What the Media WON’T Say About NYC’s Explosive Horse Carriage War
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
Filed under: Entertainment
Tagged with: Bill de Blasio, Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, horse-drawn carriages, NY-CLASS, NYC
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