Ban The Carriage Horse Industry in New York City

Animal rights advocates are angry over the way horses are treated in New York City and are backing a bill, which if passed, would ban Central Park's Hansom Cabs

The first hearing took place on Friday and the protesters were there to harness outrage.

"This was the equivalent to tying up your grandmother to pull a carriage," says Elizabeth Forel of the Coalition for New York City Animals.

Forel is backing bill 658-A, which would ban all horse-drawn carriages.

"This is an industry that makes its living on the backs of these animals with no regard to the fundamental inhumane conditions under which they work," says City Councilman Tony Avella.

Drivers and the Teamsters they work with called the accusations lies.

"I've been doing this for 25 years and nobody, and I stress nobody, loves my horses more than I do," says Ian McKeever, one of the drivers.

For the carriage drivers it comes down to an issue of jobs. They say 400 people will be out of work if the ban goes into effect. The organizers of the ban say there is an alternative such as retraining to become pedicab drivers.

"I'm a little surprised that they would be retrained as pedicab operators. They're gonna teach these guys to ride tricycles through New York?" says Demos Demopoulos of Teamsters Local 553.

A New York Public Library picture from the 1930s is a reminder that the city was built with horse power, but animal rights advocates say it's time to leave that piece of history in the past.

"It is time that the carriage horses in New York join bustles and gas lamps in the pages of history and not on the streets of New York," says Stephen Zawistowski of the ASPCA.

McKeever says the nostalgia of the Hansom Cabs are important to the city.

"We're a very iconic business. We're as famous as the Empire State Building and the Plaza Hotel. We hold New York's greatest commodity in the palm of our hands: tourists," he says.

Outside the Plaza, tourists got a glimpse of what New York would be like without Hansom Cabs. They all stayed away in protest of the bill.

"The other option they're giving us is a bicycle which they say is the same, but I don't think it's the same," says Jade Domenech, a tourist from Miami.

The City Council is now saddled with the decision of whether to turn horses and drivers into outlaws. It's the first time in 15 years the Council has taken up a bill involving horse-drawn carriages.


Sincerely,