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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 -- Investigation into death of Tickles ** Buy your Tickles dog tag ** Our response to questionable study about horses stress level ** Call Council Members Torres and Reynoso ** letters to the editor ** NYC carriage stall
NOTE: the best way to receive this newsletter is to subscribe directly. Although I post it on other lists, sometimes (for reasons unknown) they do not approve it - so you are subject to their whims. PLEASE CLICK HERE to subscribe directly. If you want to see past newsletters - CLICK HERE for our archive.
DONATE & GET A TICKLES HORSE TAG
Tickles represents all the beleaguered carriage horses who are treated like commodities and products.
Tickles, a NYC carriage horse, was euthanized in his stall on February 13th. His leg was fractured and he could not stand. We do not believe the Department of Health did an adequate or suitable investigation. Instead they allowed the carriage horse vet to call the shots. Wrong! We have asked for a thorough investigation - but we have not heard back from the DoH. WE WILL FOLLOW THROUGH THIS WEEK. This was raised in my recent article in TheDodo.
Wearing a Tickles tag will show that you support a ban on horse-drawn carriages and that you understand Tickles represents all the horses who went before him and disappeared into oblivion.
The tag is silver colored and comes with a 25" chain to wear around your neck and a short one for a key chain.
- TICKLES
- 2-13-15 R.I.P
- NEW YORK CITY
- CARRIAGE HORSE
- WWW.BANHDC.ORG
The tag is $15. Please go to this page and either send us a check or use PayPal. We are an all volunteer, grass roots organization that is in it to win it. We do not take salaries. We started this carriage horse ban campaign in 2006 and will not give up. But we need your support. Your donation will allow us to continue getting the truth out. It will help pay for these newsletters, flyers and posters.
NEW YORK CARRIAGE HORSE "STUDY" COMES UNDER FIRE
Carriage supporter bullies at it again
Last week, we published a link to an article in HorseTalk, an online horse blog from New Zealand. It gave our side of the issue. Unfortunately people from HorseTalk must have been threatened by the carriage trolls because they took the piece down. Shame on them for succumbing to this tyrannical approach by the carriage trade.
New York carriage-horse study comes under fire -- Horsetalk - April 14, 2015. We called upon experts Holly Cheever, DVM and Nedim Buyukmihci, DVM to comment on this study. Dr. Buyukmihci:
"This was not a robust study, as it only looked at one criterion - cortisol - when there are so many other criteria that need to be evaluated if welfare was the aim of the study." Dr. Cheever said
"Whether their cortisol levels are elevated or not, the life on the streets for carriage horses inarguably places them in an inhospitable environment in which they suffer the blistering heat of summertime city pavements and the searing cold of last winter's high wind chills and low temperatures.
"They are essentially incarcerated 24/7 between the shafts of a carriage and the close confines of their stalls with no opportunity to experience the essential 'turnout' with a compatible buddy, permitting them to properly relax and satisfy both physical and behavioral needs," Cheever said.
COALITION SPEAKS OUT UNCENSORED - THIS IS A MUST READ
thank you for THEDODO.COM
Carriage Horses Continue Working Because of Faulty Science Report - theDodo.com - 4/13/15 - by Mary V. Culpepper. - EXCERPTS FROM THE ARTICLE: Reporters fell for it and horse experts point out obvious limitations of ill-conceived study. Cortisol is not a measure of horse well-being.
New York City's carriage drivers thought it would be a good idea last year to pay for a study that would find carriage horses to be content, if not downright happy! So they teamed up with a California veterinarian to get the job done.
Fast-forward to early April 2015. That's when Joe Bertone, DVM, made news headlines with his preliminary findings that New York City's carriage horses are "stress-free." He announced this on the basis of his team's two-day evaluation of a baker's dozen (13) carriage horses, based on cortisol sampling and observation.
"We found no evidence of stress in these horses," he said, apparently in earnest and unapologetic in making the jump from objective cortisol measurement to subjective speculation about carriage horse contentedness and well-being.
Equine experts are taking issue with news reports, most all of which broadly misrepresented these preliminary (unpublished) findings. Holly Cheever, DVM, an equine specialist and veterinarian who now has a private practice in Vorheesville, NY, offered perspective on the study and the issue. She is not involved with the study.
"Whether their cortisol levels are elevated or not, the life on the streets for carriage horses inarguably places them in an inhospitable environment in which they suffer the blistering heat of summertime city pavements and the searing cold of last winter's high wind chills and low temperatures," she said. "These horses are essentially incarcerated 24/7 between the shafts of a carriage and the close confines of their stalls with no opportunity to experience the essential 'turnout' with a compatible buddy, permitting them to properly relax and satisfy both physical and behavioral needs."
On the basis of measurements of cortisol and subjective evaluation, Dr. Bertone, a faculty member at Western University of Health Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine in California, went on to describe the horses as "content" to be working in traffic-gridlocked Manhattan. Two of the stables are approximately 2 miles from Central Park, subjecting those horses to a 4-mile daily commute.
The preliminary findings, titled "Evaluation of Well-Being of New York City Carriage Horses," are troublesome in many aspects, from carriage trade's funding of the study to its small sample size. Perhaps most concerning is the premise itself: Cortisol sampling is not an established or appropriate surrogate marker for, or measure of, horse well-being.
CALL THE CITY COUNCIL. THIS WEEK IT IS TWO: COUNCIL MEMBER DEBORAH ROSE
We are trying to make it easier for you to call by asking you to call two Council Members this week. So please put this on your calendar. Both Council Member Rose and Menchaca are on the Transportation Committee where Intro 573, the bill to ban horse-drawn carriages, resides.
Please call both Council Members and ask them to
support the bill to ban horse-drawn carriages - Intro 573.
AND COUNCIL MEMBER CARLOS MENCHACA
New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers - please call
HELP OUR ORGANIZATION BY SHOPPING ONLINE - iGIVE
If you buy online, you can help the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages
Through a free registration with iGive, when you buy merchandise on line, your purchase will help us. Many organizations give a percentage of the sale to not for profit organizations at no cost to you. There are more than 1500 stores that include such popular ones as Amazon.com, Staples, Best Buy and Barnes & Noble. Click here to get started.
On iGive - the name of our organization is "The Coalition for NYC Animals, Inc." Click here to begin.
LETTER IN NY DAILY NEWS
Sometimes the Daily News prints letters like this. Mostly not. This is from today 4/19.
Horse pucky
Tuckahoe, N.Y.: Voicer Ava Seavey knows she can't dispute my facts about carriage horses, so instead she plays a slick shell game of outright lies and smokescreens, praying that people will be misled. But she cannot disprove what I said: Carriage horses, like all "work" horses, are forced to work with a whip over their head while shackled from head to toe, with a metal plate shoved into their mouth for further cruel control. Seavey can't handle the truth, so she spews nasty, unrelated comments about 9/11 dogs and ignorant personal insults - so typical of a supporter of an industry mired in cover-ups, investigations, cash-only questionable tax dealings and the exploitation, suffering and tragic, needless deaths of helpless beings who collapse on city streets just so Seavey and her buddies can make an easy buck. Kiley Blackman
NYC CARRIAGE HORSE IN STALL
We have been accused of photoshopping this picture. I guess even "they" know it is bad. No, it is not photoshopped. It is very real. Unlike the carriage trade, our philosophy is taken from Mark Twain: "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything." This is West Side Livery stable. This is what the City of NY allows. This is what is supported by some ignorant Council Members. This is what is supported by the Teamsters. PLEASE MAKE THOSE CALLS!
I wonder if Liam Neeson would like to live here.
PLEASE JOIN US ON OUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS
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"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.
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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.
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