Horse-Drawn Carriage Horse – Response

Well, looks like my post on Horse-Drawn Carriage has elicit a negative response from a particular individual. Thanks for commenting but I want to clear this up a bit. My blog is written from a personal view, drawn from personal experiences as well as many sources I research. It is always my foremost duty to provide a honest, fair and balanced account.

To Decembergirl60, I applaud you for your love and respect for your own horses in providing a good life for them. However your case is an exception, not the rule. I’ve been a New Yorker for 25 years and have seen the conditions of horses around town. While I cannot say I know each horse intimately I do sense that most that I’ve seen appear rundown, tired, and agitated from noise pollution – there is no denying that traffic and horses don’t mix. All other comments, which I should have highlighted clearly was from various newsource like NYTimes, as well as humane organizations. I do not make this stuff up.

If you so vehemently disagree, I can only provide the following links. Oh, yes– according to the NYTimes, horse-drawn carriages have been banned in Lonodon, Paris, Toronto and Beijing. Again, thanks for your comments.

Articles:

1. Startled carriage horse dies after bolting onto a sidewalk, killed in Central Park
2. Carriage horses and accidents in NYC – endangering people and animal (documented)
3. Audit of practice fins inconsistencies. Horses deprived of water, risk of overheating, hot asphalt, inadequate drainage
4. Horse drawn vehicles are outlawed in London, Paris, Toronto and Beijing.

Filed under: Resources, animal cruelty , accidents, horse-drawn carriage horse

The Cruelty of Horse-Drawn Carriages

On one hot summer day a few years ago, my husband and I were driving along the West Side Highway in New York City. There was this dinky corner garage with horses standing outside in the sun, looking exhausted, dehydrated and rundown. That’s when I realized that it was one of few city stables that held horses that pull carriages around the city, and that’s where they go when a hard day ends.

It may seem all wonderful and romantic, especially when you see these carriages in Central Park, waiting for tourists to mount a ride around the city for a small expense. But this practice is outdated. Afterall, we have cars now, and it is no longer a necessity to subject such an animal to urban streets.

Carriage horses endure loud noise, car fumes, traffic dodging, hard pavement pounding for most of their lives. The busyness and polluted environment of city streets are extremely stressful for horses. They haul heavy carriages all day, and it has been reported that they receive very little care and good nutrition. Over the past few years, a rising number of horse-and-car related accidents for both animals and humans. Horses could suffer respiratory ailments and even drop dead on the streets from heat strokes in the summer. At the end of of a hard day, they retire to sad little stables (more like garages)–and before they could recover, before the sun rises, another hard day begins again. When they get old and become useless to the business, they do not necessarily retire to green pastures, they get sent to the slaughterhouse.

This practice is dangerous to both horses and humans. Accidents are waiting to happen, and if you are unlucky, you could be the victim of horses gone wild, taxis crashing into pedestrian walkways, etc. Please spread the word to your friends and family who are visiting cities planning on horse-drawn rides. Sign the petition today and let our government know that this is cruel. (The U.S. does not have any strict provisions in the protection of horses). Major cities like Paris, London, and even our own cities like Key West have already banned carriage rides. Let’s help make New York a more humane place to visit.

Filed under: Take Action, animal cruelty, local issues , animal cruelty, horse-drawn carriages, horses, New York City, Take Action, tourism

Stop Wild Reptiles from Pet Trade

Some people have a thing for cold-blood animals such as snakes like the boa constrictors, pythons, and even anacondas. Among them are turtles, exotic frogs, and even iguanas. Reptiles as pets are hzardous to your health—and theirs. And estimated 11 million pet reptiles live in U.S. households currently, and this has resulted in depletion of the wild population, damaged habitats and suffering of the animals involved. This is a matter of humane, conservation and public safety (info from Humane Society of U.S.).

Most reptiles for sale today are taken from the wild. The methods to flush them out of the water, swamps are cruel—yanking, netting, forcing them out of the damaged habitat with gasoline and chemicals. In transit to the stores, most of these reptile will have been injured, sick, or dead. For ignuanas especially, they suffer malnutrition and develop diseases as they don’t get the appropriate natural diet and sufficient amount of ultraviolet light they require. Generally, the same problem faces all reptiles, as being captive in a domestic home or swimming pool are unnatural for them.

Reptiles require a lot maintenance, and most people who’ve bought them become overwhelmed. In Florida, people release unwanted reptiles such a constrictors, even alligators back into the water or swamp and in areas not indigenous to them. This creates a ripple effect in the ecosystem, as the balance of life become all messed up.

Please take a moment and act right away–the deadline for public comment is 4/30/2008. Your comments will go to the U.S. government and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services (FWS). Go here to sign your pledge, and tell your friend and family about this urgent issue!

Filed under: Resources, Take Action, animal cruelty, humane organizations, local issues, reptiles , alligators, cruelty, ecosystem, frogs, humane society of the U.S., pet trade, reptile trade, snakes, turtles

Earth Day – Do the Earth Some Good

It’s Earth Day 2008. I will say briefly—Be good to the earth, to all its creatures, especially animals on this day, help preserve habitat for them. Because they came before us, for most they are our means to live, eat, to survive. Don’t pollute the air, don’t smoke, recycle as many things as you can, and water your plants—HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!

Filed under: international issues , animals, conservation, earth day 2008, recycle

Pope Speaks for Farm Animals

During his visit to the U.S. Pope Benedict XVI expressed his vision and compassion for all beings, including and particularly of farm animals. PETA has been in close communication with the Vatican about the welfare and exploitation of livestock for as early as the previous Pope. In his speech he said:

“Animals, too, are God’s creatures, and even if they do not have the same direct relation to God that man has, they are creatures of his will, creatures we must respect as companions in creation.”

Farm animals endure extreme cruelty, especially in America. As they are bred for consumption, factory farm industry workers often do not view them as living, breathing, feeling animals, and therefore treat them as objects that could be tortured, controlled, and killed without anesthesia. Cows live in stagnate positions in farms in their own filth for months and years. Their journeys to the slaughterhouse is atrocious, in assembly, with their throats cut, electrocuted, their heads bashed in order to stunned them. Often they die painfully and slowly while being butchered. Pigs live their entire lives in crates so small they cannot move and develop sores. Piglets are pulled from their mothers so early—they are castrated, branded without drugs, and also killed unmercifully. Among these are many other like veal, chickens, lambs (for wool) that suffer needlessly. It’s bad enough we eat them, the least we could do is show a little decency.

We are what we eat. The more suffering an animal endures, the higher the chance it is sick and bad for consumption. Think about it. If you must eat meat, avoid veal and go organic where animals receive kinder treatments, free of radicals and antibiotics, and have had better lives in roaming free.
For more information: visit PETA or Farm Santuary.

Filed under: animal cruelty, farm animals, humane organizations , compassion, cows, farm animals, Farm Sanctuary, livestock, meat comsumption, peta, pigs, pope

Extinction: Polar Bear

We will miss them when they are gone—and it’s happening, rapidly. With global warming so apparent, arctic animals such as the great Polar Bear is decreasing in numbers more quickly than ever. With the ice caps melting from warmer climate, the arctic-sea ice habitat they completely depend on, polar bears will find it harder to breed. It will be tougher for them hunt for food, hibernate. They will have fewer cubs and less will survive from the shortage of food, their mother’s milk. They will be unable to swim longer distances between the broken ice sheets. They will grow tired and drown. It has been reported more often now that dead polar bears are found in water and land.

Another plight that is facing polar bears is the government loopholes that allows Americans (and other countries) to hunt them in Canada and bring them back to the States, for skin, fur, and as trophies. This is an abomination, since they’re already suffering from the climate change. There is reportedly only 25,000+ of them left around the world (this is a low number) comparing to the millions 50 years ago.

While many people feel that there are other more important issues to think about– this one must not be ignored. Global warming affects us all, as we know already—the more ice caps melt, the sooner and more definite, our waterfront cities will be immersed by sea-rising oceans. Polar bears are on the top of the food chain, and when they disappear, the balance of life as we know it will be altered forever. Seal population will rise (yet giving Canada an excuse to hunt them). Arctic foxes and birds will have nothing to scavenge and eventually die too.

As for me, they are just too precious to not give a damn about. We’d miss them when they’re all gone. Read more about this issue here. Do your part to help lessen the effects of global warming, and keep informed.

Filed under: hunting, international issues , extinction, Global Warming, hunting, IFAW, polar bears

The Ugliness of the Circus

When I was a little kid, my summer camp instructor took us to the circus. I was overjoyed at seeing all the acrobats do all these amazing stunts. The show was full of animals and they performed gloriously at the snap of a finger, and I thought how wonderful it all was. I thought they were so obedient and had wondered if I could get my pets to do tricks too. Now that I’ve grown up I have come to the horrific conclusion that not only is animal performance unnatural, it is extremely cruel.

Elephants are captured in the wild either from Africa, Thailand or India, usually as infants kidnapped from their herd, and shipped back to our country to endure long, painful lives in chains. They are often beaten with bull hooks and starved when they don’t obey their handlers. Along with them, other animals such as bears, tigers, monkeys are forced to travel long hours, wear uncomfortable costumes, eat poor diets and abused in some way in order to perform tricks over and over again. Have you ever heard in the news where elephants or tigers that suddenly went crazy on their masters, even killing some of them, in order to escape? They are disheartened, sick, and hopeless creatures, living in fear each day for the rest of their lives.

Kindly consider this the next time you want to bring your kid to the circus. Do you want you child to learn that it is okay to treat animals in such a way for the sake of entertainment? Go see Cirque De Soleil, a people-only circus, among many nowadays which are all amazing. Boycott Ringling and Barneys- they are closely watched by PETA and many animal welfare organizations. Visit Performing Animals Welfare Society and learn more about the subject or make a donation!

Filed under: Resources, animal cruelty, circus, local issues , children, circus, elephants, paws, peta, ringling and barneys

On My Mind

I’ve been on vacation so running a bit behind on posts. While on vacation I thought about my top animal issues that I’d like to write about. Stay tuned for these subjects: Yellowstone Wolves, Whaling, Fur, Veal Factories, Circus Animals, Dogs and Cats as food in Asia, and more…. please write me if there are any issues you feel strongly about and I will do my best to highlight! Thanks for reading!

Filed under: Global Warming, animal cruelty, circus, dogs and cats, humane farming, international issues , animal cruelty

The Power of Education

After watching Oprah’s special on Puppy Mills, it breaks my heart even more to see what actually is happening to dogs today. But with that comes great hope, because it just starts with one major show on TV to educate people about a subject that most never even know about. I’m certain that after watching this show, people will make smarter choices about getting a dog. Thank you Oprah and Lisa Ling. Thank you Wayne from the Humane Society of the United States, for bringing this important subject to light. 

Adopt from shelters, one-third of dogs in shelter are pure breeds if you want a specific one. Check out breed rescues, spay and neuter your pets. Save a life and help prevent more from being euthanized (about 15,000 per shelter per year) Think of how many dogs’ and cats’ lives are taken and put into city dumps. Yeah, they dump their poor bodies into the landfill.

Filed under: Resources, Take Action, dogs and cats, humane organizations, local issues, puppy mills, shelters , dog rescue, euthanasia, oprah, shelters

Sign the Pledge to Help End Seal Hunt

Voice your outrage against the Canadian Seal Hunt. I’ve added a “Take Action” category on the right column. Click here to sign the pledge –it goes to your local and international government officials. 

Filed under: Resources, Take Action, international issues, seal hunt , seal hunt, Take Action