Carriage Horse Industry Keeps the Reins in NYC

by Stephanie Feldstein · 2010-04-15 20:54:00 UTC
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The New York City Council was considering three bills concerning the future of carriage horses this week: 1) ban the industry, providing for humane disposition of the horses; 2) replace the industry with hybrid classic cars; or 3) support the industry with raises for the drivers. If you guessed that Door Number Three was the winner, you would, unfortunately, be correct.

Horse drawn carriages are relics from a less populated time, and they no longer belong in the city. But apparently the City Council doesn't agree — the industry's pet proposal passed 43 to 4. In addition to increasing the fare to be pulled around Central Park, the Council didn't completely forget the horses. The new bill requires stalls large enough for horses to turn around and lie down, and five weeks vacation per year at a place where they actually get to see pastures. It also adds safety measures to the carriages, like emergency brakes and reflective material.

Christine C. Quinn, New York City Council Speaker, called it a "huge step forward." Elizabeth Forel, President of the Coalition to Ban Horse Carriages, testified that the horses "live an existence that is survivable, but certainly not humane."

The bill has provisions to reduce the sweatshop hours of the horses to include more rest periods and shorter work days, but with enforcement largely left to the ASPCA (whose officers are also dealing with every other type of animal cruelty in the city), these types of regulations don't really have spurs. If this bill is signed by Mayor Bloomberg, as everyone expects it to be, the age of carriage horses will be limited to between 5 and 26 years old, which is good, but there are no provisions for the end of a horse's short career, so most of them will continue to be shipped off to slaughterhouses.

It's hard to say this is a "huge step forward," especially when the stable requirements barely allow for a small step in any direction. The minimum stable size lets horses turn around and lie down, as promised, but that's about all the space they get in their 60 square foot stalls. While the horses get to see a pasture during their vacations, they don't get to see much besides the inside of the stable and the tailpipes of city traffic during the other 47 weeks of the year.

The carriage horse industry can never truly be humane. It's based on horses living in an unnatural setting, denied daily access to pastures and socialization with each other ... all for human entertainment. As Forel said, "Horses are not machines."

Photo credit: Ed Yourdon

Stephanie Feldstein is a Change.org Editor who has been part of the animal welfare and rescue community for over a decade, and most recently worked for an environmental organization.

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