Critical acclaim for "Blinders"

**** UPDATE, MARCH 29, 2009 ****
BLINDERS WINS! CONGRATULATIONS, DONNY MOSS!
Documentary exposes "the truth behind the tradition"
Manhattan screening March 20
"Blinders," the award-winning documentary by independent filmmaker Donny Moss, is nominated for a Genesis Award--a distinction that recognizes excellence in television, film, print, and the arts for raising public understanding of animal issues. The awards, presented by the Hollywood office of the Humane Society of the United States, will be handed out on March 28, in Los Angeles. "Blinders," which is nominated in the category TV Documentary (Documentary Channel), shows the plight of New York City's carriage horses, who toil in immoderate weather and live in multistory stables as far as 2 miles from Central Park.

The nomination of "Blinders" is great news for Donny Moss, and for the horses! The highly visible Genesis Awards bring the message of his powerful film to a national and international audience. The awards recognize the best of the best. Nominees include "Dogtown: Saving the Michael Vick Dogs" (nominated in the category Unscripted Television Series) and "National Geographic Channel's Strange Days on Planet Earth" (TV Documentary).
Learn more about this year's Genesis Awards, which are dedicated to ending the Canadian seal hunt.
(c) Nigel Barker
See the full list of 2009 nominees.

**** "BLINDERS" screening in Manhattan, March 20, 2009! ****
NEW YORK, NY
March 20, 7:00 p.m.
New York Film and Video Festival
Village East Cinemas
181-189 2nd Avenue (12th St.)
Tickets - $12

Accolades for "Blinders"

The daily grind

If you think the carriage horse in this photo is making pretty good time, you're right! It is clear that they're moving at a brisk clip. The driver has left the park, above the busy roundabout at Columbus Circle. Here they are seen crossing Broadway, and the driver is taking his horse back to the stable (a dreadful commute down to Hell's Kitchen.)

Another driver was seen nearby on Thursday standing up in the carriage for several blocks--tightly clenching the reins--while his horse sped south (this after the driver had nudged the horse out into the middle of a busy intersection to begin the evening rush-hour journey). Standing up may give the driver some sense, anyway, of control. But if a horse should spook in heavy traffic, all bets are off. Horses, carriage drivers, motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians are in harm's way.
Sometimes the horses are moving so fast that I can't get a photo. That happened last week at 43rd and Eighth Avenue, near Times Square. That horse was flying west on a street with potholes aplenty. The working on pavement day in, day out takes its toll on the horses, who are at risk for laminitis. It's understandably hard on arthritic joints and fragile hooves, equine experts agree.
Enforcement of the industry is sadly lacking, and the Departments of Health and Consumer Affairs are implicated in the sorry state of affairs. By law, carriage horses shall NOT be driven at a pace "faster than a trot." That never happens, right? WRONG!
Support a ban on horse-drawn carriages in NYC.
Photo: March 5, 2009

Horses in heavy traffic

Longtime carriage driver Cornelius Byrne has been quoted as saying that garbage trucks are among the things that carriage horses fear most. Unfortunately, the horses' daily commutes put them alongside garbage trucks, emergency vehicles, buses, and wailing fire engines. About 58 seconds in, this short video shows a horse hemmed in between a city bus and gridlocked traffic--while traffic helicopters hover overhead. A dangerous mix.
Video courtesy of YouTube users "HorsesinNYC" and "DriversRunninScared."
Cornelius Byrne's interview with The New Yorker, and more recent news
You can help: Support a ban on horse-drawn carriages in New York City

An outdated and inhumane industry

Includes footage from the documentary "Blinders," by filmmaker Donny Moss
The Humane Society of the United States wants you to know that horse-drawn carriages do not belong on the streets of the nation's busiest city. This inhumane industry endangers horses as well as people.
HSUS supports a ban on horse-drawn carriages in New York City.
Tell Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that you support a ban on horse-drawn carriages in New York City.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

PHONE 311 (or 212-NEW-YORK outside NYC)
FAX (212) 312-0700

Let the tourist beware

Rule #1: Don't believe everything you're told
New York City purports to welcome tourists with open arms, yet it places the burden of consumer protection squarely on the shoulders of the visitors. A good example is the horse-drawn carriage industry. The Department of Consumer Affairs disregards the common overcharging of tourists by drivers of horse-drawn carriages--and the carriage industry is cash-only. Given free rein to behave badly, this reckless industry takes every advantage.

Look no further than the website of the Horse & Carriage Association of New York. This industry site misleads tourists before they even get on the airplane or step out of the hotel room. It states, "Rides are approximately $34 for a 20-minute ride tour through Central Park." Approximately? Twenty minutes? The law is clear. The legally allowable fare, as written in the Administrative Code (Title 20, Section 380), is $34 for the first half-hour. This is the law, and the rates must be displayed on the carriage (make sure the sign isn't covered up, and do take a look). There is no sales tax on rides!

What gives? The city of New York is not looking out for tourists, a population that apparently is deemed to be an easy target (here for a week, wide-eyed, and then gone, perhaps never to return).

If you have been overcharged for a ride in a horse-drawn carriage, call 311 and report the circumstances. Also file a complaint with the DCA. However, given the DCA's apathy around overcharging of tourists, you may wish to make a complaint to the state Attorney General, Consumer Frauds and Protection Bureau, at 212-416-8345.

Your willingness to file a complaint will be pivotal in making sure that other tourists don't get overcharged. Help make New York City a tourist-friendly destination.
View real-life examples of tourists being overcharged. Forget about $34, most fares are quoted as $50--and many others are much higher! Read recent testimony about blatant overcharging.

If they had their druthers...

They'd have "free rein of the city"
Some of you heard at the recent hearing from carriage driver Frank Rodden, who, after all these years, is still talking about his "industry being the most regulated in the city." He's a broken record, as this piece from the New York Times archive shows. If he had his druthers today, I guess tourists would be seeing the sights from the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, in a carriage.
All the rules in the world mean nothing if they are not enforced. Bad enough that the horses receive poor and infrequent veterinary care and live in filthy multistory stables. We also have a Department of Consumer Affairs that apparently doesn't even know the legal fare structure for a carriage ride, and shows every indication that it doesn't want to know! Cash only, and a ripoff!
How much is a ride, anyway? Watch "Tourists Overcharged," by YouTube member "HorsesinNYC"

The trickle-down theory of stupidity

Or, "How much is the fare?"
No surprise that the ASPCA cannot do much about the plight of New York's carriage horses. This organization and others have said that New York's industry cannot be made safe for the horses. What is even more troubling is that the agencies charged with industry oversight--namely, the Department of Health and the Department of Consumer Affairs--do next to nothing on this front. Heck, they are effectively sanctioning all kinds of industry misbehavior, from blatant disregard for the regulations that state when and where the horses can and cannot be worked to illegally overcharging the tourists that the city purports to so adore. Thus the city is entrenched in this out-of-control industry up to its eyeballs, from our narcissistic mayor to the police officers who turn a blind eye. Because spooking accidents involving carriage horses almost always involve human injury, a human fatality is inevitable. It's only a matter of time. The other injuries will be from the "Tweeder" politicians getting whiplash, as most of them will be spinning around and pointing the finger of blame at everyone but themselves. And the city will be in the spotlight, since the liability insurance carried by the carriage drivers and companies is negligible. Yikes.
At the well-attended recent public hearing on Intro. 658, Tony Avella's bill that would ban horse-drawn carriages, and Intro. 653, a misguided industry bill that would bring about even LESS oversight, many of us were getting a real lesson in community civics. Imagine our surprise to see such bad behavior on the part of Council Members James Gennaro and G. Oliver Koppell. We heard a DCA representative, Andrew Eiler, stammer when asked about the fare for a 30-minute carriage ride, and increments, and then guess and get them both wrong! How disturbing is it that the DCA apparently doesn't know--or care to know--the fares, because then the department might have to bother itself with problem resolution, or even restitution--the way it does for brides who were ripped off by bad wedding photographers! And the cash-only carriage industry wants a raise!
Related video: Driver Gone Wild (when asked about fares!) *** EXPLICIT *** from YouTube member "HorsesinNYC." Also: statements that were made at the hearing about overcharging and insurance.
Photo credit: AP file photo