NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL
February 12, 1994
To the Editor:
David N. Dinkins, in one of his final decisions as Mayor of New York
City, vetoed an ill-conceived City Council-passed bill that would have
weakened the law that protected the city's carriage horses throughout his
administration.
A sunset provision voided that protection on Jan. 1.
The purpose of the sunset provision was to mandate a humane and pragmatic
review of the effects of the expiring law on the horses and the public.
Both the public and the horses were well served.
During the law's existence fewer carriage horse accidents occurred, even
though
significantly more carriage horse drivers were employed.
Obstructions related to carriage horse traffic were reduced, a fact
gratefully noted
by business community representatives and city traffic and health department
officials, who protested in public hearings the weaker provisions of the
proposed bill, which the full Council nonetheless passed.
Despite an obvious need for legislation at least as protective as before,
entrepreneurial interests, little concerned with horse carriage-related city
traffic problems and the humane needs of carriage horses, have persuaded the
usually humanely vigilant head of the City Council, Peter Vallone, again to
advocate carriage horse legislation that is still significantly weaker than the
former law.
Were David Dinkins now Mayor, horses at the mercy of our legislators would
have a protective champion.
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani will soon have a chance to demonstrate the extent
of his humane sensitivity. Let us hope that it is equal to the standard that was
established by his predecessor.
JOHN F. KULLBERG
Tenafly, N.J., Feb. 2, 1994
The writer was president of the American Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals, 1978-91.
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