Supporters, opponents clash at City Hall over proposed horse carriage ban in NYC
Supporters and opponents of horse carriage rides in the city clashed Thursday over a new campaign to outlaw the practice.
Riders galloped their horses over to City Hall in a counter-protest to a press conference conducted by lawmakers and activists in support of legislation to replace horse carriages with electric rides by 2024.
“This is 2022, not 1822. To have a horse in this kind of weather pull thousands of pounds with blinders on, again that’s all they do day in and day out, pulling thousands of pounds — for what?” said Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), chief sponsor of the bill.
“For some tourist’s enjoyment, where we can certainly have the high technology now to make it better,” he said.
Under the proposed law, the carriage riders would get first rights for licenses to operate the electric carriages.
Holden was joined by New Yorkers for a Clean, Livable and Safe Streets or NYCLASS, PETA and other animal rights activists including actress Kathy Najimy, star of the upcoming film “Hocus Pocus 2.”
“As a longtime New Yorker, I love my city, but I hate the fact that every time I walk out of my apartment building in Midtown, I am forced to witness the misery, dangers and abuse the carriage horses suffer every day,” Najimy said.
“That includes crashes with vehicles, horses being worked while sick or injured, and even literally dropping dead on the street. I’ve been fighting for these suffering horses to be removed from my beloved New York since 1985. Enough is enough.”
She said horses “get spooked” while navigating car traffic and are exposed to fumes.
Najimy also said “Las Vegas has more of a conscience than we do” because the gambling mecca has banned the horse carriage trade.
Many supporters held up signs with images of horses that had been injured or killed in accidents.
“Stop the exploitation, yes to innovation,” they chanted.
Dr. Jim Keen, director of veterinary sciences at The Center for a Humane Economy, said, “There may be a place for carriage horses in our society, but I believe that place isn’t the crowded, bustling streets of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, the largest and most densely populated city in the U.S.”
But a few riders from the horse carriage industry showed up to the press conference to express their opposition to the measure, while others protested just outside the gates of City Hall.
The horseplay heated up following the event.
The Post was interviewing Ugur Goktekin, a native of Turkey who has been a horse carriage driver for 5 years, when an animal rights activist abruptly interrupted.
“Anything they say over here is not true,” Goktekin said. “This is based on emotion, not logic. I don’t think anybody is going to go to an electric car and hug the electric car and cry because people love animals.”
Carriage rider Christina Hansen said the city needed horse sense not the nonsense of a ban on the popular tourist carriage industry. She said the horse carriage industry is safe and the horses are treated well.
“When you look at the totality of it, our horses almost never have accidents. We are safer than any other equestrian activity. What other equestrian activity can you participate in and not have to sign a liability waiver? That’s how safe we are,” Hansen said.
The horse carriage riders and stable workers are represented by the Transport Workers Union, which organized the counter-protest.
Animal rights activists acknowledge that they have a big fight on their hands going up against the powerful TWU and likely much of the labor movement backing the horse carriage trade.
