NYC CARRIAGE HORSES, LAND GRAB, ANTISEMITISM AND LIES

NYC CARRIAGE HORSES, LAND GRAB, 
ANTISEMITISM AND LIES

are the carriage drivers using subtle ethnic slurs and  
stereotypes  to gain support?  

The carriage drivers lie  ... a lot.  They make things up as they go along to fit the circumstances.  They stay up late at night thinking of new whoppers.  I wrote a blog about this called Lies and Desperation - the NYC Carriage Trade.  

But the BIG LIE that has been spread unchallenged in the media is this:  The real reason there is a campaign to shut down the horse-drawn carriage trade is because a certain real estate developer wants the stable land.   The media has been very sloppy in not doing their own research, taking these accusations as gospel and running with them.   They like this story and seem only too happy to perpetuate this fairy tale.  

Accident Sept. 25, 2013

This  real estate myth is not true and is a diversion made up by the carriage drivers to build sympathy for their cause so people would not look into their shoddy abusive business. 

Everyone loves to hate real estate developers – right?  They are greedy, perceived to have too much money; put up buildings that are too big,  and ruin neighborhoods.  They are the perfect villains.  And many also happen to be Jewish.  

Some of the language being used by the carriage drivers and their cronies is Code for discriminatory Anti-Semitic slurs.  They get to express their intolerant views about Jews without being accused of antisemitism.   And they get commiseration from the gullible public.   

 I am shocked that the media has allowed this disgrace to continue and that more Jews have not recognized this for exactly what it is and stood up to be counted.  Every fair-minded and socially conscious person should condemn these actions.   But I get it that people often do not like to acknowledge that prejudice and discrimination exist.  

What better fairy tale to create than to blame the campaign for a ban of horse-drawn carriages on a wealthy real estate developer … a bad guy.  A Goliath compared to a David – the “poor working-class drivers.”  The fact that he happens to be Jewish is just icing on the cake for them.  And the fact that many of them are hardly poor working-class is beside their point. 

As if  … our interest in shutting down this inhumane and unsafe trade could ever have anything  

to do with the fact that we are tired of all the horse spooking accidents, horse deaths, inhumane

living and working conditions; drivers constantly flouting the law in a business that has little actual oversight; horses going to auction and then on to slaughter in Canada and Mexico; horses slaving  for 9 hours a day 7 days a week and then going on 5-week furloughs only to return looking worse.  And we are tired of the City being held hostage by this tiny well-connected group of people.  What about all the others who have lost jobs over the years?    Who is crying for them?  What about all the obsolete businesses that were forced to close because they lost any real viability?

Nah – could not be that.  Must be because of this all powerful real estate developer, Steve Nislick, who apparently has Mayor deBlasio wrapped around his little finger.  But he did not donate any more to deBlasio than the legal amount allowed.  Many people did that.

These are some of the comments below that have been published for some time now in the media.  Because they were not challenged, they have gotten legs of their own. People want to believe in the bogeyman – the Goliath (Jewish) real estate developer.  But really -   why would anyone in his right mind lust after this stable property for five years – property that is not contiguous – on rather small lots.  If Nislick were interested in this area, he could have purchased other property that was available.  The owners would not have to sell it to him.  It does not make sense. 

The development of this area, which is called Hudson Yards,  has actually been going on for more than ten years.  The area extends from W. 28^th St. on the south to W.43^rd St. on the north and from Seventh and Eighth Avenues on the east to the Hudson River.    It  includes the land on which the stables on 37^th and 38^th St  are built  – but not the ones north of that.  So eventually these stable owners will be forced out of their businesses to make way for development that is good for the City as a whole.  

Stable on W. 38th St.

Stable on W. 37th St. 

Stall at the W. 38th St. stable (very small, hardly any bedding, horse has harness rubs) 

Although I believe Nislick should have spoken out much sooner, he recently did and his comments are on their web site. 
”I’ve never been interested in these properties and do not want them now. These are private stables, under private ownership by entities who can keep them or sell them as they see fit.  But I will not bid on any property if it is put up for sale, nor will anyone else in our organization. Our sole interest is in the health and safety of the horses.”

These are some excerpts from articles in the media: 

Lee Siegel in NY Magazine

And where does one put in the political landscape, the carriage industry’s accusation that the animal-rights people are using the issue to hand the Hudson Yards stables to real –estate developers (who could surely find the money to buy them honestly)?

When talking to the well-educated, often Jewish liberals who make up the animal-rights movement in New York, and to the Irish-American hard cases like Byrne-28 years driving a carriage so that he could afford to raise his daughters in Caldwell, New Jersey, and send them to Montclair Kimberly Academy – you can feel that you are I a Sidney Lumet film. 

USA Today

The drivers contend that NY Class is a cover for developers who have their eye on the property that stables take up along the City’s West Side. 

NY Daily News via Liam Neeson

“Neeson also speculated that real estate developers are pushing the ban to snatch up valuable real estate currently occupied by stables, currently located on Manhattan's far west side.”

“History teaches us that land grabs can manifest themselves in various ways. We all know the land on which these four stables sit is most valuable. Please do not become complicit in this type of practice,” Neeson wrote.”

And from that strangely right wing Front Page :

“The man behind the Anti-Horse Jihad is Steve Nislick, a real-estate tycoon with an eye on their stables, , and a hand in Bill de Blasio’s greasy pocket.”

Mike Vogel from AM-NY

“But carriage-horse owners say that what's really behind the push to get rid of the Central Park carriage horses are developers who are perhaps looking to turn the stable properties into condos. According to Crain's New York, Steve Nislick, developer and founder of anti-carriage-horse group New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets, is a big de Blasio contributor.

Emily Hager – NY Times

Besides the animal rights campaigners, the industry is facing a classic New York peril: rising real estate values. Developers covet the stables on the Far West Side where the horses have long been kept.

Gothamist – comments by driver

 … got a group of people who are being fed nonsense. The guy who's funding all this is a real estate guy. His name is [Steve Nislick, co-founder an president of NYCLASS]. He's interested in buying the land. The stables are located right by the Javits Center and they want to put hotels up in there.

Change.org petition to the City Council

please do not bow to the new mayor's pressure and ban the beloved iconic New York City Central Park horse carriages. Our mayor has said his first priority is to pay back his campaign's billionaire real estate donor Steve Nilsick (the man behind NYCLASS & their well-funded push for the ban) with the valuable Westside stables properties. This is completely unacceptable & a great disappointment. All oversight agencies have no evidence of abuse. These are union jobs that would be destroyed and these horses would be sent to slaughter. They are some of the most well-cared for horses in the world & the only chance for many nyc children get to see these special creatures so please stop the mayor from taking them away.

The drivers are always looking to divert people’s attention away from the inhumane and unsafe conditions in the carriage business to something else -- be it police horses, horse racing, dressage -- but none of these hoped for diversions took hold.   With their contrived Irish brogues, they were quick to say that we are anti-Irish.  Wrong again.    We not only work with two Irish animal rights groups in Dublin, but we also have Irish Immigrants and Irish-American activists working in our campaign – along with people representing a diverse group of ethnic, racial, secular and religious backgrounds.  I am first generation Irish on my mother’s side – more Irish than many of the drivers.  So that charge simply did not work.  Besides the “greedy real estate developer” story was much better. 

So I hope you get the picture.  This is not so surprising when one considers what happened in July 2012 when a driver went off on a group of demonstrators.  Then it was much more blatant.  He was heard making anti-gay, anti-black and anti-women comments, which were taped.   

We are not on the same page as NY Class.  We  - Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages - are a grass roots animal advocacy organization that started the ban campaign in 2006.  We have contributed much substance to this campaign in the way of research, reports and articles.  We do not support the electric cars as an alternative industry because they are too risky, expensive and do not exist.  The logistics behind setting them up in a phase out is so badly conceived that they are not only guaranteed to fail, they would guarantee that there will be no ban.

I have always said that a ban of the horse-drawn carriage trade should not be dependent on the success of an untried and risky business such as this.    This is not what any of us heard when we voted for Mayor deBlasio who clearly said it would happen soon.   We hope he keeps his promise and does not get caught up in this electric car nonsense.

The business needs to be shut down with no strings attached.

If jobs are an important issue to this campaign then the best thing is the retrofitted horse-carriage – sans horse.  It is a fraction of the cost of the electric cars and is available.  And the changeover could happen in a short period of time.  The work to convert the carriages  could be done local. 

Please everyone – let’s have some honesty with this issue.  Stop taking the word of the drivers as gospel.  It does not reflect well on any reporter who puts their name to these stories.  

 

The mayoral administration must be strong enough to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!   They need to say that this  business will be shut down and the drivers either take this job offer – retrofitted  carriages – or find something else ... that we will no longer be manipulated by this entitled business that has gotten perks for years.  

These are two links to the Hudson Yards project.  It is huge project; it is the future and it is happening - and the horse carriage ban has nothing to do with it.   

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/hyards/hymain.shtml  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Yards_Redevelopment_Project

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DADA & BILLY -- VICTIMS OF NYC CARRIAGE TRADE - SAVED!

The Story of Dada and Billy - better known as Lilly O'Reilly and Bobby II Freedom - rescued former NYC carriage horses.  

The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages  recently published a  study of horse disposition in  the New York Carriage trade, which revealed that an average of 71 horses a year do not get their license renewed ... 529 over 7 1/2 years. The study is linked from our home page www.banhdc.org.    There is no protection for the horses - the owners are

not required to be accountable for their lives.  If they are not wanted - if they cannot do the job anymore - they are out.  Some may find good homes - but some don't.  We believe many went on to auction but because of the way the system works - no records after they are not licensed anymore - there is no proof.  But we do not believe for one minute that the owners found homes for all 529 horses.  

I'd like to tell the story here of two horses (who are part of this 529 number) who were saved despite their uncaring owners -- Dada who went on to become Lilly O'Reilly -- and Billy who went on to become Bobby II Freedom.  They had both been dumped at the New Holland kill auctions -- an auction frequented by kill buyers.   If you want more information about the study, please go to our web site www.banhdc.org.     

DADA - I first became aware of this horse in 2006.  She had  recently been rescued by 
Central New England Equine Rescue  in Massachusetts.  She  looked terrible.  She was a 19 year old mare and very tall at 18.2 hands.  She was 200 pounds underweight and her  body was filled with harness sores, which she could only have gotten working as a carriage horse.  We do not know how long she was in the carriage trade but her body showed the harsh effects of life 

harness rubs
photo by CNEER

harness rubs
photo by CNEER

as a workhorse pulling heavy loads.   By the 4-digit number on her hoof - #2711 -  I was able to find out that she was a New York City carriage horse who had been owned by Clemente Cretella.  She had been sent to the New Holland auction to meet her fate and been purchased by a Boston carriage owner to be put to work.  She had been at a horse dealer's farm when she was rescued. 

This is the section of the report that includes Lilly (Dada).  She is listed on the first line.The blue color indicates when the horse was no longer on the DoH rolls.   Click to make it bigger.  

Changing her name to the pretty "Lilly O'Reilly" the good people at CNEER set out to work with her.   They wanted to help her to trust people again.  She was very withdrawn and depressed.  She was distant.  This is what Vicky of CNEER said: "Lilly still has not lost that sadness in her eyes.  I don't know how long it will take but it's still there - she has moments of interest, but that's all - little by slow she will trust us to keep her safe.  She has had a hard life I think - a very hard life.  And how she can even tolerate people is beyond me.  She can't be adopted until she is restored both physically and emotionally."   

With CNEER's guidance and help, Lilly's luck was changing.   After all, their motto is  "making

Beautiful Lilly
photo by EForel

a difference - one horse at a time"  and they mean it.   This is a   link to our page with Lilly's story.  I was fortunate to get to meet Lilly a few times.  What a treat.  She and I are both NYC girls.  Although  withdrawn, we seemed to commune with each other.  I fell in love with her.  

Sometime later she was adopted by an equine vet, Michaela and went to live with Cole, a quarter horse and Badonkeydonk, a little donkey.  She and Cole became very close.  

This is what Michaela said about her new girl.  "Lilly is doing great.  She has come out of her shell like you wouldn't believe - her newest favorite game is taking everything out of my tack 

Lizzie and Lilly 

box one item and a time when I am busy brushing her or picking her feet.  I swear that horse smiles the entire time she does it."   

How great is that!  So it was with much sadness that I learned of Lilly's death one year after she got to her new home.  She and Cole got sick - he was strong enough to recover but she just succumbed in the field with her loving and caring family around her.  At least for the last few years of her life, she was a much loved being.  Micheala knew how much I cared about her and sent me a  lock of her mane, which I will always treasure.  She is honored on our web site.  (left side - scroll

Cole, Lilly & Badonkeydonk 

down) 

Bobby at New Holland 

BILLY - This is the horse who became the famous Bobby II Freedom.  I became aware of him on Friday morning , June 25, 2010  when I turned on the computer to read an e-mail about a "bay gelding ex carriage horse"   "Can you guys offer any info or know anyone who would like to save this gentle gelding from slaughter?  We have til Sat 6 p.m. to find him a secure home."

As I described in my article in One Green Planet, I immediately went into action reaching out to rescues to see if anyone could take him.  Equine Advocates in Chatham, NY happily agreed to do it and Billy finally arrived at their place on the following Monday.  

Bobby's worried look - 1st day at EA
photo by Jim Craner

This is the section of the report that shows Billy and his owner Maria Sulla.  He is third from the bottom - #2873

The press showed interest in Billy who immediately got a lot of  coverage - he was fast turning into a celebrity.  Referred to as an "it" by co-owner, Mr. Spina,  in the NY Times article, Billy  was finally living with his own herd and with people who loved him.  Take that!, Mr. Spina.  

This is a link to a NY Times article that featured Billy's story and arrival at Equine Advocates.

Bobby rolling - 1st day at EA
photo by Jim Craner

 The first thing he did was to roll on the grass - natural behavior for horses.  Susan Wagner, president of Equine Advocates, believes he probably never had a chance to do that before .  So heart warming.  The writer, Elizabeth Hess, has referred to it as "palpable horse joy."

Billy immediately was seen by an equine vet who determined serious lameness in his right front leg,  overgrown teeth and two kinds of worms -- not exactly  the condition of a cared for horse.  Find our more about Bobby on Equine Advocates' blog.  These  are some pictures of Bobby II Freedom when he first came and how he is today.  

Bobby and Susan Wagner, president of Equine Advocates
photo by Jim Craner

Bobby and I communing 

Photo taken by Jeffrey Anderson 

painting by Peter Max

NYC CARRIAGE TRADE SINKS TO NEW LOW

Inappropriate and incendiary  comments on Facebook.

The NYC carriage trade has sunk to a new low and is sadly, desperately and shockingly  exploiting the recent horrific shootings at the Sandy Hook elementary school.  Trying to get their readers to sympathize with them against those who want their exploitative business shut down, the Vice President of the NYC Horse and Carriage Association posted several very incendiary comments on a carriage industry Facebook page that is open to the public.  The comments, which can only be interpreted as a call to action,  began on December 19, 2012.

She posted a picture of a group of activists from another organization and criticized them for being at the hack line demonstrating against the carriage drivers.  The group was actually handing out informational  flyers to the public.   They had posed for a group photo.  If she sincerely felt they should not have been there, then perhaps the drivers should also not have worked out of respect for the people who live in Newtown, CT.   

But we all know that is not what it was about. 

Apparently wanting to stay in the good graces of their leader, her supporters made comments like “I think some people need to get a life; despicable people that lack the sensitivity gene; Inappropriate timing!!!;  lock these nuts up; the same people would say ho-hum if they were shown a picture of an aborted baby;  ignorance knows now [sic] bounds."

But then it started to get really crazy: [names are left out for our protection.] **  

Inappropriate and incendiary  comments on Facebook.

Inappropriate and incendiary  comments on Facebook.

Dangerously making accusations of terrorism 

This is not rational behavior.  

And then she went one step further and alleged in another  post on the same Facebook Page that her  husband took a family with young children for a carriage ride.  And guess where they came from according to this woman?  Newtown.  She goes on about how the families were coming to NYC to take carriage rides to get away from the media presence and how they will instead be met with activists.  

This is part of what she said: 

“Well, if those folks come to NYC and want to treat their children to a carriage ride to brighten their day, there is a good chance they will be accosted by the miserable, vile, despicable, sick maniacs who call themselves "animal rights" people who will be protesting the carriages all weekend and into next week. These folks and their children will be greeted by lunatics waving poster-sized photos of old and rare carriage accidents, dead horses, blood and wreckage.”

And of course, once again her non-thinking fan club comments, agreeing with her.  

"how people can be so vile is beyond me; And I so wish I could come home for a week, hang out with some carriage horses & their people.  I would exercise my rights.  I'd claim I was in fear for my life of the protesters ... I'd open a large can of whoop ass."  

Until one thinking person said:  

But did you think the followers would see that what she said made sense?   No, of course not.  Instead, this is what some said (identifying names left out): 

 "xxx - what you said made no sense - she was saying how worried she is -- shame on you.  [liked 3 times]; XXX you are a complete and total ASSHAT.  The only people capitalizing on Newtown are the bloodthirsty degenerate ghouls in the lame-ass media, with their 24/7 glurge (and shamefully that includes FOX NEWS) and the jugheads like the anti-2nd amendment contingent who are going to try and exploit it to push their Nazi agenda. My only regret is that I cannot reach right through the screen and slap some sense into you.  If that is even possible.  Now feel free to return your head to your ass.  Since that is obviously where it lives; Thanks again, XXX.  (liked 3 times) Then show then show that you have some character and apologize to XXX.; omfg ... what a supreme f**king nasty b**tch .. bite us."  

Charming!

Of course no one speaks to Ms. Thing like that.  This is her reply to the lone dissenter.  Although her original post  uses the "real" vulgar words (no asterisks for her,)  I have added the asterisks because the language is very offensive.  

  

Hey [blocked]  - I don't know who you think you are talking to. You have some F*****G NERVE telling me that I am not sincere - this is a TRUE story, and it is EATING AT MY GUT since I heard it. You're 'aware' of f*****g NOTHING. Shame on YOU for not giving a s**t that kids are ROUTINELY exposed to these LUNATICS and their despicable behavior. As for the video, there are LOTS more, some taken last week -- better yet, why not come up at see for yourself? I don't 'sputter' - I SPEAK, loudly and clearly. And I don't give a s**t if you are 100% pro-carriage or against - people like YOU we don't need.

Psychologists have explained that this kind of behavior is irresponsible.  This is a quote attributed to  David Matsumoto from an article in an academic journal earlier this year.  

"When leaders express a combination of anger, contempt and disgust in their speeches, it seems to be instrumental in inciting a group to act violently," said Matsumoto, professor of psychology of San Francisco State University.  

What do you think? Are these irrational people dangerous?  Should we be concerned?    Many of them have no idea what the NYC carriage trade is about but they will defend it to the end.  They hate anyone who cares about animals.  

** - We have screen shots, including the names of those who posted and have reported this to the appropriate authorities.

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