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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 FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES: In this issue ** June 2nd press conference ** More sponsors on bill ** Horse of a Different Color article ** Franklin, Tennessee votes down carriage trade ** Illegal carriage ride in NYC ** Cordoba, Argentina - sign petition **

SATURDAY JUNE 2ND PRESS CONFERENCE
Delivering 121,300 + signatures in support of Avella/Rosenthal bill
illegal 1 Please join Senator Tony Avella, Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, League of Humane Voters, In Defense of Animals and horse advocates at a press conference next Saturday.
  • When: June 2nd Saturday at 11:00 am
  • Where: North/west corner of Central Park South (59th St.) & Fifth Avenue
  • What: We will deliver over 121,300 signatures in support of the Avella/Rosenthal state bill to ban horse-drawn carriages in NYC.
  • The petition is made to Governor Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Dean G. Skelos, Speaker Sheldon Silver, and heads of the Cities committees - Senator Andrew Lanza and Assemblymember Carl E. Heastie

The first Saturday in June and the first Saturday in December is Horses Without Carriages International Day when activists from member cities around the globe stand in solidarity with each other on this issue. [Photos of carriage by A.R.]

MORE LEGISLATORS SIGN ON TO THE BILL
TONY AVELLA Is your representative on the list?? Since our May 1st Lobby Day in Albany, we have added several sponsors to the Avella/Rosenthal bill to ban horse-drawn carriages.
  • SENATE - the following senators have signed on to Bill #S5013 -- Tony Avella, Tom Duane, Adriano Espaillat, Liz Krueger, Bill Perkins
  • ASSEMBLY - the following Assemblymembers have signed on to Bill #A7748 - Linda Rosenthal; Jeffry Dinowitz, Harvey Weisenberg, Alec Brook-Krasny, Brian Kavanagh, Deborah Glick

The State legislature will end this session at the end of June when all legislators return to their district offices. They will not be back in Albany for regular session until January 2013.

Please support this bill by meeting with your Senator and Assemblymember this summer. If you are not able to do that, write them a snail mail letter - not e-mail. It is too easy to delete e-mail. Please make the extra effort to prepare a letter to both representatives and mail it.

  • For your State Senator Click Here.
  • For your Assemblymember Click Here.
  • If you live outside NY State: Write a letter to Assemblyman Carl E. Heastie - chair of the Cities Committee in the Assembly . Click Here
  • and Senator Andrew J. Lanza - chair of the Cities Committee in the Senate - Click here.
  • You are potential tourists. Please let Assemblyman Heastie and Senator Lanza know that this is an issue of interest to many around the country.
If you need some tips, see THE TOP 15 REASONS WHY NYC SHOULD BAN HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGES. It is best to concentrate on the public safety issues.

PLEASE SUPPORT BILL # S5013 & A7748 TO BAN HORSE CARRIAGES
We are still collecting signatures for this petition. If you have not already signed the petition on Change.org to support this bill, please click here. This is the link to the bill. Wow!! Currently we have 120,911 signatures in support of the Avella/Rosenthal bill.

HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR
article published in One Green Planet
illegal 2 A Horse of a Different Color: Carriage Horses Are Neither War Horses Nor Work Horses - May 20, 2012 by Elizabeth Forel: President, Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages - Horses have always been the innocent victims - whether taken to war without a choice and worked to death; or used in rodeos, horse racing or New York City's inhumane horse-drawn carriage industry. Sad history - In the age before the automobile, horses were notoriously overworked, and many died in the streets. In NYC, they pulled wagons loaded with people and goods, and they served as the power for the City's street trolley system. Between 100,000 and 200,000 horses lived in the city at the turn of the century. Many were literally worked to death - their carcasses left on the street waiting for the street cleaners. From an article by Joel A. Tarr in American Heritage Magazine - Urban Pollution - many long years ago "The average streetcar nag had a life expectancy of barely two years, and it was a common sight to see drivers and teamsters savagely lashing their overburdened animals. The mistreatment of city horses was a key factor in moving Henry Bergh to found the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1866."

Steven Spielberg's film War Horse gave me new insight into what the term "work horse" and "war horse" really meant. During World War I, horses were transported via rail to New York City to be shipped to Europe for use in the war. They pulled cannons, trucks and ambulances and were literally worked till they dropped in the ravages of war and hand-to-hand combat. Hundreds of thousands of horses did not make it out alive, dying from artillery fire, starvation and disease. With the end of the war, and with increased mechanization in the 20th century, the need for draft horses declined. Many of these horses were sold to slaughter.

Humans had contributed to the overpopulation of draft horses by over breeding, cross breeding and selective breeding. Mules are man made - the hybrid offspring of a female horse and a male donkey. So are hinnies - a combination of a male horse and female donkey. A 2008 article from Horseman Magazine says "Most draft horses however were really the result of selective breeding. Programs for breeding were primarily set up to produce these large, muscular and powerful horses."

Watching "War Horse" provided a window into the ways our society has treated horses through the years. Horses were domesticated by humans who needed their strength to perform a variety of duties that they were unable to do. And horses, being the docile animals that they are, complied. They became known as "beasts of burden" as if this and nothing else described what they were. Our use of horses over the millenia is nothing to be proud of - the devastation of war; the exploitation of animals - but people felt they had no choice. Real work needed to be done, and powerful horses were available and capable. Today, we don't need to use horses to work for us. We have a choice, and can and must choose not to exploit them. CONTINUED

PROPOSAL FOR HDCS IN FRANKLIN, TENNESSEE FAILS
Safety is the compelling issue
Proposal for horse-drawn carriages in Franklin fails 5/23/2012 - FRANKLIN - Horse-drawn carriage rides must remain a thing of the past, at least when it comes to downtown Franklin's streets. A much-discussed proposal allowing carriages on downtown Franklin streets on evenings five nights a week and during much of the days and evenings on weekends failed Tuesday with nearly no support from aldermen. The clip clop of horse hooves' was overridden by the flip-flop of aldermen who changed their minds after an earlier unanimous first vote in April. Weeks of discussions about the impact of the horses on traffic and how they would be treated - paired with phone calls and e-mails from opponents of the measure - raised too many questions for people like Mayor Ken Moore who had initially bought into the proposal.

"It sounded like a good idea, but then as I heard further discussions I began to have some concerns about it," Moore said. "I think the thing that we never really got to were the effect on traffic and safety." At the end, mixing four-legged horsepower with the gasoline-powered kind proved to be too big a risk for city leaders to take. The proposal failed without a vote from the city's eight aldermen when no other alderman would second a motion for the proposal by Alderman Beverly Burger. "I'm disappointed in the fact that the aldermen were not willing to give it a trial," Burger said. She had sought to give the horse-drawn carriage proposals a try-out run during the summer and then re-examining it later this year, but that idea got no support..

NYC HORSE CARRIAGE WORKING IN RESTRICTED AREA
illegal 3 An eye witness provided us with photos and a description of this illegal activity. This incident happened on Tuesday May 22nd at about 6:20 pm. Carriages are not allowed to haul tourists in the area bounded by 57th St. and 42nd St. and between 7th and 9th Avenue before 11:30 pm. The driver was working on W. 44th St. with passengers, which is not allowed.

At 8th Ave and W 44th St, the driver of the carriage - license 1068 - whistled to scatter pedestrians, then kept going. The medallion/license is owned by Riccobono Tours. These kinds of incidents happen all the time and no one enforces the law. This is a business out of control.

CORDOBA, ARGENTINA - NEWEST MEMBER OF HWCI
Please sign their petition to ban horse-drawn carriages
cordoba argentina Caballos Libres Cordoba is a small but determined group in Cordoba, Argentina fighting to ban horse-drawn carriages. In Cordoba and other cities in Argentina, the horses are used to pull people and goods.

Please sign their petition by clicking here. And Like their Facebook page. Please share. Thanks.

HELP OUR ORGANIZATION BY SHOPPING ON LINE
Also check out Cafe Press to purchase CBHDC merchandise
igive 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 & Noble. Even Cafe Press is available if you purchase some of our merchandise. Click here to get started.

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.

"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.

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.