Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages

Emily  S.- January 30, 2009      

My name is Emily S.  and I live in NYC.  .  I am with the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages and I am here to speak in support of Intro. 658, the bill that would ban them.

 There are inherent safety issues with having horse-drawn carriages in Manhattan, and traffic is a major concern.

 With stables located as far as two miles away from Central Park, the safety hazards faced by the horses are tremendous. And putting these highly sensitive animals into traffic creates an enormous public safety risk, for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers.

A combination of minimal government oversight, driving violations, and horse behavior intensifies traffic risks in an already congested area and creates a public safety hazard that cannot be ignored.  
 
As a highly sensitive and alert prey animal, a horse's reflex is to flee from threatening stimuli, including any number of sights and sounds that are abundant in Manhattan.    

Furthermore, horses are among the largest and fastest land animals.  To have a 1200- to 1500-pound animal in modern traffic is frightening and inappropriate.     

The consequences of a horse's natural behavior in a densely populated urban environment have proven to be disastrous in spooking accidents, such as the ones that killed Smoothie in 2007 and Spotty in 2006.     

The Spotty accident was particularly gruesome, and media coverage revealed the horrific crash that injured the carriage driver and 2 motorists.      

Spooked horses—whose "fight or flight" response can cause them to run into traffic, objects and each other—are a predictable cause of accidents.      

Humans are usually injured when a horse spooks in traffic. Another spooking accident will happen sooner or later.    

So the question is not WHETHER a human fatality will occur, but WHEN.    
 
Horse-drawn carriages put horses and people in harm's way.        

Anything LESS THAN a full ban indicates a willful disregard for the public safety.