Irish-Operated Carriage Horses -- A Stroll in the Park or Slave Labor?
Antrim-born actor Liam Neeson is calling upon fledgling New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio to step back from hizzoner's commitment to ban carriage horses from the streets of the city.
Photo by Victoria Pickering, Creative Commons license
The carriage trade has, for well more than a century, been largely an Irish franchise, and Neeson has issued his most stinging critique of what he suggests is De Blasio's hypocrisy on the issue, threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of working class carriage drivers and stable hands. You can read more about it in Irish Central.
My question to everyone: Are horses ill used as they pull these colorful carriages around Manhattan's Central Park, or are they treated with the respect and care they deserve?
Rose Maurer
The carriage horses in Central Park are obviously a contentious issue as shown in the responses. I have only ever left my hometown in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa once! I did so for three weeks in 1997, when our then 23 year old daughter au paired for a year in a small place called Cabin John, just outside Washington DC. At the end of my stay, we took a bus (never again), to New York, where we explored the city for three days. Although we did not ride in a carriage, we did see them regularly, and despite it being 16 years ago, they appeared unstressed and in good health. I firmly believe that horses are sentient beings, and the concept of them as a 'working animal' can be difficult to accept, but the pace at which they move could be described as 'a walk in the park'.
Mar 11, 2014
Gael Murphy
Some facts:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/23/opinion/bershadker-ban-horse-drawn-ca...
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/carriage_horses/
http://www.banhdc.org/
http://www.banhdc.org/vid.shtml
Mar 11, 2014
Gael Murphy
NY horse with carriage.jpg
Dec 9, 2014