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As history tells it, in the early 1900s "the presence of 120,000 horses in New York City was declared 'an economic burden, an affront to cleanliness, and a terrible tax upon human life.'" Today the horses are fewer (there are 221 licensed horses, 293 drivers and 68 licensed carriages), and a bit more popular -- albeit amongst the tourist set.
The NY Times has a piece on the New York City comptroller finally (for the first time) auditing the way the city polices the carriage horse industry. He stated that the city has "abandoned many of its responsibilities and permitted some carriage owners to maintain their horses in substandard conditions." The Coalition for New York City Animals tells the sad truth that "the average working life of a carriage horse on NYC streets is under four years compared to a police horse whose working life is about 14 years." Not surprising, as the comptroller points out the ball has definitely been dropped by the agencies watching the industry.
Monitoring by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Department of Consumer Affairs at the Central Park South carriage stands is inadequate, the audit found, and lax veterinary care in the field and infrequent inspections have created health hazards.He claims the most serious flaw has been "the failure to create a five-member oversight board mandated by city law in the early 1980s." This board would oversee the horses, drivers and carriages. The 18-page audit (which covered July 2005 to March 2007) contained little to no positive points on this industry, and the comptroller suggested the city “should consider creating an actual concession within Central Park to house both carriage and pleasure horses,” which would keep the horses away from harm and allow them to be more easily monitored. Meanwhile, over in Brooklyn some people are suggesting horsecars for Prospect Park.In addition, horses are not provided with enough water, risk overheating on hot asphalt and are forced to stand in their own waste because of inadequate drainage, the report said. And though licensing is an important tool for tracking horses, the audit found that the paperwork for 57 carriage horses described different animals from year to year, though the license numbers did not change.
Photo via Wally G's Flickr.
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great job, mr. comptroller
I've witnessed many small incidents ehen being in central park that tell me most these guys don't care for those animals...I've seen people "rebuking" the animals with such anger!
I think is time to end the abuse of horses!
This horses don't deserve to be exploted by the human beasts.
don't allow horse carriages anywhere else!!!!
those in central park are already the worse example.
men in that bussiness are worse than pimps: abusing defenseless life to make money.
I walked the length of central park south yesterday,
beautiful day as many had seen.
I've never seen that many hansom cabs before. some looked mangy and irritated and the smell, I've thought it would never end.
there one was one driver who did the right thing and had some citronella scent near his carriage.
I remember seeing a driver trying to make the light, he yelled, YEEEAAAAAH! and whipped the reins, the horse didn't do a thing, just the standard gallop pace.
Almost saw an accident.
Poor horses. They look so broken down.
I don't know how those idiot tourists can ride in those carriages in good conscience. Can't they see how terrible conditions are for those horses? It seems obvious to me.
Another example of market driven capitalist "democracy" where everybody, including the horses, get abused. What's wrong with this city? Other cities are getting more interesting culturally and economically while NYC is being pilferred by a hadfull of clueless selfish financers. Its a disgrace. And don't tell me to leave if I don't like it. I lived here all my life. I OWN this city. (and so do you.)
Maybe the social consciousness can start by just protecting these animals. How far away is NYC from Europe in this respect, DECADES away.
This just reminds me of the last chapter of Black Beauty. Only without the happy ending.
This is really too bad and confirms worst fears. But I wonder whether that life expectancy figure of 4 years for a carriage horse vs. 14 for a police horse is a little skewed.
Carriage horses are often older farm animals whose age make them less effective for farm work, but can still pull carriages. You can see that many of them are draft-sized horses. Many of these animals may have led relatively longer lives elsewhere and now, in their "golden years", obviously have a shorter life expectancy than a police horse that may not have had a former life as a draft/farm animal.
Also, some of the police horses are maintained by auxiliary police forces comprised of horse-buff volunteers. I used to know one such fellow who had skads of dough and treated his police horses (in the Central Park precinct) quite well.
Regardless, I'm sure that the carriage horses do face some abuse and neglect.
They should have Michael Vick do some community service with those horses.
I see everyone here is completely one sided on the subject. What would you suggest we do with the more than 200 horses in this industry? Animal rights activists say they should be in a field running free...Purchase said glorious field, purchase the horses, and free them.
Until then give the drivers a break. They're good people who care for their animals, which they need in good condition to sell their carriage rides to the public. I guess if they all lived on the the upper east side, off of their trust funds, they wouldn't need to work either.
Read the actual audit report before coming to conclusions...the media has a way of twisting things to sell papers and attract viewers.
As a bike rider I have to say it's less than wonderful to bike through all the horse shit on CPW on the way home at night. And have horse carriages driving in the bike lane - forcing me into the traffic that is speeding up CPW in order to go around them. It would be nice if they were forced to clean up after themselves and not allowed on city streets.
Save the Horses!! Help the drivers to better maintain the Horses. This is the city of the world afterall. Shame on us all.
Guest #11:
The purchase the horses might be a consequence of making illegal the activity: A conclusion.
There is no sense of buying the horses if the activity is legal: buying horses from unscrupulous people continually to prevent the abuse? -it sounds more like an incentive for the abusive owners-
The activity of using animals for profit in cities should be illegal. You might see it as a legitimate "industry". But like circuses it is a horrendous spectacle of human abuse and neglect over animals.
Humans that use animals as a source of income will always be under scrutiny BECAUSE ANIMALS HAVE RIGHTS like it or not. Human rights are not an excuse to abuse others life (human or animal).
If the owners can not be responsible for the proper treatment of the animals, they can not expect "respect". The ownership is not a responsibility free situation.
fug the bike riders in Central Park. Horse shit doesn't smell. It's a lot better than dog shit anyday.
Everyday I see the horses negotiating the tractor trailers and insane traffic of 10th avenue and the eastwards turn onto 58th street torwards the park. Its a wonder that any of them survive the trip. Breaks my heart everyday to see the fear in their eyes as they try to make it by the cars & trucks to a day of servitude to tourists. There is no way that any animals should be subject to such torture.
Pedicabs are cleaner, cheaper and more humane, and negotiate traffic much better and safer.
Theres plenty of other jobs they can have. Pure animal abuse!
it is 2007. why the hell are horses being used to do anything?
being a legal immigrant i can say that many of the horse owners are immigrants too that bring and prolong bad attitudes towards animals...
The funny thing is that people do ride, it appeals to a sense of romance, but it that attitude is archaic and totally cruel.
Let's enter the 21st century and replace this primitive, inhumane industry form of transportation with replicas of the 19th century "horseless carriage." It's truly romantic, without the cruelty.
The recent Comptroller’s Audit of oversight of the carriage horse industry brought to light what we have been saying for years – that this is a cruel and inhumane industry, the horses live in squalid, exploitative conditions and no one cares. This was first reported in the NY Times and later around the country via the AP.
So what happens now – when I was at the park yesterday – it was business as usual and the horses were standing on CPS on the burning asphalt; no shade; still thirsty - and some standing in their own urine and feces. Life goes on – or not.
Please write to Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn. The power is in her hands. Ask her to use her influence to sponsor legislation to ban the carriage horse industry in NYC and go the way of other more progressive cities such as London, Paris and Toronto where the industry has been banned for years. Use this link to leave her a message. http://www.nyccouncil.info/rightnow/contactspkr.cfm
Elizabeth Forel / Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages - www.banhdc.org
banhorsedrawncarriages@yahoo.com