Day: February 4, 2016

The victory won by the New York Carriage Horses and the carriage trade today in New York goes far beyond the city and it’s beautiful park and twisted politics.

The irony of the mayor’s second drubbing at the hands of carriage drivers and horses is that with just a few simple tweaks, he could have gotten almost all of what he wanted, a deal that would remove the horses from the streets and turn the carriage trade into a small and confined tourist amusement like the carousel or hot dog vendors.

He would be their landlord,  assuming those stables were ever built, he could give them a death by a thousand cuts instead of one fatal blow.

But he is too arrogant to negotiate or even meet face-to-face with his targets. He never did visit the stables, as he said he would, he never could negotiate, listen, reason or even explain what will soon be regarded as one of the most destructive and weak-minded obsessions in big-city political history. The horses gave him a New York-sized thrashing, and it almost a certainty that this city council will not revisit the issue anytime soon, if ever.

The carriage trade is standing proud, the horses keep their safe and good jobs, the mayor has soiled himself on an issue he never seemed to grasp or know how to articulate. As for the mayor, he says he is undeterred and will press on with his war on the carriage trade. I suppose the horses may have to whup him again.

They are battle-hardened and ready.

New York is our biggest stage, and the message going out now is this: it is not cruel for domesticated animals like carriage horses to work and to live in cities, where they have dwelled for thousands of years, often in far worse and more crowded conditions than modern-day New York. They can be safe and content living among us. These are, in fact, the luckiest horses in the world.

The carriage trade has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that they can live and work with these animals, treat them well, submit to exhaustive regulations and oversight, and earn a living. The horses have thrived in New York, so do the individualistic and proud people who work with them. For now at least, that tradition can live.

The animal rights movement in its current incarnation has failed in the most profound way to tell the truth, to do its homework, to listen or learn, to negotiate or compromise. But more than any other failure, they have failed to speak for the true rights of animals, or act in their best interests. The drivers have saved their jobs, but up to 200 horses have saved their lives. They are not overworked, mistreated, sick or depressed.

It was wrong and unjust to claim that they are.

These groups do not speak for the rights of animals, they have no vision for the future, they are too often abusive and hateful. They are too often acting out of their own emotional needs and animal fantasies and projections, not the best interests of animals. They have lost the right to speak for the rights of animals or to determine their fates and futures. No independent agency  or entity – medical, veterinary, political, police, health – has supported the claim that the horses are suffering in New York or are being treated cruelly and callously.

Every horse that remains among us is a triumph – for people, for the environment, for the idea that we need to keep animals among us and protect them, not drive them away and diminish them.

Increasingly, animal lovers and animals themselves are facing issues that relate much more to civil rights than animal welfare.

A law-abiding, profitable, well-regulated industry was targeted by one millionaire and several private organizations and nearly destroyed. People and their families living in fear and turmoil for years without any kind of due process. The horses were not abused, but the people in the carriage trade were. The city has not yet spoken to that issue, it is the elephant in the room. The mayor has allowed himself to become  one of the most prominent enablers of abuse and cruelty in the history of domesticated animals. And, it seems, all for money.

In the end, the horses and their humans were fighting for their civil rights against social organizations and political leaders who cared nothing for truth or compassion, and know nothing about animals.

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals from infringement by governments, social organizations and private individuals, and which ensure one’s ability to participate in the civil and political life of the city, society and state without discrimination or repression.

The horses nearly paid for their lives because of the arrogance and ignorance of the mayor and the animal rights groups who insisted that work for working animals is animal abuse.

The people in the carriage trade nearly lost their freedom, way of life and property.

Their rights were infringed on by government, social organizations and several private individuals. They were denied the opportunity to participate in the civil and political life of the city, they were denied the right to be heard, to petition, to negotiate on their own behalf while others were given ample opportunity to do all of those things.

The truth was nearly trampled in this conflict, the horses kept it alive. The speak for themselves in so many ways.

In a sense, I was hopeful the new ban legislation would pass, since it would have forced the carriage trade to go to court. I don’t believe any judge would have allowed the mayor’s noxious new regulations to stand. Given the mayor’s irrational and fanatic campaign against the horses, the trade may yet get their chance.

I think the message that will go out today is that the horses can be in the city, can be safe there, are as or more important than more cars and trucks and condos, do uplift and nourish and inspire human beings, as they have for so many years.

It is sad, but the other lesson, one which is unfortunately spreading all over the country, is that in their passion and drive, many elements of the animal rights movement do not tell or respect the truth, do not know or understand animals, cannot be given the authority to speak for their rights. They have abused that trust, and our most sophisticated and knowing city has totally rejected their arguments and beliefs once again. Animals do not need the right to be driven away from people or die, they are entitled to the right to survive with us, our partners in the joys and travails of life.

There are many lessons in that. We need a new and wiser understanding of animals than this, the horses know what they are doing, they have triggered a new social awakening about the future of animals in our world..

A great victory for the future of animals in our world. They will stay in our biggest city, where they are safe, loved and well cared for. The carriage trade will continue as a successful, iconic and independent industry.

The Teamsters Union  announced today that they can no longer support the horse carriage bill currently before the New York City Council. Minutes later, the mayor announced that his bill will be withdrawn,  and would not be voted on as scheduled. The bill is dead.

It was an enormous victory for the horses and the carriage trade and for the idea that animals can remain safely and productively in our everyday lives, even in densely-populated urban areas.

The mayor ran for the hills in the face of ferocious opposition, his cruel and unjustifiable campaign against the carriage trade a disaster. In a statement that had to be humiliating for him, the mayor said the bill was predicated on the agreement of all parties, including the Teamsters, and if they withdrew their support, the bill would also be withdrawn.

It seems that the carriage horses are the most powerful and admired political entities in the city. This is a devastating, and perhaps final blow to the mayor’s overreaching crusade  to remove the horses from the city.

“This chapter is closed,” a labor official very close to the negotiations told me this morning. Another great victory for the horses, for the environment, for the carriage horses, and for the true rights of the carriage drivers and the horses. “There will be no bill.” Just a few minutes later, the Wall Street Journal confirmed that the  bill would not be voted on as scheduled.

A city council member told me this morning that the reports were  true. “The bill is dead…,” he said. At the last minute, the mayor ‘s office had tied a 30 per cent pay raise for council members to the carriage bill, further raising the appearance of impropriety, to put it mildly.

They never consulted the pedicab drivers, who would have lost hundreds of jobs, the Central Park Conservancy, which has rebuilt the beautiful park, or any of the five community boards whose approval must be sought. And the mayor has refused to meet, speak with, or negotiate with anyone in the carriage trade since he took office and vowed to ban the carriage horses as his “number one” priority.

“I can tell you something,” the city council member said, “we are done diddling around with the mayor on the carriage horses. He has a big problem with this issue, and he will have to deal with it himself. We are not in the business of putting people out of work for no reason and killing animals for no reason.”

The mayor received significant amounts of money in his mayoral campaign from animal rights organizations seeking a carriage horse ban, especially NYClass, founded by a real estate developer named Steven Nislick.

It is widely believed that the mayor is trying to repay what is essentially a campaign debt, since he has never ridden a horse, taken a ride in a carriage, talked to a carriage driver,  or visited the carriage stables.

The city has offered no evidence of any kind that there is a legitimate government interest in banning the horses, or that the horses have been abused or mistreated. The failure of the mayor’s bill has been labeled one of the worst debacles in the political history of New York. The mayor says he wants to do it again.

The bill would have crippled and almost certainly ruined the carriage trade by sharply cutting back on the number of horses, their hours, and their territory and force the carriage owners to sell and close their stables without any place nearly ready for them to move into. Good government advocates were furious at the idea that taxpayers should pay $25 million for a private industry to be housed in the middle of Central Park, the most precious park land in the city.

The Teamsters Union, which represents the carriage trade, initially agreed in principle to move the stables to Central Park, they believed that was the best way to ensure the survival of the carriage trade and save at least 68 jobs, their primary negotiating goal,  against a powerful mayor determined – truthfully, obsessed – with removing the horses and the carriage trade from the city.

I think the Native-Americans are right. The horses have a lot of magic in them, they have been talking to me for two years now. They are not ready to leave us.

As the details of the legislation became clear, enormous opposition to the bill emerged from all across New York City – newspapers, community groups, pedicab advocates, organized labor, working people’s political parties, the Central Park Conservancy.

The only groups that supported the transparently hostile bill were the mayor, the very powerful Teamsters Union, and NYClass, the animal rights group that has spent millions of dollars in various ways to destroy the carriage trade in New York and ban the horses from any kind of work or life in the city. Without the Teamsters, the mayor is right back where he started – nowhere.

A statement I received this morning said “the Teamsters’ first priority is always our members and their livelihoods. With the legislation now finalized, our members are not confident that it provides a viable future for their industry. We cannot support the horse carriage bill currently before the City Council.”

“We were led to believe there would be more negotiating,” said one source very close to the negotiations. “We thought it was a great deal to move the stables into the park and ensure their survival forever, and we were ready for further talks. But the mayor suddenly refused to negotiate further. He thought he had it all locked up. Once again, he is wrong.”

Although the cancellation of the vote is a great victory for the carriage trade, their future is still uncertain. It isn’t clear if the mayor will try this again, or how long the stables can hold out in the face of the skyrocketing real estate values on the West Side of Manhattan. The stables are not worth many millions of dollars. The city could broker a deal to keep them in the city, but it isn’t clear the mayor will lift a finger to do that.

Still, this is great news. The horses have called out to us to honor their long and glorious relationship with human beings, to respect and understand their true needs, to give them the most basic right a domesticated animal can have – to do good and humane work among us, and in our every day lives. That is the path for animals to survive in our world, and to enrich us with their presence.

Truth does matter, facts do count.