TESTIMONY BEFORE THE CITY COUNCIL TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE RE LOCAL LAW 89
NOVEMBER 29, 1993
PEGGY PARKER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CARRIAGE
HORSE ACTION COMMITTEE
Mr. Chair and Members of the Committee:
In 1982, there were 141 registered carriage
drivers. There are now 296 drivers – almost three times the number in 1982.
Are innocent immigrants obtaining green cards to come here for promised jobs
that according to carriage owners, don’t exist?
I have heard no mention of a homeless person
being hired as a carriage driver, nor have I seen one face that is not white
driving a carriage.
If any other industry came before you crying
poverty, and then submitted these impressive employment figures, would you
then give that industry the entire City, as both the Dear and Vallone bills
do? Would the Council ignore the pleas of ambulance drivers, bus drivers,
major business associations, community boards, and the vast majority of those
who live, work and seek recreation in Manhattan? All want these horses off
busy streets. These bills sanction the brutalization of horses and the
endangerment of humans.
Two horses, or more, per one driver is the norm
in other cities. Here, it’s three drivers per one horse. How can one horse
service three drivers who, as immigrants, need full time employment?
Could the answer lie in the fact that the
average working life of a NYC carriage horse is less than three and a half
years, and if the Health Department were willing to analyze the basic data
(actual arrival and departure dates), it would probably be more like two and
one half years?
(By comparing lists from 1985 to 1993, one sees
that 439 horses were newly registered, about 55 per year to maintain an
average of approximately 135 in the stables. This is a replacement rate of 41%
per year.)
A NYC police horse has an average working life
of 15 to 20 years. But then, a police horse carries a rider on an average of
four hours per day with two days off per week, has excellent care, and decent
housing. They are valued animals. They are also retired, not sent to
slaughter.
Compare a carriage horse to a police horse.
Visit, unannounced, a police stable. Then, visit, unannounced, a carriage
stable. There is no comparison. The stable inspection results you were shown
in 1992 as proof that these facilities were A-OK don’t wash. With two weeks
notice a pig’s sty could be made a palace. “Far from ideal”, “such adverse
conditions” and “stable conditions followed by harnessing and working at their
trade is not in the horse’ best interest”, were the words uttered by one of
the inspecting vets. You were not given that information.
Would any vet on the payroll of the industry
testify against those who pay him? Would the city agency responsible admit the
horses live in squalor?
Any horse owner who would lobby to make his
horse work a 70-hour week, on hard pavement, dodging buses, his nose in
tailpipes, and return to a stable where he cannot lie down or turn around
cannot be considered one who loves or cares for that horse, and even if you
know zilch about horses, you must know that. Some of these horses have been
purchased for $300, as was “Misty” who after only two months in NYC, was
worked to death at night, one week after the infamous collapse of “Whitey.”
That is why Local Law 89 was passed. [see Peggy Parker’s “A Black Night
Horse”]
With more passengers (increased to six) more
than a taxi can legally carry, how can $20,000 in liability insurance be
responsible?
Aside from the fact that these carriages are
the most dangerous commercial vehicles on our streets at any hour – open
seating compartment, flimsy construction, high center of gravity, no brakes,
no seat belts, a flight & fright “engine”, they are also completely under
illuminated, and exceedingly vulnerable at night. That is why almost all
cities ban late night carriage rides. Our most serious accidents have occurred
after dark. The City pays when the industry cannot, and with a top of $20,000
in liability insurance, the carriage owners cannot pay.
Will the EPA allow carriages in Rockefeller
Center area in 1993, when they were not allowed in 1992?
Local Law 89 was enacted to prevent abuse to
these horses, injury to people and ease traffic flow. You are being asked to
completely eviscerate this law, which is already less than what other cities
impose. The Dear and Vallone bills return these horses to the very conditions
which existed prior to this law, and return NYC to the top of the list as
horse abusers with lack of concern for people – a third world city. No one is
even willing to consider a permanent and just solution which would benefit
everyone. Why is this?
Return to
History
