I spoke about the NYC carriage horse issue and plan to put my slide show presentation on Youtube soon. We also celebrated Bobby II Freedom's anniversary of his rescue on June 25, 2010. Read about his rescue as reported in the NY Times. Click here.

Anyone can sign the petition. You do not have to live in New York State. People from other states and countries are encouraged to sign.

picture is of Bobby's cake - by Sticky Fingers in DC.

NY Post: Just Say Neigh - 7/3/11 - Carriage horses need a lot more than a five-week "vacation" every year ("A Needed Neigh-Cation," June 26). The window-dressing legislation passed in 2010 did not provide carriage horses with necessary daily turnout to pasture, which requires up to 1.5 acres per horse and cannot be accommodated by NYC stables. As social herd animals and not machines, horses need to interact with their own species, to graze, run, buck, roll, play, scratch, stretch and engage in mutual grooming. They have none of this for 47 weeks of the year. Humane? I think not. Snow job on the public? Absolutely. These horses have no voice and no choice and are exploited for monetary gain. Elizabeth Forel, President, Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, Manhattan

This is the product description: The nineteenth century was the golden age of the horse. In urban America, the indispensable horse provided the power for not only vehicles that moved freight, transported passengers, and fought fires but also equipment in breweries, mills, foundries, and machine shops. Clay McShane and Joel A. Tarr, prominent scholars of American urban life, here explore the critical role that the horse played in the growing nineteenth-century metropolis. Using such diverse sources as veterinary manuals, stable periodicals, teamster magazines, city newspapers, and agricultural yearbooks, they examine how the horses were housed and fed and how workers bred, trained, marketed, and employed their four-legged assets. Not omitting the problems of waste removal and corpse disposal, they touch on the municipal challenges of maintaining a safe and productive living environment for both horses and people and the rise of organizations like the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In addition to providing an insightful account of life and work in nineteenth-century urban America, The Horse in the City brings us to a richer understanding of how the animal fared in this unnatural and presumably uncomfortable setting.

I read the book a few years ago and recommend it highly. One of Mr. Tarr's articles appears on our web site. URBAN POLLUTION -Many long years ago

Please e-mail Paola at volunteerforthecoalition@gmail.com if you are interested in helping our campaign to ban horse-drawn carriages from NYC. We are also looking for someone to act as co-volunteer coordinator with Paola. That person needs to be dependable, organized, available on weekends and have access to a computer. Please e-mail coalition@banhdc.org if you are interested.

The other thing concerned reports going around the internet yesterday that the Royal Shakespeare Company planned to behead and skin alive a rabbit each night in their Lincoln Center production of As You Like It. The source was the Wall Street Journal. The activist community went to work, the machinery was cranked up to get the word out to call Nigel at Lincoln Center to register complaints. Nigel actually did take some calls early in the day and admitted to the accuracy of the Wall Street Journal article. However, he said that in response to the outpouring of complaints, they spoke with the director who agreed to eliminate the scene. Again - Job Well Done. Activists rock! Now if only this would work with politicians.

See our 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