August 1, 2013
To: All New York City mayoral candidates entering the fall 2013 election cycle:
Re: New York City’s controversial and anachronistic carriage horse tourist industry:
PLEASE INCLUDE A BAN ON THIS INDUSTRY IN YOUR PLATFORM
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, 15 municipalities (including
Philadelphia) 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 New
York City’s streets, and have been an ongoing advisor for New York’s
Coalition to Ban Horse Drawn Carriages.
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 recommend that a ban against city
carriage horse rides be implemented in each municipality, unless the
horses can be restricted to a park or other area where they will not be
competing with motor vehicles for road space and where their stabling
can provide the essentials for comfortable, humane, and safe housing,
including the provision of daily “turn-out. In the case of New
York, the only safe place for this tourist attraction would be to
restrict them to Central Park, to which the Park Commissioner has
expressed adamant opposition—therefore, I ask that you ban this
industry in your city.
In
debating whether urban carriage horse rides as tourist attractions are
a benign entertainment or an inherently abusive misuse of animals, we
must examine all aspects of the horses’ lives, care and use in the
inherently inappropriate and hazardous (to horses) environment provided
by busy city streets. Relevant aspects include the horses’ source,
training, stabling, proper management by their stable hands and
drivers, availability of veterinary care, rest periods, and final
disposition when they are no longer capable of pulling a carriage.
SOURCE
The
owner of a carriage horse operation adheres to the strict bottom line
to achieve a maximum profit with a minimum of expenditure of time or
resources. For this reason, the horses that are purchased for New
York’s carriage rides are selected based on their prior experience in
carriage pulling—the new owner has no interest in training a new horse
to be proficient and reliable in an entirely new skill set and
environment. Therefore, the horses selected and purchased at horse
auctions (often from “killer sales”) are typically from one of two
backgrounds: the draft breeds in the northeast come from Amish farms
wherein they served as draft animals doing field work, while the
smaller horses may also come from the Amish community where they were
used for road work, and may also have come originally or immediately
from the Standardbred tracks, where they raced as trotters or pacers
pulling light sulkies (personal conversations with New York owners,
1988-92).
Due
to their previous use, they require little additional training but may
come into the urban carriage horse industry with preexisting injuries
(lameness, arthritis, strained and bowed tendons, laminitis) and
illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease—COPD
(chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or“heaves” in equine terms.)
These preexisting conditions can have a significant impact on the
horse’s well-being, suitability for and longevity in his/her new
occupation.
HANDLING
Based
on my experience interviewing New York carriage drivers between
1988-1994, I found that a distressingly large percentage of drivers
were not knowledgeable about horses and certainly had no prior
experience as carriage drivers in a hazardous urban environment. Many
were recent immigrants given employment through their American
connections, becoming drivers with no equine background whatsoever.
Thus, it is common to witness New York drivers chatting over their
shoulders to their guests rather than keeping their attention strictly
on the horse and his/her surroundings ahead. It is also common to see
drivers who have no control over the horses’ heads due to their
lack of a proper grip (if any) on the reins, and who even stand up in
the driver’s box, which is forbidden in expert driving standards and
competitions. In fact, expert carriage drivers who breed carriage
horses and drive then 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 hostile and hazardous conditions, and such
individuals are often most vocal against the urban tourist trade’s
abuse.
Aside
from the animals’ past injuries and present handling by inexperienced
drivers, urban environments have inherent characteristics that make the
safe handling and wholesome existence of carriage horses impossible.
They are inescapably exposed to the following health hazards.
RESPIRATORY DISEASE
Horses
working in traffic lanes shared with motorized vehicles are constantly
nose-to-tailpipe, whether waiting for their next fare by the curb or
moving in the traffic lane. They show corresponding respiratory
impairment, as was detailed in an unpublished study conducted by Dr.
Jeffie Roszel (personal communication, 1989). Dr. Roszel’s study
analyzed New York carriage horses’ respiratory health in 1985 when they
were still confined to Central Park; it showed that the horses suffered
significant lung tissue damage and cellular changes due to their
exposure to the noxious emission fumes of the vehicles—and this at a
time when the horses were not out on the city streets, as they are now.
For a horse with any preexisting respiratory impairment such as the
common COPD or “heaves”, the congested atmosphere is a significant
stressor to their health.
LAMENESS
A
lack of “soundness” is a major problem for horses who must pound the
city streets' unnaturally hard, concussive surfaces for their long
shifts. Many are not given adequate farrier care (i.e. hoof trimming
and shoeing) and since many horses come into this industry with
preexisting injuries or arthritis incurred in their previous uses on
race tracks or Amish farms, their lack of soundness may become a
growing problem. A horse’s hoof is healthiest when left unshod and
properly trimmed on a regular basis. The excessive pounding on the
paved surfaces makes the use of shoes indispensable, and many horses do
not get the frequent maintenance needed to keep their feet sound and
healthy, especially if their hygiene in their stalls is inadequate and
they develop infections (“thrush”) in addition.
HEAT PROSTRATION
In
the 1980’s, death by heat stroke (hyperthermia) was a leading cause of
death in the working carriage horse populations of New York, Atlanta,
and Boston. Horses in harness on the hot streets, denied sufficient
access to water and time in which to cool down, collapsed on the street
and in their stables. For this reason, equine experts recommended that
horses should be kept off the streets when the combined
temperature-humidity index (THI), which is the sum of the temperature
in degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity in percentage points,
exceeds 140; as the THI increases, so does the horses’ risk for heat
stress. One expert source states that a THI above 150 represents
a serious threat to horses’ health, especially if the humidity value is
more than half of the combined sum (Mackay-Smith, M. and Cohen, M.
1982. Exercise physiology and diseases of exertion. In Mansmann,
McAllister, and Pratt (eds.), Equine Medicine and Surgery, 3rd edition,
Santa Barbara CA, I:125-129).
The
issue of safe temperature ranges for the operation of carriage horses
is typically the most contentious problem for city councils seeking
consensus between their carriage horse industry and those citizens and
agencies seeking to protect the animals. 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—the atmosphere is too
saturated to absorb more fluid, and the horse’s core temperature
continues to climb. If the horse becomes dehydrated and cannot
produce sweat, anhydrosis (the lack of sweat production) ensues and can
be life-threatening, but keeping a horse on an urban street
well-hydrated can be a challenge in these modern days with no public
horse troughs. The few public troughs that do exist (e.g. in New York)
are prone to be polluted by trash and worse.
Since
New York City's asphalt surfaces have reached temperatures of 200
degrees Fahrenheit as reported in the New York Times (7/9/89), keeping
horses sufficiently cool on hot summer days in the humid northeast
becomes impossible. To add to the challenge that the horses face, the
U.S. Weather Bureau’s cited temperature readings are significantly
lower than the temperatures that the carriage horses’ microenvironment
(three to six feet off the pavement) provides. A study conducted by
Cornell’s Urban Horticultural Institute between 1983 and 1985 revealed
that the temperature at street level in New York could be as much as 45
degrees F. higher than that recorded by the U.S. Weather Bureau
(Bassuk, N. and Whitlow, T. 1988. Environmental stress in street trees.
.Arbocultural Journal 12:197
"SPOOKING"
As
any knowledgeable horse person can tell you, the horse is an animal
with a highly developed and highly effective flight drive when startled
by an unexpected or threatening stimulus. 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 carriage owners/drivers in several city council debates claim
that their horses are “spook-proof”—there is no such thing.
The
inevitable result of a horse being spooked while pulling a carriage in
traffic is a tragic collision between the horse and the crossing
vehicles at the next intersection that he/she gallops through in panic.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) maintains a data
base of horse and carriage accidents available on their website (www.peta.org.)
Some accidents have resulted in both human and equine fatalities, and
are much less likely to occur if the horses are restricted to areas
with no motor vehicles in operation.
STABLING
The
essential provisions for appropriate stables for horses, often of draft
breed size, whose daily shifts are spent between the extremely
confining shafts of their carriages, are beyond the scope of this
discussion. However, for a humane existence for the inhabitants, the
stables must include: box stalls (not tie stalls) that are a minimum of
ten by ten feet (twelve foot square is much better for the larger
breeds); constant access to clean, potable water in each stall; good
quality hay and grain secured in rodent- and moisture-proof containers;
bedding that is sufficiently absorbent and deep to provide comfort to
the animal when resting; proper ventilation and cooling provided by
fans to keep ammonia fumes to a minimum.
In addition, each NYC horse
should have—and does not get—daily turn-out in which he/she is given a
period to relax with a compatible stable buddy in a large enclosure
where they can roll, mutually groom one another, lie stretched out, and
generally obtain relief from their arduous shifts and the discomfort of
tight-fitting harness. In so doing, they satisfy both behavioral and
physical needs.
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
found their housing and routine care to be a far cry from the precepts
outlined above. 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 was 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. 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
regulation, and many horses worked with infected and inflamed sores.
No
opportunity for “turn-out” was provided since there was 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.
CONCLUSION
Although
carriage horse training and driving can be done with due attention to
making the experience both humane and pleasurable for the horse in a
proper setting, the tourist trades seen in urban settings cannot
provide a safe and healthy environment as long as the horses must work
in city streets where they are threatened by motor vehicle traffic and
physically injurious environments. I hope that this tourist attractions
is banned in New York City in the near future, to be replaced (for
example) by a nostalgic ride in a “green”, i.e. electric, antique model
car.
PLEASE PROMISE TO BAN THIS ANACHRONISTIC AND INHUMANE INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Holly Cheever, DVM
Vice president, New York State Humane Association
Chairperson, Leadership Council, Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association
-200).
This makes it critically important that the ambient temperature must be
taken at the horse’s elbow height to determine when the animals should
be returned to their stables, rather than relying on the temperature
reported by the media. Practically speaking, since New York has many
days per annum in which the temperature/humidity is too high for
horses’ safety, a ban altogether is preferable to a burdensome system
attempting to regulate when the horses must be removed from the
streets.
Return to
Expert Opinion
Fair Use Notice: This document may contain copyrighted
material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners.
We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a
fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US
Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of
your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner.
