In scenic Central Park, horse-drawn carriage rides have long served as an iconic attraction for many residents and visitors in the Big Apple. That era may be coming to an end, however. During his campaign for mayor, Bill De Blasio promised to end horse-drawn carriage rides in New York City on his first day as mayor. He wants to replace them with “old-timey” electric cars.
It’s another example of animal rights activists run wild. The pending ban will destroy several, generations-old, family carriage businesses. To radical animal rights advocates and leftists like De Blasio, these businesses are necessary collateral damage in their quest to re-order our lives.
The horses live a pampered existence, working no more than 9 hours per day under the care from trained equestrian experts, who undergo a rigorous licensing process that involves a 3 day test, 80 hours of apprenticeship, and a 6 month probationary period.
With 5 weeks of mandatory vacation, the horses enjoy a level of workplace regulation that would put a French union worker to shame. The stables housing these animals are lavish, granting the horses a standard of living that outperforms most human residents of NYC. Still, nothing is good enough for the radical animal rights activists who have been scheming to abolish these stables for over a decade.
Activists, who claim the carriage rides are unethical, base their case on the deaths of two horses in 2006 and 2007 that resulted from traffic accidents. Nearly 300 people die every year due to traffic accidents in New York City. Meanwhile, carriages have seen less than three horse fatalities total in the past three decades, despite giving countless thousands of rides every year. The care and safety provided to these horses is extraordinary, yet with big money, animal rights activists have been able to blow isolated incidents way out of proportion.
