Why is a mayor who has made it his priority to eliminate dangers to the city’s horses so indifferent when those same dangers threaten the city’s humans?
During a recent appearance on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, Jon Stewart asked de Blasio about his vow to shut down the city’s horse-and-carriages business.
“Horses do not belong in the middle of traffic in New York City,” the mayor said. “They do not belong in an urban environment like this. It’s not safe for them. It’s not fair when you think about what their lives should be and what our society is like.”
As Jon Stewart immediately appreciated, the same argument can be turned around and applied to humans.
Now, some might say the difference is humans choose to work, whereas the horses do not. But the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has been clear this is not its argument.
“The ASPCA does not oppose horses working,” says the group’s president, Matt Bershadker. “We oppose horses pulling carriages in New York City. These horses are surrounded by buses, cabs and traffic.”
In other words, the ASPCA would not be against a horse working on a farm upstate, even though the horse didn’t choose it.
The accident numbers are illuminating. According to a Times story, “Since 2011, there have been seven reported incidents involving horses: two collapsing and one dying, two getting spooked, and two involved in accidents” with vehicles.” The last horse killed by a car was Spotty in 2006.
In sharp contrast, police say for last year alone there were 4,091 accidents involving vehicles hitting bicyclists — 12 of which were fatal; vehicles hit pedicabs 37 times.
If it’s not safe for a 1,500-pound horse to be exposed to traffic, surely it’s far more dangerous for the city to allow children to ride their bikes or grown men to haul pedicabs. So where’s the de Blasio promise to ban bikes and pedicabs because of the cruelty to humans?