Another carriage horse drops on the streets of NYC: email the Mayor

Please send sample letter to Mayor Bloomeberg demanding the carriage horse industry ceases to exist.  There are two sample letters and both will fit in the character-limited comment field, but please modify.


BACKGROUND | FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST

Another New York City carriage horse has fallen in Manhattan.

Horrified holiday shoppers and tourists looked on as carriage handlers tried desperately to get the white horse to its feet Sunday afternoon near the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street. One onlooker managed to film the struggle and submitted it to the group Win Animal Rights.

Animal rights activist Mary Xanthos blamed the holiday season as putting an extra burden on carriage horses, telling The New York Daily News, “These horses were being worked non-stop, going over and over again, ride after ride without a break.”

A spokesman for the Horse and Carriage Association of New York however, objected to the title of the YouTube video (NYC Carriage Horse Collapses 12/4/11 Copyright Win Animal Rights) telling The News, “No horse collapsed. It caught its toe in the pavement, which is quite common.”

Bret Hopman of the ASPCA tells Gothamist, “the horse has been suspended pending a veterinary exam and won’t return to work until the exam is completed.”

And Kenneth Malone, president of the association, said in a press release, “The carriage industry in New York City is such a public institution that a horse can sneeze funny and some activist is in our faces with a camera to post footage to YouTube.”

Mayor Bloomberg shrugged at the news. “They’re animals and animals and human beings, eventually, we all unfortunately stop continuing and it’s unfortunate when it happens, but that doesn’t mean that you stop doing things,” the mayor said. “You just want to make sure that they’re well treated.”

Animal rights groups have long complained that carriage horses are overworked and aren’t taken care of properly.

New Yorkers For Clean, Safe, Livable And Safe Streets, an advocacy group, have been joined by some local politicians in pushing to pass Intro. 86A, a City Council bill that ups restrictions on horse carriages and aims to eventually replace them with “horseless carriages,” i.e. vintage, turn-of-century, motorized cars.

After the collapse and death of a carriage horse in July, the ASPCA released a statement:

We at the ASPCA express our sadness and concern at this tragic incident. The life of a carriage horse on New York City streets is extremely difficult and life threatening, and the ASPCA has long believed that carriage horses were never meant to live and work in today’s urban setting.

A couple weeks ago, The Horse and Carriage Association Of New York filed a complaint against the ASPCA and NYCLASS. “Both the ASPCA and NYCLASS have made false, misleading and/or deceptive statements about the carriage industry,” the statement said.

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WHOM TO CONTACT

Mayor Bloomberg’s Office

SAMPLE LETTER ONE

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

I am writing today to encourage you to oppose the horse carriage industry. Built around perennial abuse and exploitation, the horse carriage industry is duplicitously disguised as an essential tourist icon of romanticism and history, a grossly inaccurate representation.

Allow me this moment to illustrate. Since the industry is profit driven, current safety or “humane” protocols, being cost-prohibitive, are not observed; indeed, any animal used as a goal to human profit is regarded in a fundamentally cruel and exploitative manner. Specifically, horses are subjected to numerous cruelties and inhumane conditions including respiratory impairment as the result of perpetual inhalation of vehicle exhaust; horses are required to operate under grueling conditions and varied temperatures including high heat, humidity, and frigid cold, impairing their well-being while exhaustively working long hours; neglected appropriate medical care, horses often suffer lameness and other physical conditions; horses are typically serving this industry secondary to previous laboring of racing or farming, enduring lifelong injuries while forced to pull incredibly massive weights upward of 8,000 pounds; traffic conditions being erratic at best creates extremely precarious conditions and potentially fatal accidents; the natural lifespan of horses is dramatically diminished resulting from such dangerous and unpredictable conditions, and they are often retired to slaughterhouses, the final indecency forced upon them by greedy humans.

Pragmatically, horse drawn carriages are a transportation relic, historically essential but currently hazardous to both horses and humans. Although potentially attractive to unaware passengers, the horse drawn carriage industry, as a novelty, is not critical to city tourism; indeed, tourists visit for the culture, theatre, nightlife, and landmarks, and the potential loss of tourism benefits absent horse drawn carriages will most certainly be negligible.

I know your time is limited, and I want to thank you for your attention to this important issue.


SAMPLE LETTER TWO

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

I and shocked to learn that yet another carriage horse has succumbed to torturous conditions and selfish tourists.  We therefore must utilize our conviction to see the industry disband in place of, for example, vintage cars.

Allow me this moment to illustrate. Since the industry is profit driven, current safety or “humane” protocols, being cost-prohibitive, are not observed; indeed, any animal used as a goal to human profit is regarded in a fundamentally cruel and exploitative manner. Specifically, horses are subjected to numerous cruelties and inhumane conditions including respiratory impairment as the result of perpetual inhalation of vehicle exhaust; horses are required to operate under grueling conditions and varied temperatures including high heat, humidity, and frigid cold, impairing their well-being while exhaustively working long hours; neglected appropriate medical care, horses often suffer lameness and other physical conditions; horses are typically serving this industry secondary to previous laboring of racing or farming, enduring lifelong injuries while forced to pull incredibly massive weights upward of 8,000 pounds; traffic conditions being erratic at best creates extremely precarious conditions and potentially fatal accidents; the natural lifespan of horses is dramatically diminished resulting from such dangerous and unpredictable conditions, and they are often retired to slaughterhouses, the final indecency forced upon them by greedy humans.

Regrettably, until the carriage horse industry is banned, I will not visit New York.  Please understand that you have the power to make the humane decision to see this realized.

I know your time is limited, and I thank you for your attention to this issue.



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how would you feel if you
were a horse
forced to navigate
this harsh urban course
dodging sounds, cars
people and smells
for this gentle, good
creature
a voyage through hell
so put yourselves
in his horseshoes
being a carriage horse
not what you want to do

Karen Lyons Kalmenson