Letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYC Council
Holly Cheever, D.V.M. - January 16, 2006
January 16, 2006
Michael Bloomberg
Mayor of New York City
City Hall
NY, NY 10007
NYC Council
250 Broadway
NY, NY 10007
Dear Mayor Bloomberg and Members of the City Council:
RE: Carriage
Horse Abuse
As a result
of the recent tragedy in which a panicked carriage horse bolted in New York City
traffic and was struck by a motor vehicle, resulting in his euthanasia, I would
like to request that your office and the City Council revisit the question of
whether carriage horses belong in New York City’s busy urban streets. To
introduce myself, I am an equine veterinarian, educated at Harvard University
and at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell, with a lifetime of
experience in horse management, including the driving of carriage horses. Since
1988, I have been the primary equine advisor for 2 states and, to date, 18
municipalities (including New York) that have sought knowledgeable assistance
either to ban carriage horses from operating in their cities or to devise
protective codes and legislation to prevent the all-too-common animal abuse that
occurs in this industry. In particular, I was very involved with the campaign
initiated by the American Society for the Protection of Animals and the New
York-based Carriage Horse Action Committee between 1988 and 1996, calling for a
ban of the use of carriage horses on NYC streets.
To begin
with, I would like to state unequivocally that I don't believe that horse-drawn
carriages and motor vehicles should share the same roadways due to the
distressing history of injuries and deaths (both equine and human) that have
occurred across the country due to carriage-car collisions. There is no way
that cities with their exhaust fumes, hard road surfaces, and busy traffic
patterns can provide a humane (as opposed to merely survivable)
environment for a carriage horse. For that reason, I always recommend that an
urban ban against city carriage horse rides be implemented, unless the horses
can be restricted to a park or other area where they will not be competing with
motor vehicles for road space. If a ban is not possible due to the tenacity of
an entrenched tourist industry, then detailed protective regulations
and the ability to enforce them are essential. In the case of New York, the
only safe place for this tourist attraction would be to restrict them to Central
Park. Realistically, the Commissioner of the Park has always expressed adamant
opposition to this plan, so I would prefer by far to see a complete ban due to
New York’s dense population, busy traffic patterns, climate, and the high-rise
corridors in Manhattan that exacerbate these health and safety hazards.
When
reviewing the status of an urban carriage horse trade, one must remember that
these animals are frequently not in the best of condition, nor are they always
handled by the most knowledgeable horsemen/women. Expert carriage drivers who
drive as a vocation or for the love of their animals are not the ones who are
involved in these urban carriage tourist trades. A topnotch breeder/driver
would NEVER subject their prized animals to these conditions: I can furnish
names upon request of driving and show judging horse experts who would agree
emphatically with this statement.
New York
City has inherent characteristics that make the safe handling of urban carriage
horses impossible. They are exposed to such health hazards as:
#1 RESPIRATORY DISEASE:
horses working in traffic lanes are constantly nose-to-tailpipe, and show
corresponding respiratory impairment (please note the enclosed discussion of Dr.
Roszel's study of New York City’s carriage horses and their respiratory
problems).
#2 LAMENESS is a major
problem for horses who must pound the city streets' unnaturally hard, concussive
surfaces, especially since the majority are not given adequate farrier care and
since many horses come into this industry with preexisting injuries or arthritis
incurred in their previous uses on race tracks or Amish farms.
#3 HEAT PROSTRATION is
seen in many cities in the northern temperate zone and has been the leading
cause of death in the carriage horse populations of New York, Atlanta, and
Boston. Please note the enclosures that explain this problem. Signs of imminent
heat stress include flared nostrils, brick-red mucous membranes, trembling, and
a lack of sweat production on a hot day. Horses should be kept off the streets
when the combined temperature-humidity index (the THI discussed in the
enclosures) exceeds 140; as the THI increases, so does their risk for heat
stress. Since New York City's asphalt surfaces have reached temperatures of 200
degrees Fahrenheit as reported in the New York Times, keeping horses
sufficiently cool on hot summer days becomes impossible.
The issue of
safe temperature ranges for the horses is typically the most contentious problem
for city councils in devising adequate protection for them. In the critical
temperature range of 89 to 96 degrees Fahrenheit, a large horse, particularly
one of the draft breeds, is greatly challenged in its ability to dissipate its
body heat into an increasingly warm environment, especially if high humidity is
a factor. A horse can lose 8-10 gallons of fluid with exercise in a hot
environment, but if the air is saturated by high humidity, cooling by
evaporation cannot occur. If the horse is dehydrated and cannot produce sweat,
anhydrosis ensues and can be life-threatening. This particular temperature is
in a very sensitive danger range for working horses--please remember that the
temperature must be recorded at ground level to determine the exact
environment that the horse is encountering ( the temperature as recorded by the
U.S. Weather Bureau is taken typically from a site well above ground
level—please note the Cornell Horticulture study).I recommend a top value of 89
degrees F. in humid environments, and can produce equine physiologists and
published articles discussing safe ranges for the prevention of heat
prostration. New York’s top temperature of 90 degrees F., coupled with its high
humidity in the summer, pose a definite threat to carriage horse health and
safety.
The low end
of the scale should include a wind chill factor for the obvious reason that all
mammals are more susceptible to hypothermia when wind chill is present. As
mentioned, not all horses in the typical urban carriage horse trade are in “mint
condition”, and thus should not be outdoors below a safe limit of 26 degrees F.
with the wind chill, and would require the use of blankets below 32 degrees F.
when standing. I am concerned that New York’s bottom limit of 18 degrees F. is
too low, and I doubt these horses are all blanketed in such temperatures.
Practically
speaking, since New York City has many days per annum in which the
temperature/humidity is either too high or too low for the horses’ safety, a ban
altogether is preferable to a burdensome system attempting to regulate when the
horses must be removed from the streets.
#4 "SPOOKING" can happen
to even the best trained and well-mannered horse. Their evolution as herbivores
(i.e. prey animals) has conditioned them to bolt first and consider the
situation later, dictating the need for the driver to be constantly in
contact with the horse's head, whether by holding the reins securely from
the carriage box or by standing at the horse's head with the reins in hand. The
driver must also learn to anticipate potentially threatening stimuli in order to
control the horse before it attempts to flee in panic, which is unlikely when
the drivers are novices. I have heard New York carriage owners/drivers claim
repeatedly that their horses are “spook-proof”—there is no such thing. As you
can well imagine and have witnessed recently, the potential for injury is
enormous and represents an extreme liability risk for the City as the licensing
agent.
During the several
years that I inspected New York’s carriage horses on the street and in their
stables at the request of the ASPCA and the Carriage Horse Action Committee, I
noted repeated violations of basic humane equine husbandry and care principles,
as follows:
- The horses
were not given adequate water during their work shifts since no public water
is readily available to them, and most were denied the basic presence of water
buckets in their stalls.
- Many horses
were afforded inadequate hoof care and shoeing, adding to their likelihood of
developing or exacerbating lameness.
- The stables
were distressingly inadequate, with poor hygiene, temperature control, and
ventilation. Also, most horses were confined to tie stalls rather than to box
stalls, which means that their entire lives as NY City carriage horses keeps
them restricted to narrow spaces—between the carriage shafts while working and
between their stall walls when resting, with never a chance to turn around
comfortably or roll or scratch their itching hides after the harness is
removed. Bedding was nonexistent or grossly inadequate.
- Many showed
harness sores that should require them to be removed from work till healed;
however, there was never sufficient enforcement of this precept, and many
horses worked with infected and inflamed sores.
- No
opportunity for “turn-out” was provided since there is no room for such a
space in the stable areas. Therefore, the horses had no opportunity to perform
natural movements or experience normal socialization, so necessary for a herd
animal, for their entire lives in this industry.
If I may be
of any assistance in trying to remove and save these horses from their
inherently hostile (to an equine) urban environment, please do not hesitate to
call me. Thank you for your attention in this matter.
Sincerely,
Holly Cheever,
DVM
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