THE TRUTH ABOUT THOSE "SUMMER VACATIONS"

In 2010, a local law was passed that required NYC carriage horse owners to provide a “5-week vacation for their horses.” The language of this new regulation can be found under Regulations in the Administrative Code – Rental Horse and Protection Law.

 § 17–330 Regulations – g.2 Carriage horses shall receive no less than five weeks of vacation or furlough every twelve months at a horse stable facility which allows daily access to paddock or pasture turnout. Proof of such vacation or furlough shall be provided upon request to the department and/or the ASPCA. 

The media went nuts with the concept of a horse getting a "five-week vacation" when many 

people do not get as much time -- as if this were the greatest thing for these horses.  No one questioned if it was appropriate.    No one!
 
Instead, the media's reporting conjured up images of horses lolling about in swimming pools sunning themselves. Crain’s NY, a long time supporter of the carriage trade, said: “The horses get a minimum of five weeks' vacation every year. Many are shipped off to fields in Pennsylvania for leisure, often for three months at a time."   This was typical for the media, but it was all hype.  

Carriage horses enjoying their "5-week vacation"

 Nevertheless, the  public and the media were only too happy to accept it as gospel. It was promoted by former Mayor Bloomberg, former Council Speaker Christine Quinn and former Council Member James Gennaro – all supporters of the carriage trade. 

This was deception of the highest order.  

Vacations are a human concept. People need them – not horses. Horses need daily turnout to pasture where they can graze and socialize with other horses. As herd animals, they like to engage in mutual grooming to relieve their stress – something they do not get to do in NYC.

How many of the horses enjoy real turnout 

There has been much written on the benefits of turnout for horses. Virtually all equine practitioners without a financial conflict of interest will come down on the side of the horse. The only people who claim horses do not need turnout are those who blindly defend the carriage trade, which simply does not have the land to do this. These are the same people who defend horses in the Climate March parade or parking a carriage horse over a steaming manhole cover. For 47 weeks out of the year, the horses get nothing – deprived of free exercise and the opportunity to be a horse. They work 9 hours a day, 7 days a week, coming back to a stall that is half the size it should be. 

Turnout - NYC style

But the reality of these “vacations” is even worse.

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene seriously failed the horses with this legislation because nowhere did they ask for a list of farms that would participate in this program; nor did they require inspections of these farms. This omission begs the questions of where the horses actually go and what are they are doing once they get there.   It is all on the honor system. 

In October 2011, former ASPCA equine veterinarian, Pamela Corey was quoted in the New York Post.  "Dr. Corey, the director of equine veterinary services of the ASPCA’s humane law-enforcement department, said  

“We have observed some horses returning to New York City after furloughs on a farm in worse condition than when they left.”

is this what NYC carriage horse really do on "vacation?"

This statement was never investigated and was apparently ignored. 

While some of the drivers do own farms and hopefully their horses do get to relax, most do not. It has been rumored that many of the horses are sent to Amish farmers where they are worked for this period and not fed properly in exchange for satisfying the “vacation” requirement. This would account for Corey’s observation. The Amish would never tolerate seeing a horse just hanging around in the pasture doing nothing. The farmer would want to put him or her to work. This is no “vacation.”

This is just one of the many truths about the carriage trade that has been kept from the public because of media bias. Let’s get over believing that the carriage drivers “love” their horses.

They are commodities who exist only to make them money. 

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IS THE DOH ACTUALLY ADMITTING THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF A HUMANE CARRIAGE HORSE INDUSTRY?

Suggests Current Multi-Level Stables are Unacceptable

But Still Can't Even Recommend Accepted Standard for Stall Size

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, February 3rd on proposals to allegedly improve the horse-carriage industry. Horse advocates are expected to provide comments. But try as they might, the DoHMH cannot even meet industry standards for horses with their new proposals.

While touting a five week vacation for horses per year, the DoH fails to acknowledge that experts advise that horses need daily turnout or pasture time – time to run, buck, roll, play with other horses and sleep in the pasture. This helps with colic, nutrition, tying up disease and a horse's overall well being. The DoH knows it is impossible to do this in NYC and to treat the horses like living creatures and not money making machines.

The DoH is also trying to pull the veil of transparency down and do away with the engraved number identification on the horses hoof so it will be impossible for the public to report with accuracy a lame or sick horse. This 4-digit number has also previously helped to locate and rescue horses in slaughter auctions.

Because the DoH obviously wants the industry to remain viable and because these proposals were made with input from the carriage industry, the new recommended size of stalls is 70 sq. feet -- less then ½ the recommended size for a 1,000 pound horse. Currently the regulations only require 48 sq. ft. Experts recommend a stall size of 12 x 12 feet – 144 sq. feet for a 1,000 pound horses and 14 x 14 foot minimum for the large draft breeds.

Cramming a horse into such a small stall because that is the only space available is like squeezing a size 9 foot into a size 6 shoe. Very uncomfortable!

The DoH is also not able to address the available potable water issue for horses. The two water troughs in Central Park are turned off for half the year depriving the horses of free flowing (albeit questionable) water in the Park. But public water troughs are a known source of microbes - a place where drunks can urinate and people have been seen washing up -- where a horse can pick up a disease and pass it on to another horse. It is a veterinarian's nightmare.

But the pièce de résistance is the DoH’s position on new stables. Starting January 31, 2011, “no new stables shall be equipped with stalls that are located above first or street level of the stable.“ This will not affect any of the existing stables, which are grandfathered in, but it officially acknowledges a new correct standard – and essentially admits that it is both inhumane and dangerous to house horses on upper levels as they are all housed how – as horse advocates have always claimed. It is difficult on older horses to make the ramp every day and it becomes a fire hazard if there were a fire on the ground level. The ramp would act as a chimney and there is only one means of egress in the front of the building on the ground floor. The horses would die.

These proposals are a sad attempt to make improvements to a faltering out-of-control industry. They only prove that it is impossible to run this trade humanely in New York City. The Department of Health and the City need to come to this realization and to stop wasting City resources.