Boston Herald Covers FoA Horse-Drawn Vehicle Interventions
The Boston Herald, in “Rein Dance: Horse-drawn carriage owners fight push for ban” (Monday, 21 May), reports that Friends of Animals, in addition to working to abolish horse-drawn carriage tours of New York, “will crack the whip on Boston” next.
“These are two international cities that will get along just fine without carriage rides,” said Edita Birnkrant, New York City campaign coordinator for Connecticut-based Friends of Animals.
The article continues:
“People only see the surface of it, where it looks so romantic. It’s a complete life of misery for a horse: noise, traffic, pollution. They’re like animal slaves. It’s their whole lives until they either die or just get too old or sick to work anymore. I’m surprised more of them don’t drop in the street,” [Birnkrant] said.
Manhattan has been beset by carriage tragedies. Last year, a horse got spooked and had to be euthanized after it collided with a cab. In 1999, a horse was electrocuted stepping on a manhole cover.
In Boston, a horse-drawn carriage was rear-ended by a truck in 1997, and the animal broke a leg fleeing.
Friends of Animals has taken the stance that, “Horses are not objects of entertainment for tourists.” London, Toronto, Paris and Las Vegas apparently agree. They are among major metropolises that have already taken the reins and banned buggies.
The Boston carriage industry’s response? “We are regulated by the state and we are here in the public eye all the time.”
One owner, who describes treating the horses well, actually tells readers about one of the horses: “If he didn’t like it, he’d leave.”
The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals opposes the use of horses in Boston and calls Manhattan a “tough” location, yet is “not opposed to the use of horse-drawn carriages in general.”
Friends of Animals’ Birnkrant says: “The only answer, the only right thing to do, is to get the industry out of New York,” Birnkrant said. “We’re not being flexible on that.”
If New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg agrees to end the custom, Birnkrant said Friends of Animals would advocate phasing out carriage rides over a year’s time so the horses could be placed in appropriate sanctuaries and drivers would be helped with new job training.
Award-winning court and crime reporter Laurel J. Sweet wrote the article. Click here to read the full article and rate it for its value to readers.
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7 Comments
On May 21, 2007, Lee Hall of Friends of Animals wrote:
This is a classic, the owner saying if the horses don’t like the business they can just leave. Methinks Edita’s description of the horses’ situation as enslavement is confirmed by that owner’s remark.
On May 21, 2007, Life Long Bostonian wrote:
This is ridiculous, don’t these people have bigger battles to fight?
Bringing up ONE incident from 1997 does not strike me as being enough of an argument to put people hundreds out of the job, and to destroy a city tradition.
I am usually very supportive of animal rights causes, but this to me does not seem like a cause so much as a waste of time.
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On May 21, 2007, KRYSTAL JONES wrote:
I DO CARE OF THE ANMIAL RIGHTS. SINCE I READ THE ARTICLE I SEE WHY TO BAN HORSE CARRIAGES… AND WE SHOULD BAN SLAUGHTER TOO. ITS NOT RIGHT.
On May 26, 2007, Barbara Wade wrote:
Early last evening, with temps around 90, I saw one of these horse-drawn carriages and the poor horse looked as though he might drop at any moment. I strongly believe this is animal cruelty is going on in major cities around the U.S. Big cities are extremely hot in the summer. These horses deserve a much better life.
On June 17, 2007, Chuck Mintzlaff wrote:
Calling attention to an immeasurably tiny segment of one present day socio-cultural/entertainment activity may derive a ‘feel good’ elation for those involved thinking “it is better to light one candle than curse the darkness.”
But it fruitlessly does nothing to alleviate the senseless physical, mental and emotional abuse horses have endured for 6,000 years.
Granted, there is a refreshing but minuscule undercurrent of awareness, responsibility and sensitivity slowly evolving in the ‘horsemanship/equitation’ subculture.
But as long as monolithic corporate marketing schemes continue to flood the horse world with the speciesistic dogma of ‘natural horsemanship’ misinformation, nothing will appreciably alleviate the NEEDLESS suffering the domesticated Horse endures.
For the domesticated Horse has only have three enemies in this world that collectively seem hell-bent on making their lives as miserable and chaotic as possible.
And those are:
#1. The human ego.
#2. Tradition.
#3. Ignorance (which is a lack of knowledge and not to be confused with stupidty).
Sincerely,
Chuck Mintzlaff
On June 17, 2007, Lee Hall of Friends of Animals wrote:
Chuck, it’s true that challenging horse-drawn vehicles in New York, Boston, or Victoria adresses only a tiny segment of exploitation of horses — or, for that matter, of all other animals. But there’s value in doing what one can to raise consciousness in one’s particular sphere. Imagine if more people took responsibility for the needs and the unjust situations one sees simply in one’s day-to-day movement through their part of the world. It’s important as well, of course, to stand back and examine the entire system of oppression. I think we agree on that much. Thanks for writing in.
On August 5, 2008, Jill wrote:
Ban euthanasia or slaughter? I am a responsible horse owner. When a large animal can no longer live without pain or when an owner can no longer care for it, if euthanasia or slaughter isn’t available, those animals either starve in appalling conditions or are turned loose in the wild or are dumped along back roads, etc, becoming nuisances at best or desperate and dangerous at worst. I even know of at least one case where some horse owners went to town and came back to find three strange horses that had been dumped into their corral. These horse owners didn’t want MORE horses, just like people in the country often don’t want MORE cats, dogs, goats, etc. But people think that just because someone lives in the country or has animals that they MUST want more and, of course, they can care for even more…. Sometimes you can’t even GIVE AWAY a large animal, unless it’s to a home you would never want any animal to suffer.
No animal should lack food or appropriate care, nor have to live in pain. But, especially with large animals, finding a suitable home isn’t always possible. Sometimes, death is more humane than the life they would be forced to endure. It’s not just a simple black and white question when you’re in the reality of the situation.