Do you think cities and towns should end the use of horse-drawn carriages, which are primarily for tourists?

I have no qualms with it… and I have a zoo keeper g/f who is very environmentally friendly/conscious and an animal lover.. and she has no qualms.

The animals aren’t being beaten or anything, their conditions are good, etc.

People tend to take things a bit too far. But I would wager those are the types of people who disagree that people should even be allowed to have pet dogs and cats.

Carraige horses are among the most highly trained and well cared for animals on the planet. They do not spook easily from random city noise. Their caretakers are paid a reasonable wage and the facilities are a source of pride within a community.

Go save the whales.

Many animals wouldn’t be bred if we didn’t have a use for them. I think under the conditions you describe, it is fine for these horses to work. After all, horses were drawing carriages, carts and drays in much worse conditions throughout the 19th century and a good part of the 20th.

Horses have been working hard for centuries and now, all of a sudden, it’s wrong?
These people need to chill.
Damn it, @janbb, took my answer before I could post it.

I don’t see a reason to end horse carriages under those kind of conditions. It’s tragic any horse get injured or killed by a car, I don’t think they should be on shared roadways.

I get so sick of people who think they have a cause, when they don’t. They just want to feel useful and important. They need to get a life.

I have had people tell me horses like to work. How do we know that? I like that at least their are rules in place to ensure the horses have some protections. We have horsedrawn carriages in Memphis also, I always feel a little bad for the horses. I don’t have a strong opinion, I don’t think I spend enough time with horses to have one. I also don’t necessarily trust a person who says the horse likes it when they make their living off of the horse doing the job. Although, I would guess most of the owners love their horses and care about them.

I ride weekly and am currently learning how to train horses. A couple of the horses I have a relationship with actually get excited when they see the saddle and one of them loves to pull a single cart.
Some horses do love to work. If you were around them on a daily basis you would see that. Some are lazy, some are workers, some are runners, some love to jump, some love to be tickled, others actually like trail riding.
I can’t imagine that the horses that pull carriage in NYC are treated poorly and I would gladly eat my foot if you found that they were. 9 times out of 10 those horses eat better, drink better and get treated better than most middle class Americans.
Believe it or not, some horses actually dig pulling things, just as sled dogs really do like pulling sleds.
I think you would know if a horse did not want to pull something, even if you don’t know horses.

I agree with @Dutchess_III. The people who are fighting against this need to find a more worthwhile cause.

We just spent our first summer in the very rural community we moved to last fall. I went to the local Walmart in the largest town in the area and noticed an empty carriage with horse in the parking lot. (we have a few Amish communities in the area) My daughter got a big kick out of the sight. I think many people forget that it really wasn’t that long ago that this was our main form of transportation.

I wonder how many of these protesters jumped into their gas guzzlers after protesting.

I think that our children see so little of animals as it it. We are completely disconnected from nature. We are especially disconnected from our food. There was a time we cared for the animals we ate, we grew our vegetables or were friends with the people we bartered with who did. Now, the animals we eat are electrocuted before they’re killed to make their blood coagulate so they can get more per pound volume, they are forced to spend their life crammed together in their own excrement and are pumped with hormones and antibiotics.
Our vegetables are genetically altered to all look exactly alike, to be uniform for sales presentation. They are flooded with pesticides and fungicides that kill the good flora in our gut. Nutrition has been hybrid out for a beautiful grocery store presentation.
If it takes a horse drawn carriage in Central park for kids to remember a time when we were connected to nature, bring it on. Those horses are treated way better than the cow you ate at McDonald’s for lunch.

I’ve had to work like a dog before for my wages. I wish I could work like a horse instead.

Animals should not work at ALL. They should be able to just lay around in heated and air conditioned buildings, under blankets made by 9 year olds in 3rd world countries.

@Dutchess_III: Most definitely. I want to protect the jobs those 9 year olds have making blankets versus having them remain on the streets, begging, stealing or selling their bodies.

Well, whatever it takes so the horses don’t have to work, ya know.

I am an animal lover but from the description you provided @jca it would seem the protesters are trying to make a problem out of something that is not a problem.

Perhaps they should head down to the nearest race course and see if they can get them to stop steeplechasing or something.

”Do you think cities and towns should end the use of horse-drawn carriages, which are primarily for tourists?”
No, as long as the animals are being treated alright.

Animal rights activists are just as stupid as the “right to lifers”. Live and let live. I grew up in NY and I love the horse drawn carriages.

No. I have friends in the business and the horses are well -loved. Very romantic experience.

It was a driver of the car that killed the horse, right?? get him for horseslaughter.

Animals and humans have been working together for centuries, especially horses. If the animal is treated kindly and kept healthy then I have no problem with it at all.

@JLeslie Having worked with horses I can understand why people claim that they like to work. I have known some horses become depressed when they are just living their lives being moved from stable to field day in, day out. These horses have perked up when given a purpose. I have also known horses that thrive from being able to just frolick in a field all day. It depends on the individual horse and any owner who is in tune with his animal will be able to tell when the animal is content and when they aren’t.

Dogs like to have jobs too. So do kids, for that matter. Everyone likes to feel useful, like they have a purpose.