Horses Without Carriages International www.horseswithoutcarriages.org

The NY Times also ran an op ed by Liam Neeson filled with the expected lies and manipulations. Not to be outdone, the NY Daily News made this an official campaign and has been running a petition in their newspaper.

Why is the NY Times turning into the Post and News? Very strange bed fellows. In this article - In campaign for carriage horses, N.Y. Times editorial chief fails to disclose family tie Politico revealed that the NY Times editorial page editor, Andrew Grossman, did not reveal that his brother is a competitive carriage horse driver. Good catch!. Nothing like using the paper for your own purposes.

A common theme in all of these pieces is that they are pressuring and bullying Mayor deBlasio to go back on his word about banning the carriage trade.

"We support a ban and they [NYCLASS] are supporting the electric cars," Forel told us. "They've always felt that the electric car is the way to go...I don't believe [they] will happen because they are too expensive." Her organization supports the popular alternative of retrofitted carriages, similar to the one seen in this WNYC video. The retrofitting process costs around $15,000-$20,000, and wouldn't necessarily mean a loss of carriage jobs. Either way, Forel remains unconvinced on the expensive NYCLASS antique car alternatives. "It's a throw away. They will not be allowed in the park, nor should they be. I understand that everyone is concerned about these jobs; whether or not I agree with that is a different story," Forel told us.

A study done by Forel has shown a turnover rate of over 500 horses in the industry. There is no law requiring records be submitted to the Department of Health regarding the sale of "retired" carriage horses. "These conservative right wing editorial boards have been going after de Blasio since he won the primary in September," Forel opined. "The carriage horse issue has become a metaphor for his progressive agenda. Why are the carriage horses so important to these people? It's a tiny, tiny industry."

DAILY NEWS DISGRACEFUL CARTOON: This disgraceful and childish cartoon is from the Daily News, which has tossed all reason and journalistic integrity to the wind and launched a sleazy, lying, yellow journalism campaign against Mayor deBlasio's proposed horse carriage ban. The drivers and their supporters love it and are promoting the cartoon on their Facebook page. This is BULLYING BEHAVIOR. But how is bullying and insulting the one person who has the power - the Mayor - going to get him to change his mind? Not smart ... but then consider the source. I hope some journalists are reading this and will take the ethical stand for your profession and speak out. The big 3 in NYC are against the ban and continue to promote lies -- the DN; NY Post - and the NY Times - where it has been revealed that the editorial page editor has a brother who is a competitive carriage driver.

Hacks can hack it - you made some excellent points and I couldn't agree more that the time is long overdue to get the carriage horses off of New York City streets. It's common sense to understand that the number of reported, and filmed, incidents of spooking, running through traffic, crashing into motor vehicles and collapsing in distress must only be the tip of the iceberg. What I disagree with is this grave concern about the possible job loss, for a few reasons. For the drivers whose ambition is to drive tourists around Central Park, they can use their own blood, sweat and tears and ride pedicabs right now. I was laid off three years ago from a large, multinational publishing company. This happens in life. Sometimes, your job - i.e horse carriage driver in New York City, production editor, typewriter repair person - is deemed outdated or no longer necessary, and you move on, often for the better. For those in the industry who deem themselves horse devotees, feel free to take your "business" elsewhere. Mickey Kramer

Thanks to all of you who have donated to our campaign. It is much appreciated. This is a new ad showing horses in traffic.

This is an ad we are running this week in City & State's e-mail blast the Last Read. This publication is seen by legislators. "Don't be fooled by all the media hype and propaganda. The horse-drawn carriage industry is grossly inhumane and unsafe and must be shut down. Horses are nervous animals and can spook and bolt at the slightest provocation - a loud noise, an umbrella opening, a rustling leaf. They may run into traffic, trample and kill bystanders. It's happened in other cities. Let's not wait for a human death here before NYC wises up. http://www.banhdc.org/ch-acc.shtml "

Contact Mayor deBlasio - tell him that you want a ban of horse-drawn carriages THIS YEAR. If he delays it for three years or if there is another accident, it will hurt him politically. Tell him that you voted for him because he promised to ban the trade - and even on the first day he took office, which we knew was an impossibility. Now he has put a time frame on it until the end of the year. . Click Here. Please be respectful.

EXCERPTS: But the editorial board of the Daily News lacks such rationality. In the tabloid's frontpage crusade to "save the horses," it calls horse advocates "animal rights extremists," moneyed, conniving real-estate interests whom de Blasio is appeasing for their campaign contributions. (These people may very well exist, but it's a red herring: there's a real moral issue to grapple with here outside of the motivations of the major players.) The paper sort of hilariously declares, "No one gets to throw people out of lawful jobs in pursuit of a social goal, no matter how brightly the aim burns with missionary zeal." What about people who designed television commercials for tobacco companies? What about the thriving firearms industry the Daily News is always insisting we regulate? Should we protect the jobs of people who club baby seals? Must we defend all employment against our sense of right and wrong? Can we ever justify that photograph above because of jobs?

It's mad hyperbole that even carriage-industry advocates should be wary of joining. (Better to pass around Liam Neeson's more reasonable Times op-ed, in which he argues the horses are a protection against the city's being overcome by "sleek futuristic buildings and careening self-driving cars," that they're icons too beloved by tourists-with-money to eliminate. I mean, who cares about sentient beings when "local color" is at stake?!) If we're not already there, the more mechanized our city becomes, and the greater our cultural sympathy for animals in general becomes, the closer we'll come to ridding Central Park of carriage-carrying horses. This is the nature of progress in America-inexorability. Advocates might win this fight in a war that's already lost, but it'll only postpone the inevitable: it'll only get another year of wages for another year of suffering. Enough is enough.

These are the problems with the car: