Horses Without Carriages International www.horseswithoutcarriages.org

If you are interested, please contact me at coalition@banhdc.org

The conference was to talk about Intro 670, the bill that deals with the "humane disposition" of carriage horses and will prevent them from going to auction. Why was it canceled?

The horse images on the poster represent more than 300 horses that "retired" from the industry in the last five years. Records were not required.

Please call those Council Members who are not supporters and ask them to sponsor the bill. And call the five sponsors to thank them for sponsoring Intro 670 and ask them to promote it.

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.

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Please mark your calendars for October 15th - we will have a demo - more information to come.

"State police are handling the investigation because of the seriousness of the injuries. We made a decision on scene because they had more resources to deal with it than we did. They have a reconstruction team for car accidents which in a way applies to something of this nature, even though its not a motorized vehicle," said the chief. According to N.H. State Police, troopers responded to Applecrest Farm Orchards at 133 Exeter Road (Route 88) at about 2 p.m. to assist Hampton Falls police with an incident involving two carriages. Each drawn by two horses, the carriages were traveling in opposite directions when an apparent malfunction occurred, police said. The operator of each carriage lost control of the horses, resulting in injuries to six people, police said. Police said Joan Perkins, 51, of Epping, suffered critical injuries, and Gregory Dow, 50, of Nottingham, suffered serious injuries in the accident. They, along with four others who had minor injuries, were taken to Exeter Hospital for treatment, police said. According to police, Perkins was later transferred to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston by a Dartmouth-Hitchcock medical helicopter due to the seriousness of her injuries. In an e-mail Sunday night, investigating Trooper Matthew T. Locke said he could not comment specifically on what caused the injuries. He said additional information should be forthcoming as the investigation continues through the week. Police said the Rockingham County Attorney's Office is assisting with the investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call Locke at 223-8490 or e-mail him at matthew.locke@dos.nh.gov. Assisting at the scene were members of Hampton Falls police and fire departments and the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office.

Horses are prey animals. They scare easily. Because they are so large and powerful, weighing from 1,000 to over 2,000 pounds, they can become unwitting weapons. When they are spooked, they will bolt and run to get away from the source of danger. In doing so, they often cause serious injuries and sometimes death - their own or people. This is one of the reasons why horses do not belong in NYC in the middle of very congested pedestrian and automobile traffic.

Comment: In NYC, it is common to see drivers texting or otherwise using their phone hand held; reading newspapers, eating their dinner, turning around to take pictures; standing up while driving, making U-turns and using their horse as a battering ram when they are trying to negotiate a turn. The authorities look the other way.

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 . Horses Without Carriages International also has a Face book page. Please join!