BUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE HORSES?
We have often heard the question from well meaning, but ill informed people “What will happen to the horses if there is a ban? Won’t they go to slaughter?” I like to ask them “Where do you think they go now when they are no longer wanted?” They generally have not thought too much about it and do not have a good answer. I would like to disabuse those of any notion that the horses go to a sanctuary or are otherwise retired to good homes. While some undoubtedly do get good homes, many of them go on to auction – often the first step to a slaughterhouse. And the person who brings the horse to auction is the owner - the horses do not walk there by themselves.
First some background: The horse-drawn carriage industry is in business to make money. It is not a sanctuary or a petting zoo. Horses need to be able to pull a cart and be street-wise. When they get too old, tired or weary of the street, they can no longer do the job and are replaced. If they get injured, they will most likely be replaced because of the high cost of veterinarian bills. This is an industry that has over 200 horses with a very high turnover. Past research by the Carriage Horse Action Committee (now defunct) and confirmed by the Coalition to Ban Horse Drawn Carriages revealed that the average working life of a carriage horse on the streets of NYC is about four years. Some of the horses probably do go on to good homes – but how many good homes are there just waiting for a big carriage horse? Horses are very expensive to maintain properly. The existing law states that a horse must be disposed of in a “humane manner.” All this means is that the horse cannot be killed, but can be sent to auction. If sold out of state, records are not required to be submitted to the Department of Health -- clearly a law written by the Industry.
One of the biggest auctions of horses and livestock is New Holland in Pennsylvania. Anyone can attend the auctions – people looking for a workhorse, a pet horse and kill buyers. “Kill buyer” is the name given to representatives of slaughterhouses looking for horseflesh. Until recently, there were three slaughter houses in the United States - all foreign owned - two in Texas and one in Illinois. As of 2007, all three were shut down by court order. But that does not stop the slaughter. Horses are now being trucked to the slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. A new facility is being built in Mexico to handle the increased volume of horses due to the close downs. Over 100,000 horses were slaughtered in the United States last year for the foreign dinner plate. Surely some of them were carriage horses. A report coauthored by Temple Grandin and others - “Survey of Trucking Practices and Injury to Slaughter Horses” discusses this industry. She states that most of the carriage horses originated from Pennsylvania – home of New Holland auctions and conveniently close to NYC.
Intro 658, the bill to ban horse-drawn carriages, will be revised when there is a City Council hearing. It cannot be done until that time. The revision will address the issue of real humane "disposition" of the carriage horses, which means sanctuaries or adoptions to legitimate people who will keep the animal as a companion. The horses will not be given or sold to anyone who intends to use the horse in another carriage industry.
Although we are not insensitive to the economics involved, our primary goal is to put an end to this inhumane industry as quickly as possible and to insure that the horses are placed in good homes.
The horses will not go to slaughter.
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