UPDATE: The vote on the carriage horse “compromise” bill, Intro 573-B has been cancelled for tomorrow, February 4th, due to backlash. The Council will not vote on this bill tomorrow. We are getting more info, but please continue to contact your NYC Council Members with the message that a full BAN of this cruel, reckless industry is needed. Now is the time for the Mayor an Council to go back to the original ban bill we were promised by the Mayor.
Did you know the well-being of carriage horses—the whole point of introducing legislation in the first place— is lost in Mayor DeBlasio’s “compromise” carriage horse bill Intro 573-B? The bill will not make horses safer and does nothing to put an end to an industry that is not held accountable for what happens to horses when it’s done exploiting them.
FoA objects to sacrificing Central Park’s land for the carriage horse trade and knows that NYC carriage horses end up in a New Jersey slaughterhouse, Bravo Packing, Inc, which slaughters privatized older, abandoned horses. (The owner has never said he doesn’t slaughter carriage horses, but explains that he slaughters all the horses that arrive humanely by shooting them in the head.)
It’s appalling that the mayor plans to seize precious Central Park public land and buildings to create new stables for the carriage industry while taxpayers are left to foot the estimated $25 million bill. Central Park, with limited resources, should not be carved up to accommodate this commercial business. Mayor De Blasio’s plan to kill the environmentally sensible pedicab industry—seen as competition for the carriage drivers—by banning them from below 86th Street in Central Park, is also backward.
Friends of Animals is asking New York members to contact their council members and tell them not to support Intro 573-B and to vote instead for an outright ban of the carriage horse industry.
Contact your Council Member by calling 311 or go to http://council.nyc.gov/
Council Member Ydanis Rodriquez, Chair of the Committee on Transportation
212-788-7053
And, Council Speaker Melisssa Mark-Viverito
212-788-7210
mviverito@council.nyc.gov
Mayor de Blasio’s office: 212-788-1400