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HORSE SENSE
Periodic updates about issues and actions concerning New York City's Carriage Horses +
Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages
www.banhdc.org
Horses Without Carriages International
www.horseswithoutcarriages.org
PLEASE FORWARD TO LISTS, FRIENDS & ASSOCIATES ** Sunday demo ** press conference canceled ** horse disposition article ** Quinn for Mayor - (not)
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DEMO / PROTEST ON SUNDAY - 9/25/11
Please come out for the horses
Please come out to protest the carriage horse industry and the lack of democracy in government.
- When: Sunday, September 25th - 1pm to 3pm
- Where: North/west corner of Central Park South and Fifth Avenue
Please join us to stand up for the horses.
RAIN DATE: If it is raining tomorrow, we will cancel because our posters will get ruined. I will post it prominently on our web site www.banhdc.org. one way or the other by 12 noon.
WHY DID THE SPEAKER CANCEL OUR PRESS CONFERENCE?
with not even a day's notice
On Tuesday, September 20th, we had planned to have a press conference on the steps of City Hall to introduce Intro 670 with Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito, the main sponsor. On Monday, after 5 pm, we were informed that the Speaker's Office (Christine Quinn) canceled it. She has the power to do so if it involves Council Members and City Hall. The bill deals with the "humane disposition" of carriage horses and will prevent them from going to auction. While I was not given a good reason, I believe that Quinn does not want us to talk about horses going to slaughter and offend the sensibilities of the carriage industry and the Teamsters union.
This press conference is not likely to be rescheduled. Unfortunately, this is how it works with NYC government. We have been silenced at City Hall, but we will not be silenced in other venues.
MY ARTICLE ABOUT HORSE "DISPOSITION"
explains the bill
New Council Bill Will Prevent Carriage Horses From Going to Kill Auctions by Elizabeth Forel; One Green Planet, September 21, 2011. On the morning of June 24th of last year, I turned on my computer to see an e-mail that immediately caught my attention.
The subject line was "ex-carriage horse in kill broker lot PA."
The e-mail asked if I knew anyone who could help to "save this gentle gelding from slaughter" since they had only two days until Saturday at 6 p.m. to find a secure home.
If one was not found in that time, the horse would return to the slaughter pen.
His description read "Bay gelding ex carriage horse has license plate on front left hoof quiet, gentle broke to ride/drive." He had already been purchased by a kill buyer but a Good Samaritan was trying to find a home for him.
Knowing the urgency, I quickly went into high gear and reached out to several people to see who might rescue this horse. Fortunately, Susan Wagner of Equine Advocates accepted the challenge. With all the paper work involved, it was not until Monday that the horse, who later became known as Bobby II Freedom, arrived at their sanctuary in Chatham, NY.
HORSE SLAUGHTER IN THE US: For years, polls have shown that the majority of Americans are opposed to horse slaughter.
The horse has a special place in our history. We don't eat him and we don't like to see him slaughtered. And we do not tolerate seeing him abused.
Although there are currently no slaughter facilities in the United States to process horses for human food, it is not illegal to truck American horses to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered for meat that is shipped to countries like France, Italy, Belgium and Japan where it is considered a delicacy.
In 2010, 53,104 horses from the United States were sent to Mexico and 59,693 were sent to Canada to be slaughtered. So far this year, almost 70,000 horses have been exported for slaughter. This information was reported by the Equine Welfare Alliance.
Kill auctions like New Holland in Pennsylvania and Unadilla in upstate New York, to name a few, are the first stop on the way to the slaughter facilities. These two are convenient to NYC carriage owners. Auctions are hazardous places and the horses are in danger of being injured, killed, becoming ill - and being purchased for slaughter as Bobby was.
The NYC carriage industry has often been accused of sending their horses to auction, but we did not have proof until now. This was a careless transaction by the owner where the horse was dumped at a public auction - New Holland - with a visible 4-digit ID number engraved on his left front hoof. But it was good fortune for Bobby and was the means I used to track him back to West Side Livery stable, one of four carriage horse stables in NYC.
These kinds of transactions are usually not so open. Over the years we have heard rumors that this ID number is sanded off when the horse is taken to auction so there is no way to identify a NYC horse.
Please continue for the rest of the article. Please "like" it for Facebook and consider writing a comment either directly on the blog page or on Facebook.
WHERE ARE THE CARS?
We support phasing out the carriage horses and exchanging them for electric cars -- but where are they? NY Class/Steve Nislick/Edison Properties (real estate development) has been promising you a prototype of the "electric" car for quite a while now -- at least since the spring of 2010 when the City Council held a hearing on Intro 86, the bill that would phase out the carriage industry over a certain number of years and bring in electric cars. The latest I have heard is that it would be by the end of September. The web site says Fall.
A reliable source says that a prototype car has not even been built yet. So what is going on here? All of you who have signed their petition -- are you being duped? Cars do not take that long to build. Certainly in 1 1/2 years, there should have been something. When you sign the NY Class petition, where is your information going? I think that everyone who signed the petition and was a believer should demand answers.
This is all about Speaker Christine Quinn and her undemocratic rule of the City Council and her mayoral bid. I am not going to speculate about the love fest between Nislick and Quinn. But I will say that at some point Quinn will have to decide who is doing more for her - Nislick or the Queens Democratic Party. If the latter, a ban of the carriage horse trade will never happen if she is mayor. If the former, the answer is not clear. Open up your eyes, folks. Open up your eyes.
Neither the ASPCA nor NY-Class support our bill Intro 670. They also do not support - even in spirit - the state bill introduced by Senator Tony Avella and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal. Don't ask me why -- ask them! I see this as a very ego centric, petty and destructive position that is harmful to the entire campaign. We, on the other hand, do support Intro 86A. We support whatever it takes to rid NYC of the horse-drawn carriage business.
WE DO NOT SUPPORT CHRISTINE QUINN FOR MAYOR
Two years to go
It is our opinion that Christine Quinn for mayor would be a disaster for free speech, for democracy, for renters, for middle class and low income people -- and, of course, for the animals. The recent shelter bill is one example. It is interesting that the "establishment" animal groups came out in favor, but virtually all activists and members of smaller groups were opposed to it. In Defense of Animals (IDA,) fortunately took a stand against it and pointed out that it was not necessary to legislate providing funds for the shelter. This bill repealed the requirement for shelters in the Bronx and Queens in exchange for $10M - funding that had been slowly taken away from animal control over the last few years and is now being put back. Best Friends Animal Society also opposed it although they barely made it known. IDA is not part of the in crowd that may have been "promised" something in return for their support. I hope all of you who live in Queens and Bronx noted that only four Council Members voted against the bill and all are from Queens. No one else. In case some of you do not understand how the Council runs, Council Members are strongly encouraged to vote for or against a bill according to the Speaker's wishes. If they do not, they can lose funding or committee chairs or worse.
Quinn now has a record of two for two. She killed the term limits bill so Mayor Bloomberg could run again and would support her in her bid for Mayor. Twice the electorate voted in favor of term limits in a ballot initiative.
And now Quinn killed the shelter bill. This is too much power in the hands of one person.
WANTED FOR MAYOR
My wish list
We are a movement in search of a candidate.
- Requirements:
- intelligent, strong, honest, ethical, accountable
- will listen to all the people - rich and poor alike
- progressive on social justice and other issues
- will ban the horse-drawn carriage trade and save the horses
- will take Animal Care and Control out from under the thumb of the Department of Health
- will bring in Nathan Winograd from the No Kill Advocacy Center to assess the shelter system, make recommendations and take them.
- does not matter what race, ethic group, gender or sexual orientation - but must not use it to get elected
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.
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Thank you for caring about the horses,
Elizabeth Forel - Coalition to Ban
Horse-Drawn Carriages - a standing committee
of The Coalition for New York City Animals,
Inc.
Please DONATE
to our campaign to ban
the inhumane and unsafe carriage horse industry.
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