PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
SAVE NYC CARRIAGE HORSES FROM KILL AUCTIONS
  1. Signatures
    7,625 out of 10,000
    Petitioning
    1. Council Member (+ 38 others)
      Petitioning
      close
      • Council Member (Mark Weprin)
      • Council Member (Eric Martin Dilan)
      • Council Member (Vincent Ignazio)
      • Council Member (Jimmy Van Bramer)
      • Council Member (Albert Vann)
      • Council Member (Gale Brewer)
      • Council Member (Dominic Recchia)
      • Council Member (Mathieu Eugene)
      • Council Member (Vincent J. Gentile)
      • Council Member (Daniel Halloran)
      • Council Member (James Vacca)
      • Council Member (G. Oliver Koppell)
      • Council Member (Jessica Lappin)
      • Council Member (Robert Jackson)
      • Council Member (Joel Rivera)
      • Council Member (James F. Gennaro)
      • Council Member (James Sanders)
      • Council Member (Daniel Garodnick)
      • Council Member (Ruben Wills)
      • Council Member (Leroy Comrie)
      • Council Member (Fernando Cabrera)
      • Council Member (Larry Seabrook)
      • Council Member (Eric Ulrich)
      • Council Member (Brad Lander)
      • Council Member (Peter Koo)
      • Council Member (Ydanis Rodriguez)
      • Council Member (letitia James)
      • Council Member (Sara Gonzalez)
      • Council Member (Stephen Levin)
      • Council Member (Elizabeth Crowley)
      • Council Member (Darlene Mealy)
      • Council Member (Julissa Ferreras)
      • Council Member (Annabel Palma)
      • Council Member (David Greenfield)
      • Council Member (Helene D. Foster)
      • Council Member (Lewis A. Fidler)
      • Council Member (Karen Koslowitz)
      • Council Member (James S. Oddo)
      • Council Speaker (Christine Quinn)
  2. Created By
    Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

Thanks to everyone who put the pressure on the NY City Council, we finally have a bill – Intro 670 – that amends Section 17-329 Disposition of Licensed Horse of the Administrative code, which will require that the owner sell or donate the horse to either private individuals or a duly incorporated animal sanctuary, with a signed assurance that the horse will not be sold and shall be kept solely as a companion animal and not employed in another horse-drawn carriage business or as a work horse and that the horse would not be sold to auctions or slaughter.

The way the law works now, records are only required to be submitted to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOH) if the horse is sold within NYC.  But if the horse is sold outside the city, as most are  – such as at auction – no records are required.  This bill seeks to change that.  

There is a huge turnover of horses in the NYC carriage business, something of which the public is not aware.   There are a little over 200 working horses at any given time and upwards to one-third drop off the DoH horse registry  each year.  A recent analysis of the horse numbers over the last five years from 2005 through 2010 (acquired via the Freedom of Information Law)  revealed that a whopping 315 horses were no longer on the rolls.  The number is on the low end since the comparison represents a snap shot in time on any given date. There were many horses who came and went between the dates the information was received.

We know that some horses were found at slaughter auctions – Bobby II Freedom, who was rescued in 2010 and is now living at Equine Advocates in Chatham, NY.  Lilly O’Reilly who is honored on our web site.  She was rescued in 2006.  And Manhattan, a horse found at the kill auctions by a rescue group a few years ago.  These horses were found but how many others are not so lucky.  

Please sign our petition to NYC Council Members

These Council Members do not have e-mail addresses – Please call them:

Maria del Carmen Arroyo --   718-402-6130  

Charles Barron - 718-649-9495

Inez E. Dickens - 212-678-4505

Michael Nelson - 718-368-9176

Diana Reyna - 718-963-3141 

Peter F. Vallone, Jr - 718-274-4500

Jumaane D. Williams - 718-629-2900

These Council Members sponsored the bill – call to thank them and ask that they promote the bill and get others to sponsor it. They are not included on this petition because change.org has a maximum of 40 targets. 

Margaret Chin - 212-587-3159 - chin@council.nyc.gov

Daniel Dromm - 718-803-6373 – mmallon@council.nyc.gov.

Melissa Mark-Viverito - 212-828-9800 - mviverito@council.nyc.gov

Rosie Mendez - 212-677-1077 - rmendez@council.nyc.gov

Deborah Rose - 718-556-7370 – (no e-mail listed)

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Pity the Poor Horses -- Please save the carriage horses from the slaughter auctions

Dear New York City Council Member:

I would like to thank all the Council Members who made possible the introduction of Intro 670, the bill that amends the Administrative Code - Section 17-239 Disposition of Licensed Horse.

The present law is deeply flawed and allows horses who are sold outside NYC to fall between the cracks. When the horses leave the system, there is no accountability required. Sale and transfer records are only required to be submitted to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene when the transaction is made within NYC, but no records are required if the sale is made outside of the city as most are.

I ask City Council members to sponsor and pass this bill, which requires that the owner sell or donate the horse to either private individuals or a duly incorporated animal sanctuary, with a signed assurance that the horse will not be sold and shall be kept solely as a companion animal and not employed in another horse-drawn carriage business or as a work horse and that the horse would not be sold to auctions or slaughter.

These horses have it hard enough working in heavy, congested traffic for nine hours a day, seven days a week, only to come back to a stall that is small by expert standards with no turnout to pasture for 47 weeks a year. Please pity them in their last years.

We know that some horses were found at slaughter auctions – Bobby II Freedom, who was rescued in 2010 and is now living at Equine Advocates in Chatham, NY. Lilly O’Reilly who is honored on our web site. She was rescued in 2006. And Manhattan, a horse found at the kill auctions by a rescue group a few years ago. These horses were found but how many others are not so lucky.

Please let NYC not be known as the city that supplies its horses to slaughter auctions. Take a stand for the welfare of these horses.

The language of this proposal was part of Intro 658A and 86A, the bill that would phase out the carriage industry and replace it with vintage replica electric cars.

I ask the Council to pity the poor horses and at least save them from the kill auctions now.

Thank you.

[Your name]

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