16 January

Saving The Central Park Horses: Living In A Polarized World, Sleeping Souls

by Jon Katz
Living In A Polarized World
Living In A Polarized World

I went online today to look at websites devoted to the efforts by many in New York City – animal rights groups and the new mayor – to ban the horses in Central Park. One sight which called itself “Save The Horses” was a group arguing that the horses are treated inhumanely and that horses have no place in New York in modern times. Another group, which called itself “Saving the Central Park Horses” was fighting the ban, arguing the Central Park horses are a beloved and iconic part of New York and should remain.

Each site has links and arguments that completely contradicted one another, citing many authoritative sources with totally different information. One site said the horses would go to rescue parks and preserves, another said there was not nearly enough money to keep 200 working horses alive with no work. One site said horses had been banned all over the world, another reported they had not.

Politics has also entered the discussion, of course, the new mayor has close ties to many animal rights groups, who supported his campaign with substantial contributions, one of his major donors was a man leading the fight to ban the horses from Central Park, and he has been accused of having ulterior motives – he allegedly is interested in the real estate where the horse stables are. The mayor promised in his inaugural address to get the horses out of New York City, he said there was no argument or discussion to be had, it was a done deal. “Just watch us do it,” promised the mayor.

Some groups say the horses are overworked and mistreated, others say they work comfortable hours, are well-fed and have months off of work. As usual, people are tossing websites and links at one another, individual humans no longer talk directly to one another.

It was a powerful metaphor for me of the crippling and stalemating polarization in the animal world, there is not any consensus on what saving an animal even means.

I don’t use propaganda or combative websites, I have none to offer you or link to, I truck in my opinion, not other people’s. I just say what I feel and I have been clear about my feelings. For me, animal rights mean giving animals more meaningful work to do around people, not less. People and dogs and cats and bicyclists are often injured or killed in New York City, no one is proposing exiling them.

If people are abusing horses, they ought to be punished, if there are too many trucks in the park, they ought to be banned, not the horses. Animals desperately need to be around people, so that we can stay connected to them and care about them. If the horses are banned, many people in New York will go their whole lives without ever seeing an animal. That does not seem healthy to me. Anatole France wrote that “until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”

I have been around animals long enough to know what happens to working animals when they are deprived of their work – it is just a different kind of abuse, the social abuse that comes from projecting human values onto the lives of animals. They will wither and die, perhaps better off being slaughtered than sent to an animal prison disguised as a rescue farm.

Mayors are not dictators, I don’t imagine they have the power to simply ban the horses in Central Park without some process or discussion or argument, I hope not, that would be a sorry beginning for a new mayor who claims to be sensitive and progressive.

There are two sides to this issue, as there are to every issue, and battling websites and angry and polarized people will not persuade anyone who is not already convinced. I was in New York lastĀ  week and spend some hours around the horses and their drivers, they looked strong, well-fed and content to me, I saw a lot of affection for them, they were clean and munching on buckets of oats, and I was, as always, struck by how much people loved seeing them and riding in their carriages. I love seeing them, for sure, Central Park would lose so much of its romance without them.

Horses have been pulling carts in busy streets for centuries, I am not clear on why it is now considered cruel and inhumane. The city wants to replace the horses with “vintage electric carts,” I cannot quite imagine who would want to see Central Park in a car, they are everywhere in New York, that has as much romance and atmosphere as a cement block.

We cannot create paradise for animals anymore than we can create nirvanas for people, there are many human beings on the streets of New York who are quite visible who are not nearly as well cared for as these horses appear to be. Don’t we have better things to do?

Perhaps the new mayor and the many groups who claim to be advocates for compassion will take care of them first, or perhaps the next idea will be that New York is too crowded and dangerous for dogs, many people have argued that for years. But many New Yorkers have learned to give their dogs good lives, surely the city could do the same for it’s horses.

I see there are different ideas about what saving the Central Park horses really means, it also means we are losing another opportunity to understand the real lives of real animals in a compassionate way, and to accord them the right to live in our world.

16 January

Community Music, Cambridge, N.Y.

by Jon Katz
Community Music
Community Music

Before recorded music, people in small towns would gather in taverns and halls to share music with one another, Thursday the Open House Cafe hosted an open mic night and the music was very good, the atmosphere close, a sense of community rare in my experience living in so many different places. The Round House Cafe has become the heartbeat of our small town, everybody is worried that Scott and Lisa will keel over one day, but they seem up to the challenge and are expanding their hours and menu and activities.

There were professional singers and high school kids, big men with guitars and deep voices, an especially warm evening on a cold winter’s night.

Connection is one of the most powerful of all human drives, we all need it and seek it. In my small town of Cambridge, there is much that is good, many things that are not – small towns can suffer pettiness, divisions and surely a struggle for good work – but there is a deepening sense of community here that is very real, and sitting at open mic night, listening to this original music in a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere was rich, small towns have been largely forgotten and abandoned by the economists and politicians scrambling to create a global economy that generates money but seems to have little regard for the lives of people.

The economists think rural America is too inefficient for the global economy, they have forgotten what people are for. In my town, from Battenkill Books to the Hubbard Hall Arts Center to the Country Gals Diner to the Round House Cafe, we are remembering.

If towns likeĀ  Cambridge have been forgotten by politicians, they have not gone quietly into the night. They are redefining themselves, building their own notions of connection and community. So it was at the Round House last night, I think I’ll read a couple of my poems there next month.

16 January

Lenore’s Couch

by Jon Katz
Lenore's Couch
Lenore’s Couch

I don’t know quite how it happened that Lenore got her own couch. She is one of those genial loving creatures – there are many Labs like this – who simply insinuate themselves into your life. Lenore is the only dog I have ever owned who sleeps on the bed with us at night, she starts out with her own corner, tightly curled up in a ball, somehow when we wake up she is stretched out like a lion, leaning snugly into one or the other of us.

This couch was purchased for the first Bedlam Farm, it is a pull-out, I used to sit on it when I was freaking out obsessively calling my sister and other people to try and calm myself. I read on this couch, first talked with Maria on this couch, at some point Lenore hopped up on one side and used it to nap. We put a sheet on it to protect it from dog hair, and began referring to it as “Lenore’s Couch.” When we moved to the new farm, we asked each other where “Lenore’s Couch” ought to go and I volunteered my study, Lenore likes to hang around me when I work. It grounds me to see her and hear her snoring.

No one else uses the couch any longer, I never sit on it, visitors sleep upstairs in the guest room, the other dogs don’t ever go near it. It is Lenore’s Couch now, where she often is when she is in the house. Animals share our lives, they can sometimes take them over, dogs do not really need their own couch. But I am happy to see here there, I smile every time I turn around and look at her, and she thumps her tail enthusiastically, cheering me on, telling me I am loved, as she has always done.

Lenore kept love alive for me when I so desperately needed it, it is only fitting she has her own couch.

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