Should the industry be banned?

Experts Will Take Up The Topic
May 11, 2009, 6:30 pm
A Free Event Presented by the Bar Association of the City of New York

Yay or Neigh:
Should the Carriage Horse Industry be Banned in NYC?
An Expert Panel Discussion
This is your opportunity to hear from experts on issues pertaining to the the horse-drawn carriage industry. Activists have called for a ban, saying that the congested streets of New York City are no place for horses. The industry asserts that horse carriages represent a legitimate business that is vital to tourism. A panel of experts will discuss the proposed ban on horse-drawn carriages and other issues relating to carriage horses.

Moderators:
LORI BARRETT, Deputy County Attorney, Office of the Nassau County Attorney; CHRISTINE MOTT, Christine Mott, Esq.

Speakers:
DR. HOLLY CHEEVER, DVM; ELIZABETH FOREL, President of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages ; DONNY MOSS, Documentary filmmaker, Blinders; MARTHA ROBINSON, Associate General Counsel, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; STACY WOLF, Vice President and Chief Legal Counsel, Humane Law Enforcement, ASPCA

There is no charge to attend. Registration is requested--click here

WHO: Bar Association of the City of New York
WHEN: Monday, May 11, 2009
WHERE: Where: 42 West 44th Street, NYC (between 5th & 6th Avenues)
TIME: 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Embarrassingly off-base

The "sliming" tactics of the New York City carriage industry and the handful of individuals who support this inherently cruel industry are mind-boggling. It takes chutzpah to criticize one of the world's leading authorities on the humane treatment of carriage horses while promoting the under-handed "oversight" of a very biased veterinarian who has essentially been a lobbyist for the industry. Holly Cheever, DVM, eloquently answers her critics, including one Upper East Sider who venomously characterizied anti-carriage activists as "Machiavellian" and hurled insults at Dr. Cheever. The pinnacle of absurdity.
The Machiavellian line was hilarious -- I laughed out loud! But seriously, the insulting letter was so bad that I was embarrassed for its writer. Like that cringe that comes from listening to Sarah Palin.
The ever level-headed Dr. Cheever has previously described New York's carriage horse industry as the worst she has ever seen--and never humane. Read her comments as published in a February 2008 letter letter to Metro.

What We Know & What We Think We Know

A close call in Aspen for a 5-year-old girl who was trapped underneath an overturned carriage

Horses spook, and no horse is unspookable. This is patently clear and yet we continue to see disturbing and even gruesome images of accidents involving carriage horses that spooked, even in beautiful places like Aspen, Colo., which is decidedly less frantic a setting than New York City. (Photo credit: Paul Conrad/The Aspen Times)

In the Aspen accident, a car pulled up alongside the horse, causing it to spook, back up, and flail--overturning the carriage and spilling the driver and the family of five onto the sidewalk. The girl was trapped briefly but escaped serious injury. The horse was not injured. (Statistically speaking, this is highly unusual).

Aspen Police Sgt. Bill Linn was quoted as saying that horse-drawn carriages are not vehicles..."they're basically an amusement ride." This statement is not only misguided, but it poses a serious threat to public safety. It also demonstrates a disregard of the cruelty that is inherent in putting a horse into traffic.

A 1500-pound horse that spooks in traffic is a dangerous weapon. Statistically, this accident is unique in that no one was killed. Horses have an innate and finely tuned fight-or-flight instinct. They pose clear danger to themselves as well as public safety when they spook.

Learn more: Read "No Such Thing As an Unspookable Horse (Jan. 1, 2008 post, HorseWatchNYC)

New York residents (5 boroughs): Ask your elected Council Member to support Intro. 658, the bill to ban horse-drawn carriages -- Find Your Council Member Act now!
Call the mayor's office at 311 and voice your support of Intro. 658, the bill to ban horse-drawn carriages.

Non-New Yorkers: Tell the mayor's office that you don't want to visit New York until horse-drawn carriages are banned.
Email the mayor's office
Call the mayor's office at: 212-NEW-YORK (outside NYC)
Write the mayor:
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

Expert Opinion: Holly Cheever, DVM (2008)

Read a letter from Holly Cheever, DVM, as published in Metro (New York)

To the Editor:
As an equine veterinarian who has inspected New
York City's carriage horses since 1988 and has also
advised 15 other municipalities and states on how to
create humane carriage horse operations, I am
ashamed to say that New York's version of its
horse-drawn tourist attraction is by far the worst in
terms of the number of unexplained deaths and the grim
conditions under which the horses live and work.
The current regulations fail to protect these horse
in their stables and on the streets. They are dying in
unacceptable numbers and at very young ages, though
the public is never made aware of this fact.
Currently, the best that can be said of New York's
operating conditions is that they may be
survivable--barely--but they are never humane. Please
urge the City Council to vote for a permanent ban on
horse-drawn carriages, and eliminate this cruel 19th
century anachronism from our 21st century setting.

Holly Cheever, DVM
Voorneesville, NY
February 26, 2008

Holly Cheever is an equine veterinarian, educated at Harvard University and the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University. She has a lifetime of experience in horse management, including the driving of carriage horses. Since 1988, she has been the primary equine adviser for 15 other municipalities and states (including New York) that have sought knowledgeable assistance either to ban carriage horses from operating in their cities or to devise protective codes and legislation to prevent the all-too-common animal abuse that occurs in this industry.

Special Shoes, Indeed

Are these the kind of "special shoes" that you were talking about, Carolyn, when you responded to Pink's "Buck Cruelty" billboard in Times Square?

Chester Elliot has a happy ending but used to be a Boston carriage horse. Like the horses in New York City, Boston carriage horses wear 1-inch thick heavy steel work shoes with a cleat at the heels and toes for grip. Notably, this steel shoe lends the distinctive "clip clop" sound that apparently generates tourist dollars. Chester's hoof (seen in photo above) suffered from thrush, which is not uncommon in carriage horses who don't get turnout, stand in filth all night, and pound the pavement repeatedly.

The thrush, which occurred inside Chester Elliot's hooves, was worsened by poor grooming during his carriage horse days (his belly was also matted with urine stains). His steel shoes restricted the circulation to his hooves; his pavement-pounding work further complicated the condition, creating a microbial soup inside his hoof. (ie, "hoof rot.")

Chester Elliot photo is used courtesy of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages (Happy Endings).
Although Chester Elliot was not a NYC carriage horse, his condition is a common one and the photo of his foot ailment is descriptive. Lameness and hoof deterioration are commonly seen in carriage horses, equine veterinarian Holly Cheever, DVM, has written. Chester Elliott's story is similar to that of so many rescued carriage horses. Read more

Ice Doesn't Count as Drinking Water

No public water readily available, poor hoof care

The treatment of NYC carriage horses is disgraceful for many reasons, apart from the fundamental danger of putting them into traffic.

Holly Cheever, DVM and renowned equine expert, has inspected the horses at work and in their stables, after which she advised Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council on what she found: a comprehensive and alarming inventory of poor treatment. Notably, she found that the horses were deprived of adequate water and proper hoof care (although Carolyn Daly has made the smarmy quip about their "special" shoes.)

Here is a portion of Holly Cheever's letter about the care of NYC carriages horses:

"During the several years that I inspected New York's carriage horses on the street and in their stables at the request of the ASPCA and the Carriage Horse Action Committee, I noted repeated violations of basic humane equine husbandry and care principles, as follows:

• The horses were not given adequate water during their work shifts since no public water is readily available to them, and most were denied the basic presence of water buckets in their stalls.
• Many horses were afforded inadequate hoof care and shoeing, adding to their likelihood of developing or exacerbating lameness."

Even more recently, the New York City comptroller's audit in September 2007 found similarly distressing problems. The audit specifically noted a lack of drinking water for the horses and said they were forced to stand in their own waste because of inadequate drainage.

Time to ban horse-drawn carriages, as many major cities worldwide have done. Call-in days are coming up on February 19, 20, and 21. During these days, it is critical that you let your City Council representative hear from you. Ask them to support Intro. 658, the bill to ban horse-drawn carriages.

Find your New York City Council Member
Read Holly Cheever's letter to Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council (2006)
Read about the NYC Comptroller's audit of the carriage-horse industry (2007)
Photo used courtesy of The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages

"No Such Thing As an Unspookable Horse"

There is no such thing as an unspookable horse, nor can the average driver control it once it bolts."
--Holly Cheever, DVM

Holly Cheever, DVM, is one of the world's foremost equine authorities and has been the primary adviser to 20 U.S. municipalities, including New York City, that have sought guidance on this subject. She has documented the obvious insults to the welfare of carriage horses (visible injuries, pollution, heat-related illness, feeding, hygiene, musculoskeletal problems, such as lameness and hoof deterioration) as well as those that are unseen (ie, the cumulative health effects of insult to welfare). Dr. Cheever has clearly delineated the risks of accidents involving carriage horses; a horse that becomes spooked is uncontrollable and usually suffers injury. In New York, which has the highest carriage horse accident rate in the nation, 98% of horses that became spooked were injured.

As Dr. Cheever and other equine experts have noted, these carriage horse issues create a constellation of risks that cannot be managed by specific interventions. Because of the inherent risks of putting horses into traffic, Dr. Cheever and other equine experts advocate full bans on horse-drawn carriages. Dr. Cheever's recommendations are widely published, and in 2006 she sent New York City Mayor Bloomberg a letter detailing her concerns about the health issues and risks faced by carriage horses. She stated unequivocally that horses don't belong in city traffic, "due to the distressing history of injury and deaths (both equine and human) that have occurred across the country due to carriage-car collisions." The only course of action that would eliminate this carnage in New York City is to ban horse-drawn carriages, Dr. Cheever advised the mayor and the City Council.

Read "Being Taken for a Ride--The Case for Horse-Drawn Carriages for Tourism," on the Animal Aid Web site
Read the letter sent by Holly Cheever, DVM, to Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council (Jan. 16, 2006)