Saving NYC Carriage horses- action needed

[GenuineRisk]

Next week it looks like the NYC City Council will vote on a proposed plan to limit the number of carriage horses in the city, and move them to an as yet undecided on new location in the Park, at taxpayer expense (likely north of $25 million dollars). This is for no reason other than Hizzoner paying back the real estate interests that paid seven figures to get him into the mayor's office (the stables where the horses currently live are on the West Side and could be worth as much as $70 million if they were to be sold for development).

But the bill requires the number of horses to reduce now, with no guarantee that these mythical Central Park stables will ever actually be built. It's death by a thousand cuts to the carriage horse industry.

As the NY Times has said, this is a solution in search of a problem as there is no reason to do this. The horses are well-treated and content, the drivers like their jobs and the stable owners don't want to sell. This is Tammany Hall levels of graft and corruption. It's an issue about which all three of NYC's major papers agree is a terrible idea (when will that ever happen again?).

If this legislation passes, blue collar men and women will lose jobs and horses that have already been given a second job (most carriage horses are former farm horses and trotters from the track) will be left with no job and likely nowhere to go but to auction.

Whether you're a NYC'er or not, if you have time to send an email or make a call or send a fax to an NYC Transportation Council member, it would be a good gesture towards saving an iconic, equine industry (and jobs and horses' lives, too). Carriage horses are a big tourist draw, so it's worth it for even non-NYC residents to let the Council know they're following this.

I'm including a link to Carriage On which has emails and phone numbers for the Transportation Council members, and also a piece from one of the papers about how wrongheaded this legislation is. Basically, tell them you oppose 573-B and don't want any legislation that costs jobs and reduces the number of horses.

Link to how to help:
http://carriageon.com/help/

Links to op-ed on the preposterous legislation:
NY Daily News

NY Post

NY Times

(See? I told you all three papers agreed)

With tens of thousands of horses sent to slaughter every year because they have no job, those of us who are fans of, or make our livings from equines need to support those industries that give horses safe, lifelong jobs. We can't lose them.