On Monday night, May 11th, The Committee on Legal Issues Pertaining to Animals of the NYC Bar Association hosted a program entitled "Yay or Neigh - Should The Carriage Horse Industry Be Banned in NYC? As I stated in my previous blog, the panel consisted of:
DR. HOLLY CHEEVER, DVM; ELIZABETH FOREL, President of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages ; DONNY MOSS, Documentary filmmaker, Blinders; MARTHA ROBINSON, Associate General Counsel, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; STACY WOLF, Vice President and Chief Legal Counsel, Humane Law Enforcement, ASPCA.
Although members of the carriage industry were invited to speak, the invitation was either ignored or declined. Council Members Liu, Weprin and Koppell, who support the industry bill, were also invited but declined. They apparently did not have the guts or knowledge to defend a bill to which they put their name.
I am "borrowing" a lot of material from the e-newsletter Horse Sense put out by the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages -- but it is so important that I wanted to share it with you.
First of all ... You can read Holly Cheever, DVM's and Elizabeth Forel's presentation by going to the http://www.banhdc.org/ web site. But for this purpose, just click on their name. Dr. Cheever is so knowledgeable, you will not want to miss it. And Elizabeth Forel addresses misconceptions in a very thorough and interesting way -- such as why it is not feasible to put the horses in Central Park -- or if the industry is banned, all the horses will go to slaughter.
Second ... the videos. Oh My!!! Members of the carriage industry stationed themselves outside the NYC Bar Association building and took pictures of people going into the building. It was such a pathetic attempt at intimidation. See the video Surveillance on Youtube. These guys are really thugs.
And a new addition to the Youtube library are excellent videos by HorsefeathersNYC who taped Council Member Tony Avella who stopped by to say a few words. The Council Member talked about the issue and how his colleague, Council Member Gennaro made a fool of himself at the January 30th hearing by grilling a representative of the Bar Association.
Click on the name of the video and you will be transported through space to Youtube.
Councilman: Every Horse Healthy?
Avella apologizing for James Gennaro's tirade.
Gennaro took his name off the carriage industry bill.
Avella: NYC will truly be animal-friendly.
I was sitting toward the back and noticed that there were several members of the carriage industry in the audience who just sat there fussing. None of them had the courage to stand up and be counted. None asked a question.
It was an excellent program and just reinforced why the carriage horse industry should be banned in New York City.
