5 December

Be A Friend To The New York Carriage Horses

by Jon Katz
Be A Friend To The New York Carriage Horses
Be A Friend To The New York Carriage Horses

An important new page for people who love animals: The Friends Of The New York City Carriage Horses

Last year, the Mayor of New York City and his supporters in the animal rights movement failed twice in their expensive and often cruel campaign to ban the New York Carriage Horses from the city.  The campaign was based on the increasingly controversial and debunked notion that it is somehow cruel for working animals – dogs, horses, ponies, all elephants – to work.

The most experienced trainers and equine veterinarians in America were nearly unanimous in saying the New York Carriage Horses are among the luckiest animals in the world, they are loved, content and well cared for. Still, animal rights organizations persisted in their relentless assaults – many of them physical – on the carriage trader, the drivers and owners.

We know now that the horses are not abused, they are the most regulated and monitored working animals anywhere, five different cities agencies participate in regular checks and tests as to their well being.

Still, the attacks on the carriage trade continue. An animal rights activist punched a carriage driver as he was trying to load some children into his carriage. A carriage horses supporter was recently arrested on absurd charges that she grabbed a pamphlet from a vegan protester. There is absolutely no evidence of any kind that the horses are suffering in their light work in the city.

Today, a new page was launched on Facebook called “Friends Of The New York City Carriage Horses,” a place where supporters can gather and where animal lovers can learn the truth about the New York Carriage Horses.

In America, the truth is now under fire as never before, facts don’t matter, fake news and wildly false accusations are everywhere, people invent their own reality in the name of justice.  Lies are not just. In New York, the animal rights movement has abandoned facts and truth, but the truth is ultimately more powerful than any lie. I will always believe that.

I know the people who are publishing this page, and the truth and facts live there. Check it out.

Everywhere in our world, animals are disappearing.

Here in our largest city, hard-working people, most with a long tradition of working with animals, have found a way to keep these magnificent animals among us in a humane and much loved way. Please consider supporting the carriage horses, liking their new page and joining them in what is by now a  heroic and stunningly successful campaign to keep these working animals in our world.

Several years ago, a retired carriage horse driver named Eva Hughes, a warrior for the horses, told me that the carriage horses were triggering a new social awakening, changing the narrative that is so mindlessly driving working animals away from people, out of sight and out of our world. You can support this new awakening.

We need a new and wiser understanding of animals if we are to save them. The animal rights movement has failed to grasp the real dangers facing animals like the carriage horses – it is not staying in our sight and consciousness, it is being taken away. They are in good hands.

Many people seek to ban the work of working animals, but very few bother to wonder what will become of them when their work is gone. The answer is readily available, most die and are never again seen by human beings. There is no place for Asian elephants, 2,000 pound draft horses, ponies in farmers markets to go when they are taken away.

And there is absolutely no evidence of any kind that work is abuse for these animals or that they are being mistreated or neglected.

More than 200 draft horse have been saved from rescue farms and slaughterhouses by this new social awakening. But their struggle to survive is far from over. The carriage drivers have suffered greatly in recent years, they need all of the support they can get. So do the horses. If you love animals, please consider helping to save them.  Please check out this important new page if you wish, it is about more than the carriage horses, it is about keeping animals in our world and among us.

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