It's difficult not to recognize the horses' suffering. Exploited for greed and entertainment, the NYC carriage horse is an icon of misery. These dispirited horses travel up to 4 miles a day in heavy traffic, suffer concussive injuries and lameness from pounding the pavement, and don't get enough water.
New York City carriage horses also must share their feed with starving pigeons. This contaminates the feed and puts horses at risk for illness.
It's not an anomaly, it's the norm. The carriage drivers don't discourage it. In fact, they often throw feed on the filthy ground.
Picture it: New York City carriage horses stand around
in excessive heat and cold waiting for fares. The horses are watered inadequately and eat feed that is tainted with pigeon droppings.
Miserable, right? It's bad for the horses and it endangers the lives of the pigeons, who frequently fall victim to the wheels of the carriage.
This happened during our September demo & outreach event. The poor hungry birds are there one minute, gone the next. As always, one of our activists took the pigeon's body into the park, out of respect.A ban critic recently said that the horses are happy and the pigeons are, too. I recommend that everyone wake up and take a good look around the hack line--and don't forget to look down.
The ban will make New York City a better place.
Side note: Pigeons are wonderful creatures. An August 2014 Epoch Times cover story ("New York Too Busy to Care? Center Rescues City's Injured Birds") warned against bird bigotry and gave us a history lesson on the heroic birds. The reporter wrapped it up by saying, "By the time I had done an elementary Google search, I was ready to get down on the ground and salute them."
