BOBBY'S BILL INTRODUCED - INTRO 670
Press Conference - Tuesday - Sept. 20th - 12 noon
Please come to our press conference to introduce Intro 670:
- When: Tuesday - September 20th at noon
- Where: NYC - steps of City Hall
- Who: Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito & Rosie Mendez (so far)
To date, Intro 670 has five sponsors - Melissa Mark Viverito, Rosie Mendez; Daniel Dromm, Margaret Chin and Deborah Rose. Thanks to all of them. Click here to read the text.
This bill will call attention to the fact that between 60 and 70 horses fall off the rolls of the Department of Health horse registry each year. These are the horses who are not sold within NYC. The bill will prevent the horses from going to the auctions where they can be purchased by kill buyers.
The picture is of Bobby II Freedom, for whom the bill is named. He was rescued from the kill auctions in June 2010 by the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages and Equine Advocates, where he lives now. Picture by Karen Wagner.
CONTACT YOUR COUNCIL MEMBER
to support Intro 670
Please contact your City Council Member to ask that they support this bill. Click here for the Council web site. Tell them that there is a huge turnover of horses in the carriage business and because of the way the existing law is written, it is not known where the majority of them end up. This bill would solve that issue by requiring that the horses go to responsible homes and not the auctions.
WHERE HAVE ALL THE HORSES GONE?
auctions? slaughter? good homes?
I have been researching this issue for the past six years by collecting data from the Department of Health. My analysis has revealed that there is a huge turnover -- between 60 and 70 horses disappear from the horse registry every year, which accounts for approximately 1/3 of all the horses. Since this number is actually a snap shot comparison of two dates that are often one year apart by the time I get the data from the DoH, horses that came and went between those dates are not included. Records for horses sold within NYC are required by the Department of Health -- but not if the horse is sold outside of NYC. It is not known what happened to all of these horses. They could have gotten good homes or could have gone to the auctions where they would be vulnerable to being purchased by kill buyers.
Our new bill requires that horses must be sold or given to qualified individuals or sanctuaries and not to other carriage horse businesses or taken to auction. This poster is one of a series of 10, designed by Jane Denny of The Mad Hand. Each horse has a number or name and represents one of the horses who fell off the horse registry in the last six years. There are about 360 horses listed. (Jane is also the designer of the logos for the Coalition and Horses Without Carriages International)
COMMUNITY BOARD 4 TO HOLD HEARING ON STATE BILL
Save the date -- October 19th
Community Board 4, which covers the district of the carriage horse stables and is also Speaker Christine Quinn's district, has decided to hold a hearing on the carriage horse issue - the Avella/Rosenthal bill that is currently in the state legislature.
- When: Wednesday, October 19th at 6:30 pm
- Where: Holland House, 351 W 42nd Street.
It is very important to get a huge crowd to attend since it will directly impact on whether CB4 supports the bill. Please mark the date on your calendar.
VOLUNTEER WITH US
Next Saturday, September 24th
We are beginning tabling sessions again next Saturday, September 24th - from 2 to 4 PM in Manhattan. We will be asking people to sign our petition to pass the state bill sponsored by Senator Tony Avella and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal -- and the new city bill, sponsored by Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito.
If you are interested, please contact Paola at volunteerforthecoalition@gmail.com
ASPCA ADMITS CARRIAGE HORSE MISTAKE
Doris Lin - Animal Rights - About.com
ASPCA Admits Carriage Horse Mistake -- September 14, 2011 - (Go to the actual site to click on links.)
The ASPCA now admits that they should have called the New York City carriage horses back to the stables earlier, instead of letting them work in the storm as Hurricane Irene approached, according to Donny Moss, the activist/filmmaker behind the movie, "Blinders."
The statement from the ASPCA, courtesy of Moss' blog, states in part, "[I]n retrospect we feel we should have imposed the suspension earlier on Saturday to better ensure the safety of the horses. We are committed to learning from this event and will continue to leverage our legal authority and advocacy to improve the lives of these horses while working in such difficult conditions."
In the past, they've defended their actions allowing horses to pull carriages in a snowstorm by saying they were not allowed to call the drivers back until conditions become bad.
The ASPCA is charged with enforcing the laws that regulate the carriage horse industry in New York City. While they must comply with city laws, they also support a ban on carriage horses in NYC. The group supports a bill that would replace carriage horses with electric vintage-replica vehicles, but the bill does not require the horses to be retired humanely (not sold for slaughter) and some activists believe the bill has little chance of passing in the near future. The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages supports a bill that would require that the horses go to individuals or sanctuaries who will not re-sell them, and where they will not be used as carriage horses or work horses.
THE LATEST WITH THE DREADFUL SHELTER BILL
expected to pass on Wednesday, September 21st.
Recently, we learned that the NY State's highest court granted rescue group Stray from the Heart's request to appeal a ruling that rescue groups have no standing to sue the City for violating the 2000 law that mandated shelters in every borough. SFTH won the first round; but lost the second round when the City appealed it.
To jump the gun on the Court's possible favorable ruling, Speaker Christine Quinn is fast tracking the bill. It is expected to be voted out of the Health Committee on Monday, Sept. 19th and put before the full Council on Wednesday, September 21st. It is expected to pass because the City Council generally rubber stamps Quinn's bills. Read more about this from the Shelter Reform Action Committee by clicking here.
HELP OUR ORGANIZATION BY SHOPPING ON LINE
Through a free registration with iGive, when you buy merchandise on line, your purchase will help us. There are over 700 stores that include such popular ones as Amazon.com, Staples, Best Buy and Barnes & Nobles. Even Cafe Press is available if you purchase some of our merchandise. Click here to get started.
JOIN US ON FACE BOOK & SIGN ONLINE PETITION
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
"Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever
has." Margaret Mead.
