It's Time to Stop Horsing Around

Emancipating Equine Labor from the Carriage Industry

By Tracey Laszloffy, Best Friends Volunteer

Labor Day, a holiday that calls us to recognize laborers and their rights, provides an excellent opportunity to consider the rights of non-human animals whose labor we exploit and whose interests and needs we woefully ignore.

For thousands of years humans have been capturing, corralling, confining, harnessing, herding, hobbling, probing, and parading other animals for the purposes of exploiting their labor for transportation, agriculture, experimentation, warfare, and entertainment. In modern times we have alternatives to almost every way in which we once used other animals, and yet, we remain stubbornly tied to practices that exploit the bodies and the labor of other species. One such example involves horses whose labor is ruthlessly exploited and whose rights are systematically neglected by the carriage industry that persists in many cities across the United States.

Reliance on horse-drawn carriages arose during a period in history when humans did not have automobiles and relied principally on equine labor for transportation. While the presence of horse-drawn carriages in U.S. cities such as New York, Atlanta, Charleston, and New Orleans is depicted as a quaint reminiscence of a bygone era, and is portrayed as charming and romantic, this practice is brutally hard on horses and is unsafe to both horses and humans alike.

The streets of 21st century cities are no place for horses, especially those harnessed to carriages that they are forced to cart around all day long, in scorching heat and bitter cold, amidst a sea of noisy and fast-moving cars, trucks, and buses all belching out an endless stream of exhaust fumes. While cities such as Biloxi, Santa Fe, Palm Beach, and Key West, as well as Paris, London, Beijing, and Toronto, have all recognized this fact, many remain in the dark and stuck in the past. One of these is New York City, although thanks to councilman Tony Avella, groundbreaking legislation was proposed in December 2007 that could ban horse-drawn carriages in Manhattan.

Avella’s proposed ban references an audit that was conducted by the New York City Comptroller in September 2007 detailing the mistreatment of the city’s equine laborers. According to the audit, horses regularly went for a year or longer without being examined by a Department of Health and Mental Hygiene veterinarian. When scheduled stable inspections were conducted, veterinarians spent no more than 25 minutes at each location, including the time it took to travel between stables. The audit also exposes that horses on the street did not have ready access to water, lacked adequate shade during hot weather, and because of insufficient street drainage, often had to “stand in pools of dirty water.” (1)

In addition to the daily hardship that carriage-pulling horses undergo, this practice leads to routine injuries and frequent accidents. Horses who are forced to labor pulling carriages are prone to lameness from walking day after day on asphalt, respiratory illness from breathing exhaust fumes, and dehydration from exposure to hot temperatures. Moreover, because horses are easily spooked by loud noises and may bolt, accidents are commonplace, resulting in injuries and death each year.

Horses are innately social beings who derive pleasure from interacting freely with others of their kind, grazing in pastures, and running across open fields. Saddling them with harnesses, jamming steel bits into their mouths, and forcing them to pull heavy loads all day long only to retire at the end of a shift to a cramped, dismal stall is inhumane. Saddest of all, horses who are no longer able to work generally do not retire to green pastures to live out the remainder of their lives in peace. Instead, they are auctioned off where most end up going to slaughter to become dog food or are shipped overseas for human consumption.

Defenders of the carriage industry claim that horses are well cared for. But this claim defies the reality that to use horses in this way requires the suspension of any serious consideration and concern for the rights, needs and interests of the horses. From the drivers and city officials who see the horses as means to a profit, to the tourists who see them as a means to their amusement, the carriage industry exists to meet human needs, not the needs of horses. As long as horses (or any beings) are viewed primarily as a means to ones self-serving end, it is highly improbable that these beings will be treated with care, compassion and concern for their welfare. After all, if the horses’ needs mattered to those who use them, they wouldn’t be using them in the first place.

A graphic example of this point is found in the case of a horse named Juliet who had been forced to labor pulling carriages for 17 years in New York City. One night in 2006, Juliet collapsed in Central Park only to have the carriage driver beat her with a whip in an attempt to force her to her feet. To the driver, Juliet was a means to his end of earning a living. She wasn’t a sentient being with her own needs and interests. While some angry observers tried to stop the driver, the police ultimately allowed the beating to continue after the driver convinced them this tactic had been suggested by a veterinarian. Juliet died later that night. The driver just got another horse and continued on with “business as usual.” (2)

It’s time for cities like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Denver to stop horsing around, realize this is the 21st century, and emancipate their equine laborers by banning horse-drawn carriages.

What You Can Do

Never take a carriage ride. If you have friends or family who express an interest in doing so, explain to them why this practice is cruel.

If you live in a city that offers horse-drawn carriage rides, contact your local officials and express your objections. Work with others to propose legislation to ban horse-drawn carriages.

If you ever observe abuse of a horse used to pull carriages please click here to report it

Sign the NYC horse-drawn carriage ban by clicking here

If you live in New York City, please send a personal letter to your councilmember urging him or her to support and cosponsor Int. 658, which would ban horse-drawn carriages. Send your letter to your councilmember's district office address. Personal letters are the best way to make an impression on legislators. Just two or three sentences will do. Please feel free to use the following sample letter as a guide:

Sample Letter

Dear [Name],

As your constituent, I urge you to vote in favor of the bill to ban the inherently abusive — and impossible to regulate — horse-drawn carriage industry. Horses should be treated compassionately, not forced to work between the carriage shafts for long hours in extreme weather conditions, on hard pavement, while inhaling exhaust fumes all day. Horse-drawn carriages are cruel to horses and dangerous to motorists and pedestrians. They are a sad sight that does not belong in New York City.

Sincerely,

[Your name here]

Sources

(1) William G. Thompson, “Audit Report on the Licensing and Oversight of the Carriage-Horse Industry by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Consumer Affairs,” The City of New York Office of the Comptroller Bureau of Management Audit, 27 Jun. 2007

(2) Corey Kilgannon, “For Central Park Carriage Horse, Death Arrives Inelegantly,” The New York Times 16 Sep. 2006

Photo courtesy of © Jonathan Souze | Dreamstime.com
Posted by Tracey Laszloffy