Sunday night, I e-mailed my agent – Christopher Schelling of Selectric Artists in New York and asked him what he thought of my doing an e-book about the struggle over the future of the New York Carriage Horses. The book, I suggested, would contain some of my blog writings about the carriage horses and also some new and updated material and photos but ought to be published soon, as the horses fate will not be decided for some time, perhaps years. Christopher, who has a brilliant sense about the future of publishing and is very supportive of my efforts to change to meet these challenges, e-mailed me this morning. “Totally agree,” he said, “we can slam this one into the schedule. You’re right about the timeliness.”
Christopher and I are going to publish this book together, we are not going to an outside commercial publisher. It will be inexpensive, available anywhere book are sold online and contain many photos of the horses. I know some of you would prefer I write a paper book or at least publish one alongside of the e-book but that is not feasible. It would take too long, and I very much doubt a commercial publisher would buy or print it. In any case, I’d rather do it myself, I am now used to the freedom of writing my own stuff and publishing it myself. I do it better than they do.
This book is timely and needs to come out quickly, so I am asking a free-lance editor, my friend Rosemary Ahern, for some help and we will work hard to get it out shortly. I will want to do some polishing and add some new material but this book is important to me, and needs to get out into the world. I feel strongly about the horses and what I see is a great injustice being done to them and the people who own and drive them. They ought not to perish so that electric cars can replace them in Central Park.
The book was inspired by the horses, but it is about much more than the horses. The new idea of animals rights opposes work for animals and imposes emotionalized and fantasized ideas of how animals should live on our society and on everyone who lives with an animal or works with one. The idea of animal rights has been hijacked by people who seem to know little or nothing about the real lives of real animals and the fate of the horses will affect every animal in our lives and every person who loves them and lives with them.
It is a truly terrible idea in my view, for the horses, for humans, for the natural world and for the very idea of keeping animals in our world. The horses are safe, content and well cared for, there is no reason to send them to uncertain futures or, more likely, to slaughter.
The book will include the reasoning and factual documentation I have gathered in my writings, much of it assembled for the first time. I will write about the care of these horses, the history of working horses and the impact of Liam Neeson on public opinion. I will also document some of the quite shocking distortions and misstatements on many of the animal rights websites that have campaigned to drive the horses away for years.
I am tentatively calling the e-book: Who Speaks For The New York Carriage Horses?: The Future Of Animals In Our World. I think this painful controversy will be an important one for everyone who loves and owns or works with animals, it will help determine whether we as a people will make room for animals in our world beyond our pets or whether we will drive all of them away, to perish on their or own or vanish into rescue preserves or the farms of the wealthy. I think the future of working animals and of animals in our world is very much on the line. New York City is our greatest city and one of the greatest cities in the world. What they decide to do about these horses will help decide whether or not working animals can continue to exist in urban areas, where most Americans now live. The world is watching, I want to get my work out there and into the conversation.
Thanks so much for the thousands of messages and comments you have sent me, I will keep you posted.
