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One week after NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “There’s tremendous support in the City Council” for banning horse-drawn carriages, a NYC lawmaker who would normally oversee legislation relating to the carriage business held a press conference opposing the Mayor’s plan.

“For over 150 years, the horse carriage industry has grown to employ 300 drivers, blacksmiths and stable workers,”  said Council Member Rafael Espinal. The stables, he says “have been modernized with top of the line equipment to make sure that each horse is healthy and safe.”

Note: Even if the stables were adequate, that wouldn’t change the fact that the horses work in the congested streets of NYC; have no access to a pasture; and are denied the ability to do anything that comes naturally to them.

Ironically, the press conference took place just a couple hours after a carriage driver who had been charged with “torturing and injuring animals” made an appearance in criminal court just a few blocks away.

Thirty activists with NY-CLASS attended the press conference and held signs: “Espinal is on the Wrong Side of History.”

Espinal Supports NYC Carriage Trade Photo: Juliet Papa

The road to banning horse-drawn carriages has been paved with more speed bumps than anticipated, with the Teamsters Union, Working Families Party, New York Daily News, carriage owners and actor Liam Neeson working aggressively to keep horse-drawn carriages in NYC.

The Mayor, who has consistently reaffirmed his support of a ban, faces an uphill battle, and he needs the help of those of us who support his position. Please visit NY-CLASS, which leading the fight at City Hall, to see how you can help.

Whether we like it or not, celebrities have the power to influence public opinion in areas that have nothing to do with their careers – gun control, abortion, poverty, disease and, of course, animal rights. Many have used their voices to advance justice for animals; a few have helped to turn back the clock.

Liam Neeson, for example, has campaigned aggressively in support of NYC’s inhumane horse-drawn carriage trade, attempting to convince the public that the horses have good lives. He has used his voice to turn public opinion against the advocacy groups, reversing in a matter of weeks much of the progress made over several years in changing the hearts and minds of New Yorkers. It is moments like these when we wish celebrities would mind their own business.

Then there’s basketball star Yao Ming who is using his voice (and his 7’6 height) to convince Chinese people to stop buying ivory, which has led not only to the decimation of elephant populations but also to untold sorrow and suffering for the hundreds of thousands of elephants who have lost family members. Mr. Ming’s anti-shark finning advocacy has cut shark fin consumption in half in China, and his 30 second public service announcement about elephant orphans could make the same happen with ivory:

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.”