After a few weeks of impassioned, and enlightening, comments on my Horse Controversy post I must say that my position has changed. While I still like the idea of the horses being confined to giving rides in a carless Central Park, I admit that finding them viable lodging near the park would be challenging, if not impossible. And if they still had to travel to work through traffic, they would still be in jeopardy. However I do think that if the Mayor seriously wants this industry to continue he should find a way for acceptable stabling to be created. What if the horses were transported back and forth from the park in vans, instead of travelling through traffic? The City of New York must find a way for these horses to work safely, otherwise he practice should definitely be banned.
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I still think that there is no way that this heinous practice should continue. Animals aren’t simply put on this earth to entertain us.
john,
As I wrote regarding your first post on this topic, I appreciate your desire to find a compromise. But driving the horses around NYC in vans? Isn’t it just a lot simpler for the horses to live in a more natural environment and not be exploited for cheap entertainment? I’m heartened that 87% of voters in your poll support the ban. I believe it’s the most sensible outcome to this debate.
I agree with Audrey. Between the extreme temperatures, hard pavement that causes concussive injury and that is searing hot in the summer, confinement between two shafts of their carriage for 9 hours a day and then in tiny stalls and no opportunity for turnout, this is an inhumane practice in NYC, period! Nothing will make it humane. Also, in the winter, the Parks Department turns off the water in the two troughs on 5th and 6th avenue because they don’t have a heat valve (never mind that there’s no water available for horses on the hack line). Why doesn’t the Parks Dept install heat valves? It’s up to the stable owners to provide water, which they do periodically in the 5th avenue trough, but never in the 6th avenue trough. These animals are perpetually dehydrated. Some of the drivers carry buckets of water, but most of them don’t give it to them. And a bucket of water isn’t enough for a horse on a 9 hour shift.
John–please ask the Parks Dept why they won’t install heat valves!
The bottom line is that this is an inhumane practice in an urban environment. More than half of the accidents and horse deaths occurred in Central Park or on the hack line! So, horses are spooked there as well.
Face it, it’s time to end this perverse form of entertainment.
OK – let’s take your proposal – putting the horse stables in Central Park. Central Park comprises 843 acres. If done properly, there would have to be turnout. Currently there are about 220 horses (actually 219 because a horse died on Friday) Each horse needs 1.5 acres for turnout – that means grazing and exercising. That is 329 acres just for turnout. Add to that the storage for carriages, hay, supplies; stalls, offices, horse showers, medical facilities, etc. – and maybe it is up to 350 acres. That is almost ½ of the park. What should we get rid of to accomplish this project – the CP zoo; the two skating rinks; conservatory gardens, Rumsey Field, all the smaller children’s play grounds? Why should the tax payers of NYC give up their beautiful park to a private politically connected industry – to an industry that has brought shame to our city. No – this would be a terrible white elephant of a project. It clearly would not work. It would be Tammany Hall at its best.
These 19th century conveyances have no place in 21st century NYC – it is time to give up this idea and find other solutions. One would be to retire all of the carriage horses to a sanctuary (let the mayor raise money for this) where people could go to see them and really experience these wonderful gentle giants who have become so dispirited in their present state. After all the police horses are retired to a special sanctuary. It is a thrill to watch horses play with each other; to play tug of war with a stick; to roll in the dirt after they have had a bath; to buck and run; to nuzzle you for apples – or to steal one out of your backpack. Horses are herd animals and need to socialize with their buddies. They never get this opportunity while being jailed in their small stalls, which they access by way of steep ramps. A horse working as a carriage horse has all of his natural instincts denied – he cannot even scratch that unbearable itch. As a people, we should be ashamed of what we are putting these animals through for our entertainment – of denying them their spirit. Surely we are better than that!
John
thanks for your change of position based on the overwhelming facts and evidence. New Yorkers, please support the ban. Another horse died 2 days ago. The warehouses make the horses prone to disease. The air pollution makes the horses sick. I have seen horses right behind city buses and it is horrendous. Once I stood too near the bus and the exhaust made me dizzy. Please help the horses and stop the cruelty. This is a human issue. Man is obligated to speak out against cruelty and injustice. God gave us the gift and burden to care over the earth and over those that are defenseless.
Trucking the horses to Central Park does nothing to alleviate the conditions the horses must endure both while working in traffic with agressive auto drivers and overwhelming traffic and stable conditions that are sub-par.
I was happy to see that your position on the carriage horses has changed. I have observed these horses for 30 years, and have done thorough investigation into their well-being. These horses are severely depressed and unhappy. They experience none of the activities that make horses happy, such as daily pasture and social time with other horses; and their lives are made miserable by many abuses too numerous to count. This constitutes extreme abuse to animals and must stop.