This rescue is very important for two reasons. Obviously to save a horse's life, but also to prove that the industry does, in fact, send horses to auction although they claim that these horses are their friends and family and they never do such a thing. Horse slaughter is legal but it is ugly and vile and is a public relations nightmare for the carriage industry. We know from Department of Health records that about 70 horses disappear from their horse registry every year. Where did they all go?

Thanks so much to all of our supporters who have donated to our organization making it possible to save this horse from slaughter. You are all part of this rescue and you are the best!!

Please contact the ASPCA at either 212-876-770 x 4450 -- or e-mail them at humanel@aspca.org and Ed_Sayres/Aspca@aspca.org Ask them to suspend daytime hours for the carriage horses this week for the health and well being of these poor creatures. I intercepted an e-mail from the ASPCA (mistakenly sent to me) advising their people to ignore my e-mails.

Thanks to all of you for the great names you have already suggested. I am keeping this "contest" open a bit longer.

However, this time, we did get some great coverage for our demo and the rescue. Coverage means more people will be aware of this issue. NY 1 and WPIX channel 11 covered the demo on July 3rd. NY1 - Activists Call for City to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages and click here for Channel 11. Thanks to all you wonderful activists for coming out for the horses on a really hot day.

Billy, a bay gelding in his teens with a white forehead spot and feathered legs, had been working out of West Side Livery for six or seven years, said his owners there, Maria Sulla and Sebastian Spina. About two months ago, Ms. Sulla said, she sent Billy to an Amish farm in Pennsylvania for rest, in accordance with a new city law requiring that horses get at least five weeks off a year in a place with access to paddock or pasture. While Billy was away, the couple bought a younger horse named Rebecca. "Because we found another horse - and for us, it's better than Billy - instead of bringing Billy back, we told the farmer to sell him," Ms. Sulla said. "I didn't want to put it in service anymore," Mr. Spina said of Billy. "It was too old." Ms. Sulla said she figured Billy would be sold to an Amish farmer. Advocates have long complained that some Amish farmers work horses to the point of abuse. Ms. Sulla said the Amish "buy horses because they use them; they don't kill them."

Elizabeth Forel of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages said Billy was sold at a regular Monday auction in New Holland, Pa., probably on June 21, to a broker. Ms. Forel, one of several advocates who try to track the fate of retired carriage horses, learned about him from another advocate. His status as a former carriage horse was confirmed by a four-digit number -- 2873 -- engraved on his left front hoof. Ms. Forel said she had only a few days before the broker who bought him - who buys horses at the auction in bulk - resold Billy, probably, given his age and condition, to a meat buyer to be trucked off to a slaughterhouse in Mexico or Canada (horse meat is popular in many countries). Ms. Forel declined to give the name of the broker, saying that to do so would damage relations with him and endanger future rescues. The coalition and Friends of Animals put up $600 to buy Billy and about $900 to transport him from New Holland, where he was still being boarded, to the Equine Advocates sanctuary in Chatham, N.Y., not far from Albany. "Obviously it cost a lot," said Edita Birnkrant, the New York director of Friends of Animals, "but it's not a lot of money when you consider the life of the horse." Billy's first stop was an equine hospital last Monday. A veterinarian found two kinds of worms and fairly serious lameness in his right front limb - "consistently head nodding lame," the vet's report said. Ms. Forel said Billy's teeth had also been allowed to grow long and sharp -- horses need their teeth filed down from time to time or it becomes painful and difficult for them to eat. The vet estimated Billy's age at 18; Ms. Sulla said he was 14. Ms. Forel said that, as it happened, she had complained in February to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which monitors New York carriage horses, that Billy was being worked double shifts. Ms. Sulla denies the charge. "It never happened," she said. The A.S.P.C.A. was unable to immediately determine the disposition of the complaint. On Wednesday, Billy joined 80 other horses, ponies and mules at Equine Advocates. He has been renamed Bobby II and will spend the rest of his days roaming the farm's 140 acres, said Susan Wagner, the sanctuary's president. "He's already taken to his new environment," she said by phone Friday. "I don't think he's ever gotten a chance to roll before. He got out on the grass and started to roll." NYTIMES photos by Jim Craner.

Is this what NYC is waiting for? By their huge size 1,200-2,000 pounds, horses are unwitting weapons because they are very fearful animals. Unpredictable, virtually anything can spook them. We have a new suggestion. Please contact NYC & Company, the official marketing, tourism and partnership organization for the City of New York. Chris Heywood - cheywood@nycgo.com. This is a city agency with entree to Mayor Bloomberg. Please tell them that the carriage industry brings shame to this city. Ask them to shut it down and substitute vintage electric cars, which are addressed in Intro 86.