Are the New York Carriage Horses sad and depressed? Are they suffering unthinkable cruelty? Should the carriage trade be shut down to save the horses from cruelty and abuse, to make them happy again and return them to the verdant wild?
For the past year, I’ve been researching and writing about the effort to ban the New York Carriage Horses. In the process I have noted, listed, and researched the most serious accusations against the carriage trade, and there are many. It is a long list of crimes and misdemeanors, some horrific.
Taken together, the accusations are astonishing: the people in the carriage trade have been accused of being immoral, they are thieves, they are inhuman, they abuse the horses, starve them, beat them, put them in daily peril, kill them when they are sick, sell them to slaughter wantonly, torture them, shackle them in cruel harnesses and chains, confine them in narrow cells, run them recklessly in heavy traffic, deprive them of social contact, endanger city residents, overwork them, feed them filthy water, rodent-infested hay, drive them into buses, ignore their wounds, force them to work when hurt, pollute the streets and roads, stink up and despoil Central Park, keep them in dirty stables, deprive them of social companions or rest, they work sick horses to death, groom them with icy water, deny them medicine, subject them to brutal work in awful conditions, refuse to treat their wounds.
Beyond that, say the new animal Inquisitors, the horses are a grave danger to New Yorkers. They are unsafe and threatening, and have been banned in every major city in the world, including London. (Nobody seems to have told the carriage horses or their London website). The horses are piteous and enslaved, they yearn, say their self-appointed protectors, to spend their days grazing on pasture and hanging out with their pals.
These accusations have been regularly investigated by the five different city agencies who oversee the carriage trade and numerous independent and outside organizations and people, they have all been found to be false, and many times over. The mayor of New York City says he believes the accusations, he has repudiated none of them. He has asked the City Council to ban the carriage trade from the city and remove the horses from the city as well.
The mayor concedes he did not know this work was cruel before receiving tens of thousands of dollars in his mayoral campaign from Steven Nislick, the founder of NYClass, an animal rights group spearheading the horse ban. The group’s website says in it’s petition campaign that the carriage horses are abused and endure “unthinkable suffering.” They do not belong in New York City, a place that has been home to working horses for more than 300 years, and for whom Central Park was partially designed.
Any rational human who delves into the carriage horse story in New York finds him or herself in a surreal and Kafkaesque quagmire – rage, distortion, upside-down truths. Everything that appears to be is, is not really, the people in the carriage trade have been fighting for so long it seems almost normal to them. “Let me see,” says Alice in Wonderland, “four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is…oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at this rate.”
It does seem to me sometimes that the animal rights people and their mayor live in Wonderland, facts have no meaning, experts have no place, reality is fluid, truth is a bastard child and emotion rules. They hate suffering but cause much, they wish to kill the horses in order to save them, they commit unthinkable cruelty in the name of preventing cruelty, no one in the universe sees clearly but them, yet they are quite blind to reality. They believe that they love animals, and no one else does.
Of all the accusations against the carriage horses by various animal rights organizations, perhaps my favorite is the oft-repeated statement that the horses ought to be banned in order to ease global warming. It is a Wonderland statement for sure, a portable reality, something for the Queen Of Hearts, the idea that huge electric-powered vintage automobiles are more eco-friendly than horses. Statements like this would be laughable, except the people who say such things have elected a mayor who believes them.
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For much of the year, I’ve been picking through these accusations, seeking the truth about them. In recent weeks I have chosen to focus on one of the most elemental accusations – the very widespread idea and belief that the horses are depressed.
Of all the accusations against the carriage trade, perhaps the most legitimate concern – the one shared most widely by animal lovers who are sincere and well-meaning – is the notion that the horses are unhappy being in New York City; that they are slaves, and would prefer to be out in the wild or grazing peacefully; that they are sad, lonely and depressed.
And also this: that they suffer, according to NYClass, from “unthinkable” suffering. That is, suffering so severe and brutal it cannot even be imagined, and all this in full view of scores of inspectors, police officers, tourists, visitors, health officials and veterinarians who enter the stables daily.
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For months now, I have been talking to behaviorists, veterinarians, horse owners and lovers about equine depression, I have read more than a score of behavioral journals, blogs, reports, academic papers and columns. It has been a useful exercise for me, in part because I was curious to know the answer, I write about animals and study their interactions with human beings. And I have seen the horses up close many times.
I should say that when I started, I already knew something the mayor of New York and the animal rights spokespeople and many people driving by the horses do not know, and that it that a lowered head is not a sign of depression in a horse, it is a sign of relaxation and rest. Same with a raised rear, or “cocked” leg.
Here’s what I’ve learned that I did not really know about horses:
Emotional issues like depression in animals are different from those issues in people.
Animals react behaviorally, not emotionally or in human words or narratives. They are believed to have emotions, but they are animal emotions fueled by instincts and outside interactions, they do not have the emotional construct of children or human beings. They do not experience envy or revenge, they have no concept of mortality, theirs or that of any other living thing. As prey animals, their anxiety comes mostly from feeling threatened, although work horses are among the most stable of all the domesticated animals. Very few things in cities bothers them. Animals do not make career or lifestyle choices, their lives are elemental, revolving around food, shelter, safety and members of their tribe and, in the cases of horses and dogs and cats, human beings.
It is very difficult to tell behavioral and instinctive symptoms from emotional symptoms. Animals are wired differently, they have a completely different neural system from people, and they do not, of course speak. We can only surmise in many cases or, as is more common, project our own emotions onto them.
The truth is, little is really known about depression in horses or other animals.
Depression is not a clear-cut diagnosis or an easy thing to spot. Horses may appear lethargic or sluggish and they may refuse to eat. Behaviorists say this is often the case with horses that have become depressed. Equine vets tell me that depression in horses is sometimes caused by a chemical imbalance, which is similar to human depression. But there is little consensus or documentation about equine depression. Some veterinarians believe that vitamin supplements can assist a horse with depression, but results from that treatment are not conclusive.
Horses who are upset – especially those who have lost mates or members of their herd, believed by horse people and vets to be the most common cause of depression, may not eat, refuse to leave their stalls, their ears may lie back, their tails might be down. They might suddenly turn aggressive towards people, or balk or refuse to work or co-operate. For months, they might avoid other members of the herd, refuse to play or engage with them.
A horse’s attachment to his human or owner – a carriage driver, or stable owner, for instance – is an important relationship to a horse. Although the carriage drivers have been largely dehumanized and portrayed as being outside of the moral community of businesspeople, their relationship to the horses goes to the center of the controversy. A content – or “happy” horse sees his person as part of his herd, the herd “leader.”
Beyond people, the horses are always around other horses – in the stables, in the park, on the way to and fro their work. Herd animals do not need to be sitting at the dinner table together, as some of the animal rights people have demanded – that is most often a poor and dangerous idea – they need to be around their species, to talk to them and hear and see and smell feel them.
When a horse is contentedly submitting to human leadership, he may lick or chew – something one can see the carriage horses doing quite often out on the carriage line or in their stables. Other signs of contentment to look for in horses: when the animal is responsive and calm, he or she has a lowered head, soft eyes, a relaxed jaw. A happy horse will seek affection from his owner and show respect by keeping out of the human’s personal space, say behaviorists.
When horses are happy, they yawn. This does not indicate a bored horse, but a relaxed one. When the people around the horses are frightened or stressed, the horse is sensitive to this, as he or she would be to trouble with any member of the herd. The people in the carriage trade have been under intense stress for years now, constantly under attack, fighting for their livelihood and way of life. A few have turned to drink, some have died from heart disease and other stress-related diseases, all live under a constant cloud of accusation and uncertainty.
They do not know if they will find work if they are banned, or how they might feed their families, send their kids to college, pay the mortgage.They cannot plan for the future. They are not wealthy people, they live week-to-week and month-to-month. Many are losing heart, some gathering to fight. They confront a frightening reality: some very wealthy and powerful people are determined to put them out of business, the very government that is supposed to protect their freedom and property seeks to take both away.
Horses are sensitive to the moods of the people who care for them and work with them. People who love animals might wish to consider this when considering the future of the carriage horses and claiming to speak for their welfare. Separating them from the people and places they they know and sending them off to rescue farms or slaughterhouses would be no different that separating them from other horses in the herd – that would almost certainly depress them, say veterinarians and horse owners.
It is important to know, say the behaviorists, that horses feel human stress and energy levels and also respond to words and body language. Equine behaviorist Sophie Ostler also stresses that horses are prey animals. If horses sense they or their herds are in danger, they revert to the “flight mode,” a state of rushed energy and tension. They look to their herd leader, to their humans, for reassurance, which may be hard to project when the most powerful people in New York City are threatening their way of life. Famed equine trainer Buck Brannaman, the author of “Faraway Horses,” believes that regular work and exercise are essential to a happy horse, nothing depresses horses more quickly or thoroughly than having nothing to do, he says. Those are the horses in need of rescue.
The proposed legislation to ban the carriage trade would prohibit the carriage trade owners from selling or sending their horses anywhere where they might work. The moral outrage of the mayor and the animal rights groups is politically selective – it is cruel for the carriage horses to work, but okay apparently, for police horses to work in even more dangerous situations. Or for bomb-sniffing dogs to look for explosives on Amtrak rail lines, border collies to herd sheep in all kinds of weather, sled-dogs to pull sleds in arctic conditions, or seeing-eye dogs living noble but highly unnatural lives – and working very hard – aiding people with sight issues.
The causes of depression in horses and other animals are varied, say the experts – trauma, stress, uncertainty, anxiety are all causes for equine depression, according to the extensive research journals that have been published (Tufts, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School). Depressed horses may suffer from a chemical balance, although the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), the most respected equine veterinary group in the country, says the primary cause of depression in horses may be viral, not behavioral. When horses suffer from Eastern or Western Encephalitis, a viral infection, the primary symptom is depression. Untreated, this disease can also cause seizures, coma, possibly death.
None of the journals I read, or the behaviorists and trainers and veterinarians I spoke with or whose work I studied, say that work for working horses was a likely cause of depression. “That’s ridiculous,” said an equine vet who visited the Clinton Park Stables last year. “Working animals do not get depressed from working. They get depressed from having no work.” Work, they repeated, is the number one cure for sluggishness or depression in a horse.
Veterinarians caution that it is much easier to spot and diagnose a healthy and happy horse than an unhappy one. Their ears and tails are up, they are spirited, eager to get to work, to get out of their stalls, they are responsive, curious, appropriate around people and other horses, their eyes are soft and clear. “People who drive by a horse pulling a carriage on the street and diagnose the horse as being sad just don’t know what they are talking about,” one veterinarian at Tufts told me. “You can’t really tell anything from that, it’s like the people who diagnose animals over the Internet. Most often, they don’t know what they are talking about.”
In fact, the AAEP sent a team of vets to examine the New York Carriage Horses two years ago and found them “healthy, content and well-cared for.” The findings of this examination, one of the most thorough and independent examinations of the horses since the controversy began, were ignored by the New York media as well as the animal rights groups, which continues to insist the horses are suffering from the worst kind of abuse, in part because a lazy media is happy to keep repeating the charge.
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It is perhaps important for sincere and well-meaning people and animal lovers interested in the fate of the horses to understand what a depressed horse really looks and acts like.
Horses suffering from depression may appear unwilling to move around or leave their stall. They might flare their nostrils, or show the whites of their eyes. They also may refuse to eat and drink. Some horses suffering from depression will seclude themselves from other horses and may shy away from human affection. Other less obvious symptoms of equine depression include violence toward humans or visibly increased irritability.
One of the primary and most effective treatments for equine depression is exercise. Keeping a horse’s body physically healthy through regular work and exercise will assist in forestalling or alleviating depression, say veterinarians and trainers. It will give the horse a focus and, for situational depression caused by fear or anxiety, it may entirely remove the symptoms of depression.
This issue – what is good for horses? – is central to the carriage horse debate. Everyone claims to be speaking for the horses and representing their best interests. I was surprised to hear over and again that the very thing that keeps horses from depression and cures it – regular work and exercise – is the very thing the mayor of New York and the animal rights groups wish to stop them from doing and keep them from doing. This, of course, is the very danger of having people who know nothing about animals make decisions about their future.
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I have been to New York City a dozen times in the past year, so have many others interested in this issue, and I have not seen a single carriage horse showing any of these above symptoms of depression. Neither have the many vets or inspectors who have examined the horses. The carriage horses are spirited, eager to get out of their stalls, affectionate to their drivers and to the many people on the street (I think there is not a single child or tourist or lover or stroller in the world who wishes to see the horses go, but they have been disenfranchised by shouters and screamers) who come up greet them and pat them, their coats are shiny, their ears and tails are up, they seem relaxed when not working and spirited and proud when they are. Like border collies, working horses are always eager to get to work, it is what they are bred to do. It is not an intrusion upon their natural lives, work is the natural life of a working animal. The horses are eager, they are keenly aware of one another, in their stalls and on the Central park trails, which were built for them. They talk to one another constantly in the park, in the lines, in their stables.
How then, can a mayor and so many people in the animal rights movement be so misinformed?
Many people in the carriage trade and many supporters of the horses insist that the mayor is corrupt, that he is working on behalf of real estate developers – including one who is spearheading the carriage horse ban – to acquire the horse stables for development. In fairness, I should say that despite this widespread and growing belief, I have seen no concrete evidence that the mayor is corrupt, or that real estate is the prime force behind his rabid opposition to the carriage trade. For me, his problem seems to be rigidity and ignorance. He admits to knowing absolutely nothing about animals, he has never owned one, and he is not open to any information that might contradict him, or any dialogue of any kind that might educate or inform him, alter his position, or actually improve the lives of the horses in any way.
The animal rights movement has evolved dramatically in recent years, from a movement promoting the welfare and safety of animals to a rigid ideologly-based and viscerally anti-democratic social militia that emotionalizes animals and seeks to remove them from work and human connection. Sadly, this increasingly angry and disconnected movement is almost universally feared and detested by animal lovers, farmers, the agricultural community, behaviorists and veterinarians, and many of the people who know animals, who work with them and keep them alive in our urbanizing world. Without the support and involvement of these people – the ones who have animals and love them, the ones who have been ignored and excluded in this debate – it will never be possible to advance the true rights of animals or keep them safely in our world.
The mayor faces enormous opposition to the ban – all three newspapers, the Chamber of Commerce, the Teamsters, the public (62 percent of New Yorkers), the Working Families Party. He says he does not care, all these people are wrong, and the animal rights groups say the same thing. And this is a troubling sub-text of this controversy. When the popular opinion and will is dismissed in this way, democratic government seems to go off-kilter. It does not appear to be working in this case. The will of the people is supposed to be important.
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All of these leads back to this central question. Are the carriage horses depressed? How can we tell? Studying this issue and the available information about it, it seems quite clear that the New York Carriage Horses are not depressed. They are not yearning for pastures, for life in the wild, for a change in in lifestyle or careers. They show none of the symptoms of depression.
Almost none of the many accusations against the carriage trade have stood the test of time, proof or public opinion. If this claim – that the horses are sad and depressed – is also false, then there is really only one question left: what is this unnecessary controversy really about?
The plight of the carriage trade is historic, it will help determine the future of animals in our world. It calls us to a new and wiser understanding of animals. That is the increasingly urgent message surfacing from this conflict. The horses challenge us to put their care and the welfare of other animals in the hands of people who understand them and who wish them the most important right of all: to survive among people.
The carriage horse controversy also asks that we consider the origin and rise and function of government. Government, wrote Thomas Paine, is made necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world. The design and end of government is to promote and protect freedom and security.
The carriage horse controversy is not a question of left or right, but of right and wrong. However our eyes may be dazzled with rhetoric or show, with contrived images of suffering, our ears deceived by demagogues and fanatics, however prejudice and and emotion may warp our will and cloud our judgment, or personal interest darken our understanding, then the simplest voice of nature, reason and justice will say, this is right.
The people in the carriage trade have broken no laws, committed no crimes, violated no regulations or codes. They deserve their freedom and security, and if government will not help them keep either, then it falls to good people of conscience to step in and fight with them and for them. This is what is right.
