regulate that?”

Natasha Brenner protests horse-drawn carriages

The plight of the carriage horses is close to her heart because she, like other activists who live in NYC, sees them pounding the pavement day in and day out: “I’d really like to be here to celebrate when the horses are freed.” And her large circle of friends and fans in NYC would like to be right there with her.