Resources and information to help end abusive horse-drawn carriage businesses.
Nicole Rivard,
FOA Friends of Animals
December 2017
New York’s carriage horses deserve better than this. They deserve to be free of this dangerous and archaic trade.
A New York City Council bill rejected by Friends of Animals in 2016
because of its failure to ban the industry outright and sufficiently protect
the carriage horses may possibly be revived for a vote.
More than 200 horses remain trapped in NYC’s dangerous and cruel horse-drawn
carriage industry. These horses are mentally and physically tasked with
long-shifts pulling carriages, often for nine hours straight. When not
working, they are confined to their stalls in warehouse conditions, with
little to no access to areas where they can spend time roaming free and
socializing.
Making their lives even more difficult is a regulatory system that lacks sufficient monitoring and reporting to assure that these horses are given even the minimum care and respect that is required by law.
NYClass is urging its members to request that City Council President
Melissa Mark-Viverito bring the bill, #573, to the floor for a vote before
the end of its session in December.
But the bill has many flaws, including insufficient protections — such as a
lack of an enforceable end-of-service plan — to ensure that horses are
provided a humane retirement and don’t get sold to unscrupulous pass-through
buyers that could lead to the horses being slaughtered.
The bill also doesn’t allow for the working horses to roam freely and
exercise outside of a short furlough of time each year nor does it provide
sufficient stall space for the horses and requires a stable in Central Park
whose lands should not serve as a home to the industry.
New York’s carriage horses deserve better than this. They deserve to be free
of this dangerous and archaic trade.
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