Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages.
I understand the horse drawn carriage drivers of Manhattan are trying to save their jobs and horses. That is to be expected.
However, I feel they are making a serious public relations error in hiring anti-animal rights group The Cavalry Group.
As you will see below The Cavalry Group work against meaningful regulation and legislation to protect animals.
This self-proclaimed anti-animal rights group appears to operate from the platform that laws protecting animals from abuse, torture and death interfere with human rights to do whatever they want to animals.
They are of course lumping anyone who cares about the welfare of animals into the same category. This is misleading. People working for the protection of animals come from a wide variety of backgrounds and philosophies. They are not all animal rights activists or vegans.
ERIN DURKIN, reporting for the New York Daily News, writes:
The outfit has opposed several “animal rights” measures around the U.S., including a ballot question in Missouri to crack down on so-called “puppy mills” and a referendum in North Dakota that would make it a felony to maliciously and intentionally harm dogs, cats or horses.
On its website, The Cavalry Group declares that animal rights “extremists” are working to advance a “vegan agenda.”
“Animal ownership is under attack by animal rights groups all around the country,” said Mindy Patterson, president of The Cavalry Group. “We do not purport any particular political point of view. We believe in protecting freedom and private property.”
Opponents of the city’s horse-drawn carriages criticized The Cavalry Group’s involvement.
Several horse carriage drivers turned to the Cavalry Group after a solicitation by the organization.
I realize for the drivers that the determination of newly elected New York City Mayor de Blasio to rid the city of the carriage horse trade falls into the “desperate times call for desperate measures” category, but feel they will live to regret this move, and urge them to reconsider. It is not too late.
Whether you are for or against horse drawn carriages in Central Park, this is a bad move.
Where is Liam Neeson on this?
To read more from the New York Daily News report, go here >>
Tuesday's Horse 
While the carriage drivers were naive in accepting assistance from the Cavalry Group, demonizing them is a distraction from the reality that the horse drivers are fighting back rather effectively, opening up their stables to the media and demonstrating that their opponents want to ban the industry, but have not been able to win the day by citing individual cases of neglect, abuse, and accidents. Also, real estate industry lobbyists have donated to DeBlasio’s campaign, with the expectation of evicting the stables and obtaining the valuable land. Those are the central issues, not the Cavalry Group, and the drivers have an excellent chance of winning a lawsuit against those who want them to lose their jobs. The NYCLASS spokespeople I have seen are rather inarticulate and mostly vegans.
Animal rights groups like the Humane Society of the United States and PETA (same philosophy, different tactics) seek to impose bans on various animal use industry practices. The HSUS IS extreme – extremely corrupt. It wouldn’t surprise me if Wayne Pacelle pitched this story to the Daily News. – and the NY Times. He despises the Cavalry Group for exposing HSUS’s violations of the laws and regulations for legislative lobbying by tax-exempt charities. Whatever you think about HSUS, they brazenly violate IRS rules – by a thousand miles. Pacelle has a character disorder or two, and rails against anyone who criticizes, exposes, and opposes him. That includes SLAPP lawsuits, formal complaints, and using the media to fight his battles. The lawsuits and complaints are groundless and intended to harrass and force his targets to spend time and money defending themselves. His goal is often to intimidate internet bloggers and media critics to take down their posts. He is a coward and a bully and a pathological liar.
In the Daily News article, Pacelle cites the Cavalry Group’s opposition to Prop B and a North Dakota law. The facts are that then Missouri breeder law was poorly crafted, unconstitutional, and did not address the main issues – funding for enforcement and unlicensed breeders. Countless animal advocates opposed it, it barely passed, and it was improved by local groups including the Missouri Humane Society. Pacelle went on the Ellen Degeneres show to lobby her millions of viewers against the compromise bill, telling them to flood Governor Nixon’s office with phone calls urging a veto. When that failed, he spent a quarter of a million donor dollars trying to change the laws in Missouri to make it more difficult to change initiatives after they pass. That was another failure, and he withdrew the proposal after wasting the money. Now he credits HSUS for any success in closing down puppy mills in Missouri. Similarly, the North Dakota bill he pushed was directly competing with a better bill from North Dakota animal protection groups and individuals.
Finally, HSUS has a lot of chutzpah criticizing the horse drivers association with the Cavalry Group, since he chose to partner with Michael Vick (every other animal group refused). His motivation, as always, was money and publicity and he got plenty of both. And Vick is just one of his and HSUS’s many criminal associations.
I don’t think that DeBlasio will succeed in shutting down the industry. I am neutral on the issue because I agree with some arguments on each side. Each side has the right to fight, but the animal rights groups seem shocked and angry that the public polls on the issue favor the drivers and that the little people are making a strong case to maintain their livelihoods.
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Thank you for your information.
The carriage horse situation in NYC is a complex issue. And it is has become highly politicized. The horses no longer seem to be the core concern although stated otherwise of course.
Carriage horses are the last few ambassadors for all horses where the public can interact with them. That said, we are alerted to so many cases across the US where horses are working in extreme temperatures and living in horrific conditions. Europe seems to do it better. It is not as cut and dried as it may first appear. You have to take it case by case. I lived in New York. The Mounted Police keep an eye out for the carriage horses and the drivers know it. So we are not supporting or condemning any particular city.
Insofar as Michael Vick, he should never, ever be able to have any animal in his control. Ever. He did the HSUS “forgiveness tour” (trying to make people feel guilty about hating him when they hated what he did) so he could get his job back in the NFL. When Obama telephoned Vick that tore the ticket for me. All PR; nothing else. I notice that Vick is still on the roster of the Philadelphia Eagles. They should be ashamed. If he was a convicted child abuser or sex offender would they have him on their team? He tortured and brutally murdered dogs in the most horrific fashion. People do not move beyond that without a lot of help; most never do.
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Yes, it will get “messy,” as was expected. The Cavalry Group, with *Mindy Patterson being the President of the Group, says it all. She cares for the welfare of animals? Yes, better to slaughter horses for their welfare… she is a friend of Sue Wallis. So here we go, a weasel group slinking into a *horse issue, the NYC Carriage Horses!
Now they could be a group to fight against. I presume I am seeing their influence, especially on at least one well-noted Facebook web blog. This blog is run by a very well-known, (has been) “celebrity,” so-called “animal lover.” He has always been controversial. And now for me, he is over the top: misinformation, lying. He has a large following of mainly animal-loving women.
The fine line between “animal rights ” & “animal welfare” is being exploited. We who care for the NYC Carriage Horses care for their welfare. We are not extremists, nor ls the Humane Society. But as I said, I have noticed blog pages on FB ramping up the rally to keep the horses in NYC.
The ramblings started slowly. For instance, the moderator mentioned above, stated the horses will be brought to places where there is nothing to do, horses are meant to work, they will waste away in a pasture. He posted: The horses are well-cared for in NYC, watched over by a commission (Not.) Then his rhetoric evolved to: “No one will take 200 horses.”
The participants in this group are upset over the loss of “all the pretty horses.” How much they enjoyed seeing them, riding in the carriages.” How they add to NYC. “Tradition!” Nothing about the brutality, the cruelty to these horses. Then yesterday, this blog posted LIAM NEESON as saying it was “criminal” to take the NYC horses out of NYC! Then on the same blog page came the clincher by the moderator: “All horses will be killed.” That was it for me. I was shocked.
I am a participant in this group for various reasons. One is to tactfully oppose some comments & actions against animals. Carefully, for one can be banned very easily if one opposes the moderator. Well. yesterday, reading :”The horses will be killed,” I wrote the truth with back-up information, with a link to the organization that for decades, has been all for banning NYC Carriage Horses from NYC. Well that was it, I was banned.
But the beat goes on. That’s Not All Folks:)
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Is there a sanctuary where the horses can go if horse carriages are banned? I don’t really care about the drivers – they only want to exploit animals ;-(
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Reblogged this on "OUR WORLD".
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When you see Mindy Patterson’s name, it all falls into place. The Cavalry Group is just another name, another place to donate, for the United Horsemen. Sue Wallis et al carrying on their wicked and brutal rousting of small brainers to grunt and brandish fists at anyone who stands up for the kind and realistic care of animals. Fight them.
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Thanks Jan for pointing that out. Yes, the horse slaughter mongers.
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Mindy Patterson also misrepresented herself and the facts at the hearings for permitting the Missouri horse slaughter plant proposal. Stenholm is a member of the lawfirm (Olsson Frank Weda Terman Matz PC) contributing to their consultant bases on animal care platforms.
The horse Mindy is sitting on in the NYT piece looks terrified.
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