“We know that we cannot be kind of animals until we stop exploiting them”. —César Chávez.
Here are two eyewitness accounts concerning a carriage horse in New York City who was later identified as Norman, and followed up by the Coalition to Ban Horse Drawn Carriages.
FIRST WITNESS: DRIVER PUSHES CARRIAGE HORSE TO COLLAPSE IN THE STREET
Horse-Drawn Carriages.
The picture above is from Friday, September 2nd when a horse collapsed at 12th Avenue and 50th St in the early hours of the morning. Thank you to the NY Post for running the story and for the eye witness who took the pictures.
Bogdan Paul Angheluta, of Farmingdale, LI, told The Post he was outside nightclub Space Ibiza when he saw a carriage-horse driver “screaming for the horse to make the green light.”
He says the horse then “collapsed” and was “breathing slow and hard.” “I’m 100 percent positive,” Angheluta told The Post. “He was forcing him to make the light. The horse was tired.”
“He didn’t collapse, he tripped himself,” said Christina Hansen, a [carriage driver and] spokeswoman for the carriage industry, who claimed Norman was heading back to the Clinton Park Stables on West 52nd Street at the end of his shift when he fell. “He’s kind of a klutz.”
Sure he did, Christina. Sure he did. And the Department of Health took her word for it rather than calling in an outside vet to determine what happened and grilling the driver.
No surprise there. The carriage industry continues to be one of the most protected businesses in this city.
SECOND WITNESS: HORSE DRAWN CARRIAGE HIT TURNING IT OVER, SENDING THE HORSE TO THE GROUND
From: [name withheld]
Date: Fri, Sep 2, 2016 at 2:23 AM
Subject: HDC accident at 2am
To: coalition@banhdc.org
Hello, this evening on my way home from work I was driving north bound on the west side highway between 50th and 51st streets when I came upon an HDC that had been hit, the horse was laying on the ground and the carriage was turned over. This was so violent and sad. I called 911 and the operator sent the police. Please investigate this because it can probably help with the ban on HDC. It’s so sad that this had to happen and I never want to see such terrible mistreatment of animals ever again. Please let me know if you need any more information but I thought you guys needed to know first thing.
Thanks
Elizabeth Forel writes:
I immediately reported this to the Mayor’s office, the NYPD and the DoH. They refused to do anything without proof that something actually happened. The Mayor’s office even said “if” it happened, trying to cast doubts on this eyewitness report.
It is not clear whether or not they already had the photos and report as the article states. This is why it is crucial to document accidents and report as soon as you can. The NYPD detective actually said they had no reports yet the article refers to a police officer in a black SUV. The DoH and the mayor’s office also claimed they had no reports. The article contradicts that. So why the lies?
Yes, we are worried about Norman, the horse. The carriage horse spokesperson, who is also a driver and has an inherent conflict of interest, claimed – “he tripped.” But did he? Was he sick; exhausted; did he spook? There is a car in the background. We will have to try to track Norman to see if they send him off to auction. The Mayor’s office should have demanded that Norman be examined by an independent veterinarian – not one used by the carriage trade. They should have taken this seriously instead of believing the “spokesperson” who was not even there.
When Bill deBlasio ran for mayor, he promised many times to ban horse-drawn carriages when he was elected. It never happened and since he too office, things are worse than ever. No one is enforcing the street laws. Drivers continue to make illegal u-turns and leave their horse dangerously unattended and untethered.
He got many of us to support and vote for him. And then we realized he had lied. He is running for reelection in 2017. Please do not vote for him – he is a liar and does not deserve a second term.
PETITIONS
Please take a moment to sign at least one of these Petitions. Would be wonderful if you could sign them all. Know of a Petition not on this list? Please e-mail coalition@banhdc.org and they will include it.
We are showing the links to ensure you can “get there from here”. Let’s go.
In the United States
CHARLESTON, SC
• https://www.change.org/p/boycott-horse-drawn-carriages-in-charleston-sc
AUSTIN, TX
• http://www.thepetitionsite.com/970/056/639/ban-horse-drawn-carriages-in-downtown-austin2c-texas/
HILLSBOROUGH, NC
• https://www.change.org/p/hillsborough-mayor-and-board-of-commissioners-ban-horse-drawn-carriages-in-hillsborough-nc
CINCINNATI, OH
• https://www.change.org/p/cincinnati-city-council-ban-cincinnati-horse-drawn-carriages
PHILADELPHIA, PA
• https://www.change.org/p/jim-kenney-end-cruel-carriage-rides-in-philadelphia
NAPLES, FL
• https://www.change.org/p/florida-governor-bill-barnett-no-horse-drawn-carriages-in-naples-florida
CLEVELAND, OH
• https://www.change.org/p/frank-g-jackson-mayor-of-cleveland-ban-horse-carriages-in-downtown-cleveland
CHICAGO, IL
• https://www.change.org/p/ban-horse-drawn-carriages-in-chicago
Outside the United States
MONTREAL, CANADA
• https://www.change.org/p/ban-horse-drawn-carriages-in-montr%C3%A9al
VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA
• https://www.change.org/p/victoriahorseprotection-outlook-com-protect-carriage-horses-in-victoria-bc
CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
• https://www.change.org/p/ban-horse-drawn-carriages-in-the-city-of-melbourne-not-as-romantic-as-you-might-think
GILI ISLANDS, INDONESIA
https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-severe-cruelty-and-abuse-that-occurs-in-the-horse-carriage-trade-in-indonesia-replace-the-horse-carriages-with-solar-powered-tuk-tuks
LIMASSOL, CYPRUS
https://www.change.org/p/limassol-municipality-ban-beach-front-horse-carriage-rides-in-limassol
SOURCE
Coalition to Ban Horse Drawn Carriages
http://www.banhdc.org
FEATURED IMAGE
Carriage horse down. Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, bans horse drawn carriages, April 2015.
Tuesday's Horse 
Omg this makes me sick. Sick that anyone would make money, benefit, from destroying or harming an animal. Awful human beings
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Linda,remember these people prey on your emotions to elicit donations,they don’t care if you get overwrought. Norman the carriage horse is fine, he was checked by a vet that very morning. I work with carriage horses in another town and can tell you I am not a cruel person. Draft horses are large,strong horses that are bred to pull,this is NOT a hard job for them to do, I promise you. I get angry at these animal rights groups manipulating folks with their lies. Norman has a job and for a horse,a job is a very good thing.
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You won’t get any sympathy for your baseless arguments here. We are both privately and publicly funded and need not advertise or prey on people’s emotions like the big money spinning groups who do little else.
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Thanks so very much for the links to all the petitions… This has always been so incredibly sad and outdated — this allowed, unenforced torture. As others mentioned, along with the recent BLM news, it’s overwhelming. Thank you for continuing to highlight it in the public consciousness (and fight it, of course).
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I tweeted the previous post and some woman tweeted me back yesterday that said horses cannot breathe slow and hard and that couldn’t be anything wrong with the horse because the DOH declared the horse healthy. I was like, bull! The DOH is only educated in human health and obviously this woman is not an equestrian and knows absolutely nothing about horses and horse health. Truly a picture of ignorance at it’s core! This is just getting to be too much between the BLM and now this! It seems like no one is doing anything to stop this. All I hear is more and more abuse piling up between these two issues and nothing being done about either. When will enough be enough? When there is not a single wild horse left?! That will be coming sooner than later I fear.
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Between this and BLM proposal to kill 44,000 horses, these articles are almost more than I can deal with any more. It is very difficult for me….becomes very emotional. All this cruel treatment we are seeing today is a picture Satan and what he has to offer. We had better get our act together because I don’t know how much longer God is going to put up with this.
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