Horses Without Carriages International www.horseswithoutcarriages.org

Instead of "wishing" that things improve -- let's get out there and make it happen.

Some interesting articles about the movie.

• No Animals Harmed in Making of War Horse - Opposing Views - 12/22/11
• Shed a tear for the real horses too - Spielberg's fictional War Horse is a tear-jerker. The continued suffering of discarded animals is a tragedy -- Vancouver Sun - 12/28/11

We are planning to flyer at either the Spielberg movie War Horse or the play at Lincoln Center. Please e-mail me at coalition@banhdc.org if you are interested in volunteering with us - or on your own in your own community.

The bill to ban horse-drawn carriages in NYC is S5013 in the NYS Senate and A7748 in the NYS Assembly. It is referred to as the bill that PROHIBITS THE OPERATION OF HORSE DRAWN CABS IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK.

• IN ADDITION TO SIGNING THE PETITION - PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES.
• Senate - Click here for the Senate site; find your Senator and call the district/local office.
• Assembly - Click here for the Assembly site; find your Assemblymember and call the district office
• Everyone has one Senator and one Assemblymember representing them.

I do not know what the fuss is with both Quinn and Lappin saying they will return his donations. But I guess they have to play the blushing bride game of shock and awe. What did they think they were getting donations for - their good looks? Someone likened this farce to the scene from Casablanca when the cop says "I'm shocked, shocked to find out that gambling is going on in here" He then accepted his winnings.

Whether there is more to the story than meets the eye, it is not illegal to give campaign contributions up to a certain amount. However, the whole concept of campaign donations to City Council members who have no power to move a bill forward is puzzling to me. The only person with power in the Council is Speaker Quinn. It does not matter how many Council Members sign onto Intro 86, the electric car alternative bill - all 50 can do so. But all the power is with that 51st member - the Council Speaker - and she can persuade all of those members to vote against the bill, it is ever came up for a vote. The reason she can do so has everything to do with controlling the money and power - stipends and committee chairmanships. This is an interesting article by Citizens Union - Council Lulu Watch. (picture of carriage horse in traffic on Central Park South -- do people really think this is actually romantic?)

We are selling Horse Tags to help us raise some needed funds and to remember Charlie. It reads

• CHARLIE
• 10-23-11 R.I.P.
• NEW YORK CITY
• CARRIAGE HORSE
• WWW.BANHDC.ORG

This is from a member of our FB page No Walk in the Park - Lisa Patnaude. I visited NYC many years ago and was shocked to see a carriage horse get side swiped by a cab. I will never forget the sound of metal striking flesh and bone. This horse was in the middle of rush hour traffic. He reared up in fear but the horse driver just pushed him on, never getting out to see if he was ok. No one stopped to even give it a second look which made me think this must be a common occurrence. I was glued to my spot in shock and felt such anger and sadness for the treatment of that horse. It all comes down to one simple thing - common sense.

Carriage horses were once a necessity until modern vehicles came into existence. Now they are no longer 'needed' but 'wanted' purely for the pleasure of humans. Horses and city vehicles have no right occupying the same space. It's that simple. And to not allow a horse access to pastures to run free or the simple pleasure of rolling in the grass during "off hours" is simply wrong. I'm not a horse expert, but one does not need to be an expert to recognize that all living things have a right to basic necessities, and I mean more than a roof over the head and food.

Our official Facebook page is No Walk in the Park. It is an open page and we invite you to "Like" us. We generally post news there as it comes in. We have another page called Horses Without Carriages International, which is tied in with our international coalition

You will help to make a difference for these horses. The media learned of six of the last seven accidents from us - the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages. And we learned about it from you!! It makes sense that the DoH and ASPCA know about more -- we have requested this information from both the ASPCA and the DoH and we are still waiting. The public has a right to know just how unsafe and inhumane this industry is. (picture is of ASPCA car parked off 6th Avenue in the park on 12/24. The driver never got out of his warm car. There was no way he was able to monitor the carriage drivers. Outrageous.)

A couple of years ago, both the ASPCA and Edison Properties (NY Class) donated water to fill up the empty troughs. Why have they discontinued this? It is shameful. Horses need water even more in the winter months. I have reached out to both organizations and have been ignored. One trough is not enough. We will continue to see how we can get water in the trough.

ALSO - Please call 311 and complain. Do not let them tell you to call the ASPCA. This is the trough closer to Fifth Avenue.

On I-Give - the name of our organization is "The Coalition for NYC Animals, Inc. ." We also have three stores on Cafe Press with great t-shirts, bags, hats, mugs, mouse pads, etc. . Purchasing this merchandise helps our organization. Click here.