Susan Wagner from Equine Advocates will update us about Bobby II Freedom and Donny Moss will tell us about his new campaign. We are delighted to have as our musical performers Joy Askew and Joni Paladin. And if we are lucky, former Council Member Tony Avella, who is super busy running for state senate, and Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, sponsor of Intro 86-A, the bill to put an end to all of this inhumanity - will be able to come to our event. Both have demanding calendars.

Please click here for the actual invitation, which has more information. If paying online, just click on "make a donation" and put in the total amount under Unit Price Your name will be put on the list, which will be at the door. There is also still time to mail a check.

Among other things, our monthly operating expenses include the fee for this newsletter and an ad that runs on Google. Recently we spent almost $1,500 to rescue Bobby. We could have paid the entire expense, but Friends of Animals wanted to split it with us. We always want to be in a position to pay for a carriage horse rescue. Our expenses also include maintaining two websites - www.banhdc.org and www.horseswithoutcarriages.org, web site design, fees for lobbying; government filing fees for various administrative papers, posters, flyers, copying expenses, graphic design. We have also made donations to horse rescues and sanctuaries. We are a 501(c) 4 and a registered lobby group.

Our biggest expense is advertising. In 2008, we ran an ad in one of the tourist magazines for six months that cost about $16,000 - and this was at reduced rates. We had saved up for 2 1/2 years in order to do this. In late 2008, with little money left, we commissioned a $3,000 ad to run the following February in the same magazine. The ad, pictured here was intended to target tourists who want to take a ride on Valentine's Day. We are now thinking of placing another ad in the same magazine to target the holiday crowd. November through the end of December attracts the most tourists to this trade. We have managed to be very frugal and get things donated when we can. Although your contributions certainly allow us to continue our work, what keeps us going and makes us effective are the people involved -- the motivation, intelligence, knowledge, creativity, persistence, intense interest and focus on this issue. That is priceless.

This is the reality: The bill expired in December 2009. It was in that month that the bill was revised to eliminate the part about the ASPCA. It was reintroduced in early 2010 as Intro 35. In April, it was signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg. It does not make sense that the ASPCA is allowing this petition to go around. Surely with their large staff, they must be aware of this. For those who want to understand more about the bill that actually became law - click here for a Youtube slide show.

The article goes into Bobby's condition at rescue, how he is doing now and Equine Advocates' advocacy and sanctuary. It also talks about the carriage horse issue and provides a link to the undercover investigation by Animals' Angels. (photo by Equine Advocates)

But this story is about Chance, a gorgeous black Percheron draft horse who was dumped at the auctions in Pennsylvania. She was one of the lucky ones because her 4-digit number was still intact allowing her to be identified as a NYC horse. (photo - Geoffrey Tischman)

The carriage horse pictured here collapsed on the streets of Jakarta on September 14th. She was in bad shape. Read about JAAN's campaign in this article: Holiday season means Torture season for Carriage Horses

We also have a new Facebook page called No Walk in the Park. And while you are there, please join another anti carriage horse page by a colleague called 212HorsePower