Horses Without Carriages International www.horseswithoutcarriages.org

These are some of the lies: * The horses will all go to slaughter if there is a ban. But it's the drivers who will bring the horses to slaughter. The ban will actually assure that the horses will be saved. * This is a real estate land grab. Every group and individual involved in this issue wants to see the horses off the street because it's institutional cruelty and past time to retire them to a real sanctuary. The Hudson Yards redevelopment project has been under way for many more years than the ban campaign. This will benefit the majority of New Yorkers - not just a small entitled group, which stands to make a huge profit on its properties. * FBI is investigating. Prove it.

How about investigating this? What's behind the Daily News trying to derail Mayor deBlasio? Whose money is behind the Tea Party backed Cavalry Group hired by the carriage trade? Is this a $15 million to $19 million industry? We don't think so. Has this cash-only business produce tax returns? There's a turnover of approximately 71 horses a year. Produce documentation to show where they go. Are the horses laundered through the Amish on their way to auction?

Just last week: * A horse spooked on Central Park South and fell, pulling his carriage on top of him. * A judge ruled the NYPD must hand over accident records to the Animal Legal Defense Fund. * An owner was charged with falsifying the four-digit hoof ID number on an older horse named Ceasar to pass him off as one half his age. Please do justice to this issue and begin to report it fairly. Elizabeth Forel, president, Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages

But we do think it's time to call out the rhetoric used by some of the anti-horse carriage advocates. Nothing seems to be out of bounds for them, from personal attacks ("Liam Neeson is an embarrassment to his own people and the human race") to race-baiting, to accusations that the opposition is anti-Semitic. One New York Times report on the issue was deemed to be so flawed that it was compared to the paper's reporting on weapons of mass destruction during the Iraq war. The stridency of attacks reminds us of the darkest days of the anti-abortion debates, when clinics across the country were being protested or worse. Not only is there no room for debate, but anyone who disagrees must be crushed.

It's no coincidence that as the anti-carriage rhetoric has become more extreme, support for the cause has started to wane. All of the city's dailies have now editorialized for keeping the horses where they are, and Mayor de Blasio may well have a hard time carrying out his campaign pledge to ban them. Centrist political leaders simply aren't willing to align themselves with the anti-carriage horse's loonier fringe. (And for good reason: according to the Daily News, the FBI is investigating whether one anti-carriage group tried to extort Christine Quinn during her failed run for mayor.) We understand how emotions can run high when it comes to the treatment of big, beautiful animals in the heart of America's largest city. We can imagine a number of compelling arguments for why this tradition should end. Our problem is that we're just not hearing them amidst all the noise.

This onslaught of media hype to keep the carriage horses in NYC began around this time. One of the first yellow journalism articles was put out by the Daily News and claimed all the horses would go to slaughter if there were a ban. Mayor Bloomberg added his voice in support. This, of course, is not true. If the horses go to slaughter, it will be the owners who bring them there. Besides there is a turnover of 71 horses a year, with no accountability from the owners. This was a fear tactic to try to persuade the public that a ban would not be good. And it has worked. Many more highly slanted articles followed - not just by the Daily News but other media. Our words were stifled. In mid April, the NY Daily News announced that they were starting an actual campaign to keep the carriage horses in NYC. They have a petition online; a logo and bumper stickers. They hand them out on Central Park South telling people that Mayor deBlasio wants to send the horses to slaughter to become dog food. The Daily News has become a bastion of yellow journalism. They are a disgrace to the profession of journalism. Shame on Mort Zuckerman .

Please know that we will continue this fight until it happens. We are in touch with the Mayor's office and continue to provide information when asked. (the image is a cartoon from the Daily News.)

Thanks to all of you who have donated to our campaign. It is much appreciated. This is from a new series Enough is Enough.

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.

Parade of Misery by Mary Culpepper