Riding past Central Park South in an air-conditioned cab this past summer, one of us surveyed the bedraggled horses hooked up to 1500-2000 pound carriages in the ferocious heat. There is a law that authorizes the police to order the horses back to the stables in such weather, but only after a one-hour warning. That and a cornucopia of other toothless laws affecting the horses, are rarely enforced. While NYCLASS is still very much in business, Nislick and Neu did not answer our requests for comment on de Blasio's long- delayed carriage horse ban.
One of the leaders in the campaign to abolish the carriage horses is Edita Birnkrant, director of New York Friends of Animals (FOA) whose offices are only a short walk from Central Park South, where the carriage horses can be observed.
Nothing is happening, Birnkrant told us. Contrary to the impression that most voters were given last fall, the mayor cannot abolish the industry by executive fiat, but must introduce a bill in the City Council. Mayor de Blasio has not honored a request to meet with Birnkrant and other animal welfare activists, Birnkrant told us.
Priscilla Feral, President of FOA says she is hopeful that de Blasio will respond to what she characterizes as "a united front of sane people." Although FOA would prefer an immediate ban, they will go along with NYCLASS's agenda to replace the horses with electric mini-vans over a three-year period. According to a spokesperson for NYCLASS who spoke to us but requested anonymity, a prototype for such a van already exists and was displayed at the 2013 New York Auto Show. In addition to sparing animals hardship, the vans are environmentally responsible.
Feral say she is sympathetic to de Blasio's political plight. As a liberal Democrat he is particularly vulnerable to pressure from organized labor, and the carriage horse industry, as Birnkrant explained to us, made a shrewd move back in 2010 of affiliating with the Teamsters Union. This "partnership" is being wrung for all the mileage it can produce yet Birkrant dismissed the claim that the carriage drivers' association is a union as a "total scam....not a real union."
A Life of Pain and Thanklessness
To get a sense of the life of a New York City carriage horse, we interviewed Susan Wagner, president and founder of Equine Advocates, a horse sanctuary and welfare group. Some of the carriage horses are burned-out workhorses from farms belonging to the Amish, she told us; others are trotter racers which are considered highly desirable because they are already "broken in" from pulling a wagon, though their new "wagon" will be several times heavier.
Carriage horses don't last for many years, Wagner told us, thanks to freezing winters, torrid summers and filthy stables in which they can't turn around and, if they want to lie down, must do so in their own excrement. Drivers, motivated by profit not feelings toward animals, know little about equestrian technique, she says. Should a horse get seriously ill or injured in city traffic, which has happened too frequently, he will either be sold to a middleman who makes his income dealing with horse butchers and slaughter houses, or, if he is "lucky," he will be euthanized by a veterinarian. Disturbingly, City records show when horses arrive in the City...but not when they depart.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
