email: coalition@banhdc.org
web: http://banhdc.org/
HORSE SENSE
Periodic updates about issues and actions concerning New York City’s Carriage Horses +
Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages www.banhdc.org
Horses Without Carriages International www.horseswithoutcarriages.org
PLEASE FORWARD TO FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES – CLICK HERE to get your own newsletter. In this issue: ** ETSY FOR ANIMALS – we are charity of the month ** Open Letter to the Mayor ** Contact the City Council ** Carriage Driver trial ** drivers – bogus accusations ** we continue to advertise ** bogus polls – don’t believe them
Because of the holiday last weekend, many of you did not get to see the last newsletter. Click here to see it.
OPEN LETTER TO MAYOR DEBLASIO
Enough is enough. When will the ban happen?
I recently wrote this Open Letter to Mayor deBlasio imploring him to keep his promise and ban the horse-drawn carriage trade. These are some excerpts: “This has gone on too long. The horses are suffering in the heat and humidity and the public has not seen any sign of movement toward a ban. You were the first mayoral candidate ever to take animal cruelty seriously, or so it seemed–and many of us volunteered in your campaign office, showing up at every debate to cheer you on and proclaim our support for a humane mayor. So what happened? Why has this been put on the back burner? Bills, public hearings and more debates will take this into next year at least. This is not what any of us expected or supported.”
“By stalling and not owning this issue you have allowed the Daily News to control the dialogue and negatively influence public opinion, which resulted in unfavorable polling–literally turning the percentages around against us. Before the Daily News began this onslaught, every poll taken consistently showed 75 to 80% of respondents in favor of a ban. This is a consequence of a deliberate campaign of misinformation, all driven by an editorial board that is feeling the sting of political defeat. This newspaper is not your friend and is not the horses’ friend. It is using this issue as a metaphor for your progressive agenda. Please understand this. If the Daily News wins on this issue, they will look for others on which to defeat you. Please ban this inhumane and unsafe business now.”
Mayor deBlasio and his administration have not handled this issue well. They have “fiddled while Rome burnt.” He did not own the issue. He never mentioned the horses who have made press during his first six months in office: Blondie, Spartacus, Ceasar and Pumpkin. We wanted him to address the many bogus criticisms the press threw at him but he ignored them until they got legs of their own. His comments have gone from “But we are going to quickly and aggressively move to make horse carriages no longer a part of the landscape … They are not humane, they are not appropriate for the year 2014. It’s over. So, just watch us do it.” said in December 2013 – TO – a statement said just last week: “Now we’re going to turn to a series of new priorities, and certainly I’ve said many times, and I’ll say it again: I think we need to ban horse carriages in New York City and we’re going to act accordingly,” We’re working on the details now with the City Council, but clearly there’s going to be a legislative process.” It’s over. So, just watch us do it.” VS. I think we need to ban horse carriages in NYC. Mayor deBlasio and his family will be out of the country on vacation for 10 days beginning on the 18th. (horse on hack line; no shade – by Mary
PLEASE CALL THE CITY COUNCIL
about banning the horse-drawn carriage trade
Here it is July and we are no closer to shutting down the inhumane and unsafe carriage trade than we were one year ago. All we have are empty promises. Please contact your council member and ask him or her to support a bill to ban horse-drawn carriages. CALL THEM. Do not e-mail or fax. These methods of communication are likely to be deleted. Calls have much more impact and are less likely to be forgotten.
NYC RESIDENTS: www.council.nyc.gov — Call your Council Member.
OUTSIDE NYC: Call Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito’s office. 212-828-9800
SEND THESE TWO LINKS: Ask them to support a bill to ban horse-drawn carriages — not a phase out – but an unconditional ban. Ask them for someone’s e-mail address in their office (legislative person or chief of staff — not the general office because that may be deleted) to send these two articles — the first disputes all the Liam Neeson lies and the second is about a carriage driver who ignored the law last week:
http://carriagehorsesnyc.blogspot.com/2014/06/liam-lies-and-more-lies.html
http://nypost.com/2014/07/03/horse-industry-honcho-drove-carriage-illegally-during-heat-suspension/
We need to move this campaign along because unfortunately the Mayor’s office – like Nero – is fiddling while Rome is burning. PLEASE TAKE THIS ACTION. IT SHOULD NOT TAKE LONGER THAN 5 MINUTES. WE ARE DEPENDING ON YOU TO TAKE THIS ACTION.
Thank you to those of you who have already done this. Please report back to us — coalition@banhdc.org.
DRIVERS ACCUSE ACTIVISTS OF THREATS
Drivers will stop at nothing with their lies; contrived Facebook pages
The NYC media, for the most part, supports the drivers and all their lies. NY1 is no different. The most recent lie is saying that activists are threatening Christina Hansen after she worked her horse for a long period of time past the heat suspension. NY 1’s Josh Robin gave Hansen screen time with his article Carriage Driver Accused of Working Horse in Hot Weather Says She’s Being Threatened With Violence. He included a Facebook or Tweet comment, which Hansen had provided to him. I sent Robin an e-mail asking him for verification that it was authentic. I did not hear from him. Robin did not even use the word “alleged” threat. He simply took Hansen’s word for it. Very unprofessional reporting.
A supporter of the carriage trade posted this screen print of comments on our Facebook page, No Walk in the Park. We saved and deleted it from the page. As it turns out, these same comments were provided to Josh Robin by the carriage supporters. We think that is very odd AND a set up. The comments are vile and we do not believe they are genuine. We know none of the people and we do not know the origin. I checked with some of other pro carriage ban pages and it did not originate with them either.
We believe these comments are photo shopped or in some way contrived to make us look bad. The drivers and their supporters have been known to make up fake names on Facebook in order to post on our pages since we have banned many of them. If anyone knows any of these people, let us know. We do not condone this kind of behavior. We prefer to fight this issue on its merits – not on gratuitous, nasty comments that have nothing to do with the horses.
WE ARE ADVERTISING IN METRO
please donate what you can for our advertising campaign
We will continue to run ads in Metro as long as we can. you may donate here. Please remember we are all volunteer and do not take salaries. Every penny you donate is put back into the organization. We are the organization that began the “ban” campaign in 2006 and we plan to continue our ad campaign until this inhumane, unsafe and abusive trade is stopped. We are hoping Mayor deBlasio takes positive action soon.
Thanks to all of you who have donated to our campaign. It is much appreciated.
CARRIAGE DRIVER WHO WORKED A LAME HORSE TRIAL DATE
Tuesday – July 15th – See you there
Carriage driver Saverio Colarusso was arrested on December 18, 2013and charged with working his horse lame for several days. He has been to court several times. His next court date is:
COURT DATE: Tuesday July 15th – 9:00 am
WHERE: NY Criminal Court Building – 100 Centre St., Manhattan
DEFENDANT: Saverio Colarusso
DOCKET #: 2013NY095399
The judge, at the last court date, indicated that the case had been dragging on and that this would be the trial. Please attend. Get to the building before 9Am since there will be a line. Do not use your phone or camera while in the court room.
After you go through the security check, I suggest you look for the lists mounted on the wall for the defendant’s name. It will indicate the location of the trial. See you there!
NEW BLOG: NYC: MOST PEOPLE WANT A BAN OF HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGES
bogus polls tell differently – don’t believe them
BOGUS: polls showing 60% of people opposed to a carriage horse ban – Since 2006, every poll taken about a carriage horse ban has shown between 75 and 80% of respondents in favor of a ban. So what happened? In a nutshell – the Daily News has been allowed to control the dialogue with their half truths, specious omissions and outright lies. This is not the way a newspaper is supposed to behave. If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth – Often attributed to the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, it has a lot of truth and should be fair warning to thinkers that the same thing is happening in NYC.
Mayor deBlasio won the mayoral primary in September but he was not endorsed by any of the local newspapers. The editorial boards in NYC are mostly right wing conservative and were not happy about this. The Daily News began a hatched job on the mayor – ripping into him almost every day – publishing the most bizarre yellow journalism articles filled with lies and exaggerations. Mort Zuckerman had enjoyed privileges at City Hall under Mayor Bloomberg that he expected to continue under a Quinn administration. When it seemed that Mayor deBlasio was serious about banning the horse-drawn carriages, The DN took the lead on this issue going so far as to launch a petition. The editor in chief of the DN is a transplant from Rupurt Murdoch’s failed UK paper. Other editorial boards, including the NY Times, NY Post, AM-NY and TV stations like Fox News, NY1, and Pix 11 followed. Many reporters have continued to promote the drivers’ lies as their opinions shift into supposedly fact driven articles. The carriage trade hired the infamous anti-animal Cavalry Group to fight this battle for them. This is the anti-animal lobby group that supports puppy mills, horse slaughter and a weakening of animal cruelty laws around the country. The Teamsters have also joined the fray, going against the first pro union mayor in decades – a very foolish action. There’s been no fact checking, no investigative journalism and gratuitous dishonesty. Unfortunately, people will often believe what they hear on TV or read in the newspapers without questioning. This is why the media is so powerful. We have been cut out of interviews and ignored. The truth about this inhumane and very unsafe industry is not getting out there.
The Daily News does not care about the horses or the drivers. Instead, they are being used as poster children – a metaphor for deBlasio’s progressive agenda. If the right wing media can get deBlasio to cry uncle on this issue, this will open the door to other things. And he will likely lose the next election because he flip flopped. So when you hear about the Quinnipiac poll showing 60% of respondents opposed to a ban – you must also realize that these polls were taken after an extended brainwashing period. Polls like this are meaningless to critical thinkers.
Will Mayor deBlasio be strong enough to stand up to this and keep his word — or will he cave? Only time will tell. Do you want Mort Zuckerman/disgruntled Daily News owner; the Teamsters; Liam Neeson; and the carriage drivers running NYC – or do you want the man you voted for – Mayor deBlasio?Please wake up to this. Nazi Germany happened because people were not paying attention. http://www.carriagehorsesnyc.blogspot.com/2014/03/have-you-been-brainwashed-by-media-in.html
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