DEBLASIO NIXES CARRIAGE HORSE BAN

NYC MAYOR DEBLASIO GIVES UP ON CARRIAGE BAN 

TOO WEAK TO CONVINCE CITY COUNCIL

(please write letter posted below - all info provided)  

Just before the 2015 Thanksgiving holiday, when  fewer people were  paying attention, the NY Times reported that Mayor deBlasio plans to REDUCE not BAN the carriage trade.  This took us by surprise.  The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages started this campaign in 2006 - a culmination of 15 previous years of working on this issue.    Yet the Mayor has never once reached out to us to consult or ask our opinion.  Why?  MONEY TALKS and without it, you do not have  a seat at the table.  Unfortunately this is what our mayor is all about.  Remember his campaign  phrase "tale of two cities?"  Sounded catchy at the time, but he is the worse offender - exacerbating the "two cities" concept by only listening to big donors. 

Here are some of the recent articles.

NYTimes - Mayor de Blasio Seeks to Reduce, Not Ban, Carriage Horses in Central Park

NY Daily news - De Blasio won’t put horse-drawn carriages in Central Park to pasture, but he will work to reduce their number

NY Daily News - NYC carriage drivers prepare to battle de Blasio’s new plan reducing number of horses ferrying tourists in Central Park 

THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA FOR MANY REASONS.

For starters - please accept that this will not happen.  The carriage trade is already opposing it because it cuts jobs.  It would be easier to get a total ban than to go through these kinds of machinations. 

While the details have not been released yet, the Mayor is talking about reducing the number of horses in the industry to 70  -  down from approximately 200 and moving them into Central Park.    Will the City build a costly new stable on public park land for a private industry -- built with public money?   Or will they try to cram these  horses into the existing stables in Central Park that were used to house 5 horses?   Anything is possible.  If you think this will come with pasture turnout and appropriately sized stalls - think again and take off your blinders. 

This will not only require approval by the City Council but because of state law governing parks -- if the plan is to build, it will also require the approval of the NYS legislature and Governor Cuomo -- unless they figure out a way around it.  Very possible. 

TRANSPARENT PLOY TO SHUT YOU UP - DON'T FALL FOR IT!

Mostly, this is a transparent ploy to stave off criticism by activists (letters, public protests) that Mayor deBlasio has not fulfilled his promise of banning the inhumane and unsafe carriage trade – because he is too weak.   deBlasio’s ratings have sunk and he is trying to do damage control. The mayor has two years to reelection and he wants to keep the activist community at bay.  Will you fall for it?  That is the question to answer.

The Mayor is quoted in the NY Times as saying "he made a commitment to his supporters and wants to show he is a man of his word."  News flash.   He promised to BAN the inhumane and unsafe trade - nothing less. That is not being true to his "word" at all. 

IT IS ABOUT MUCH MORE THAN "HORSES IN TRAFFIC"

For some reason, the mayor and his staff, who do not have much knowledge about the horses, are suggesting that this is all about the "horses in traffic."  They would be wrong although that is certainly one of the concerns. It is about so much more -- the punishing existing of working 9 hours a day, 7 days a week - in all kinds of weather; the inadequate sized stalls - 1/2 the size that experts recommend; no turnout to pasture; being sent to kill auctions when no longer wanted ; little to no law enforcement - allowing the drivers to make illegal U-turns; leaving their horses unattended and untethered; overloading carriages, etc.

The horses' nature will not change.  They are still prey animals and can spook at the slightest provocation, becoming unwitting weapons when they bolt  -  able to cause injury or death to themselves or innocent passersby.  This is not going to change because they live in Central Park.

The hack line on Central Park South will most likely remain because this is where the drivers get their customers.  But this is also where many of the accidents occur.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT STUDY? 

This was a study of the carriage trade required by the proposed bill, Intro 573.  We do not know what it "studied" because that information was never released.   It was completed in June, 2015 but never officially published.    Months ago, we put through a Freedom of Information request - (FOIL)  but continue to get monthly e-mail responses saying it is delayed until "next month."  Why the lack of transparency?  We want to know what the Mayor is hiding? 

COINCIDENCE?  WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Although we have never thought the existing stable property in Hell's Kitchen was a consideration in banning the horse carriage trade, this proposal is suspicious – if the drivers buy it – and they probably will not – their four stables will be freed up – and they will probably sell them. Interesting? We think so.

RETROFITTED CARRIAGES WERE THE SOLUTION. 

http://www.andrescarriagetours.com/

The Mayor could have done this right if he had listened to us and others at the beginning – instead of those who gave him big donations. He could have opted for the proposal to replace the horse carriages with RETROFITTED CARRIAGES – with no horses. (NOT ELECTRIC CARS) The drivers should have jumped at this opportunity.  They complain that people insult them and call them horse abusers but as long as horses are involved, this will not change whether they move into the park or not.  They will never work in an industry where they and their families can be proud of what they do because of the ongoing attacks.   Liam Neeson can try to defend them by saying they love their horses like children, but this will not stop a passerby from shouting "get a real job, horse abuser."  The drivers need to face facts - This is simply the way it is.

if they were serious about this complaint, they would look for viable ways to continue in something that closely resembled their current business but did not have horses.  Retrofitted carriages would allow them to continue with the same business model; they would have been in control; still kept their stables to store the same carriages they always used but now would be  retrofitted.   The cost was a fraction of the electric cars – Maybe $20,000 each compared to $200,000 for an electric car. Instead the drivers foolishly dug in their heels saying “no compromise.”

Now they run the risk of losing everything.

PLEASE DO NOT FALL FOR THIS PLOY

The Mayor is not keeping his word and this is NOT a step in the right direction. Don’t be fooled. We want ALL the horses retired to sanctuaries – after all when slavery was abolished, no one agreed to reduce the number of people kept as slaves – it was total abolition. We will accept nothing less.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Please contact the people below who are in the deBlasio administration and tell them that the Mayor must show the leadership abilities for which we elected him and that he must make this ban happen.  A promise made is a promise made to be kept - See sample letter below:

If you do not contact these policy makers, nothing will happen.  So please do it! 

Anthony Shorris - First Deputy Mayor

ashorris@cityhall.nyc.gov

Marco Carrion - Commissioner of Community Affairs

mcarrion@cityhall.nyc.gov

Emma Wolfe - Intergovernmental

ewolfe@cityhall.nyc.gov

Jeffrey Dupee - Community Affairs

jdupee@hhspartner.nyc.gov

Ramon Martinez - Speaker's Office

rmartinez@council.nyc.gov. 

ashorris@cityhall.nyc.gov, mcarrion@cityhall.nyc.gov, ewolfe@cityhall.nyc.gov,
jdupee@hhspartner.nyc.gov, rmartinez@council.nyc.gov. 


This is a sample letter -- just copy and paste: 

Honorable Officials,
I am writing to express my extreme disappointment and displeasure over the failure in leadership demonstrated by Mayor DeBlasio, concerning the issue of the carriage horse ban.  While the Mayor claims he has done everything possible to move this forward, and ban supporters have made every effort to contact their own Council members, it appears that he has absolutely no clout with the City Council in getting them to support his bill.  Why then would New Yorkers want to re-elect someone who is so weak?

We do not support the new plan to reduce the size of the industry.  It appears to be a ploy to keep the activist community at bay.

The Mayor must show the leadership abilities for which we elected him and must make this ban happen or I will certainly not support or vote for him again.  A promise made is a promise made to be kept!

Sincerely
Name
Address

WHOSE TROUGH IS IT ANYWAY? the joys of being a NYC carriage horse

...or... Would you drink that water?

New York City’s carriage horses toil most of the day in Central Park. During the warm months, they have access to two water troughs - one just inside the park not far from Avenue of the Americas … the other closer to Fifth Avenue. The water is of questionable quality.

But even this questionable quality water is not available to the horses from October through March when it is turned off because the pipes freeze. The drivers are expected to carry buckets of water with them for their horse. Some do and some don’t. Who's checking.

Working horses need upwards of 20 gallons of water a day – particularly since they do not have access to grass. Do they get it? Only their owners know for sure – but we believe it is doubtful.

When the horses go into the Times Square and Lincoln Center area later in the day and through the night, there are no water troughs available. So good luck to the horses…

Most people who make their money off the back of an animal will ultimately come to exploit that animal … through lesser quality food; more work hours, cutting back on boarding costs – so they can have more money in their pocket. It is that nasty, greedy part of human nature that makes its appearance. That is apparent in the carriage trade in NYC. One can see the results of it - - horses with "one size fits all" ill fitting tack that is shared by other horses; horses that are pushed to work longer hours; horses with bad hooves; horses who look like they are not getting enough quality food. And these are just the things that we can observe. There is no telling how many need to have their teeth floated.

This video shows drivers trying to squeeze more time out of their horse even though it was above 90 degrees and they had been suspended for the day. Yelling “last call for a ride” to make more money even though they should have been taking their horse back to the stable.

So how can anyone with half a brain believe that the drivers l o v e their horses? Although, I guess love means different things to different people.

Intro 35A, the bogus bill that was signed into law in April by Mayor Bloomberg, originally had a section that addressed the water issue. The City of New York would pay for the new piping to make water available to the horses all year. None of us believed this ploy. If that section had been left in the bill, we knew the City would never address it because they have other priorities for their limited funds. They would have been subject to harsh criticism from the public – closing senior and day care centers to provide water to privately owned horses -- something that should have been paid for by the industry, which had just gotten a big rate increase.

The City also wanted to avoid another law suit since they had recently lost one concerning a law passed in 2002 that required animal shelters in each borough. Seven years later and there are still no full service shelters in Bronx or Queens. So the section about correcting the water troughs was quietly removed from the bill.

This is NYC, tourists - on the surface - bright lights, pretty stores, nice restaurants. Scratch that surface and you will see a draconian animal control system, which has a high kill rate for cats and dogs but pretends not to .... which slaughters resident Canada geese - thousands in Prospect Park ... and which is so mired in politics that horses have to suffer. But this is all behind closed doors. Remember what Gandhi said about cities and animals - "the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." but who was he .... well only the man who was responsible for India's freedom from England.

But back to the Horses.

Would you drink their water? Horses are living organisms (as we are) with very sensitive digestive systems. The question to ask about the water available to the horses is if a person could drink it. I wouldn't!

According to Holly Cheever, DVM, from the documentary Blinders: the Truth Behind the Tradition, these filthy communal water troughs are a veterinarian’s nightmare since horses can easily spread disease from one to the other. At different times, we have spotted people using this water trough to bathe and to wash dishes.

Again -- would you drink this water? No? Then why should the horses?

This is just more ammunition to back the argument for why this trade needs to come to an end. It is a disgrace to the city of New York to continue to hang on to this inherently inhumane industry. Tourists will not miss it.

A bill that is in the city council - intro 86A – would create a new electric / green vintage car business that would provide great opportunities for the owners and drivers and retire the horses. But politics is preventing it from moving forward. Speaker Christine Quinn, who has ultimate power in the City Council, is opposed to it and she has strong ties to the carriage industry.

If you think that that we are back in the days of Tammany Hall -- you would not be far off.

Boss Tweed would be proud.

NYC Health Dept. Proposes New Regulations for Carriage Horses

The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has proposed new updates and revisions to Health Code Article 161 and Chapter 4 of the Commissioner's Regulations concerning carriage horses. A public hearing will be convened on Tuesday, February 3, 2010 at 125 Worth St.

While we understand that the DoH is limited in what they can regulate, we nevertheless applaud their efforts in trying to improve conditions for NYC carriage horses.

However there are some proposed regulations that are window dressing and deserve comments.

It is suggested that horses get five weeks vacation a year. Taken out of context, this sounds good - more than most people get. But here's the rub.

These horses work nine hours a day, seven days a week in congested traffic in all kinds of bad weather conditions. They live in cramped stalls in multistoried warehouses. They are herd animals and need daily turnout - a pasture to run free and socialize with other horses. This does not exist in the barren warehouse buildings where they live. Five weeks of vacation is meaningless in this context because the horses are broken and exhausted by the time they are eligible for a "vacation." This is simply a nod to the industry sanctioning something that is totally unenforceable.

There are many other problems with these proposed regulations including the disingenuous so called smoking ban. The real danger to the horse's lungs comes from living a nose to tailpipe existence, sucking up car and bus exhaust all day. The only way to change that is to ban the industry from operating.

At the same time the proposed regs will prohibit drivers talking on their cell phones, texting, reading newspapers, taking pictures and videos while driving and otherwise not paying attention to the road - something that is very prevalent among the drivers.

We also understand that the Department of Health must follow the lead of the mayor who up to now has supported the industry. But, it still sounds like the City is horsing around with these regulations, trying to placate critics of the industry and some of the Advisory board members at the same time.

This small “industry”, made up of only a couple of hundred people, for some reason has a hold on city politicians. Thinking people, however, know this anachronistic trade can never be made right. The only logical and humane solution is to shut down this business and to retire the horses to sanctuaries - saving them from a life of exploitation pulling unsafe carriages around crowded streets.

We are in a new decade. Let’s make it right for the horses.