Horses Deserve Better

In June, Romanch Mahajan, an 18-year-old celebrating his acceptance to college with a trip to New York, was killed after the horse pulling him and members of his family in a carriage bolted through Central Park. As the carriage heaved left and right, he tried to prevent his mother from being tossed to the ground, and in the process, he tumbled out at high speed and suffered a fatal head injury.

Just days earlier, Deniz, a 16-year-old carriage horse, collapsed and died after the driver allowed the equine to consume Japanese yew, a plant poisonous to horses, even though regulations forbid consumption of the plant life.

Their deaths had very different causes, but both are tied to an industry with a long history of recklessness that no longer deserves free rein in the biggest city in America.

For years, we’ve partnered with a New York City-based group called NYCLASS and urged city leaders to retire horses from this commercial enterprise. We have argued that horses should not be required to work amid the congestion, construction, sirens, buses, taxis, delivery trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, scooters, and commotion and tumult of Manhattan. We have watched horses collapse in the streets, dash into traffic after the crash of a car or truck or the blaring of a horn puts them in flight mode, and we’ve seen them struggle endure heat waves and winter storms. Time and again, officials have responded by proposing half-measures, slightly tightening animal care standards, and promising more enforcement.

Yet the body count continues to climb.

Today, I joined advocates of animals, public safety, and Central Park in testifying in favor of Romanch’s Law, now before the New York City Council, to ban horse-drawn carriages in the city. The legislation would phase out the Big Apple’s 150-year-old horse-drawn carriage trade by ending the issuance of new licenses, allowing the remaining operations to wind down in an orderly fashion, providing for the timely retirement of the horses, and creating opportunities for drivers to transition to other jobs not involving forced animal labor.

The bill is a long-overdue policy proposal to phase out a vestigial attraction with no practical value. Progress often requires us to hold onto traditions with enduring value but dispense with those that cause harm.

Chicago banned horse-drawn carriages in 2020, and Philadelphia did so just recently. Those major metropolitan jurisdictions recognized that this enterprise is a relic with risks for horses and people. Electric replica carriages, pedicabs, walking tours, and other attractions can preserve jobs, celebrate local history, and enrich the visitor experience without exposing horses or passengers to unnecessary danger.

One Cause, Many Fronts

For generations, horses helped build our nation, cultivate our farms, carry our soldiers and law enforcement personnel, and enrich our lives through work, sport, and companionship.

Despite all this sacrifice, we too often show little charity or decency for horses.

Every year, thousands of former companions, ranch horses, racehorses, and workhorses are purchased by kill buyers and exported to Canada or Mexico for slaughter, with the meat then exported to a handful of other nations, principally Japan.

Ending that pipeline has become one of our highest priorities. Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy are leading the fight to enact the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act, to fortify federal restrictions on domestic horse slaughter and end any export of American horses for slaughter abroad. That legislation had been led for more than a decade in the U.S. Senate by the late Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who died suddenly over the weekend. We can think of no better tribute to his commitment to this cause than for his colleagues to act to pass the SAFE Act before this year ends, while the bill still bears his name at the top.

While we have not yet fixed the law, we are moving in the right direction. In 1990, 400,000 American horses went to slaughter. Now it’s 25,000 — more than a 90% reduction. Just two months ago, one of Canada’s two slaughter plants closed, leaving Canada’s slaughter industry teetering on the edge.

And with rightful concern over the spread of New World screwworm (a flesh-eating fly that menaces cattle, horses, and other mammals) the U.S. Department of Agriculture has temporarily halted exports of live horses to Mexico, the destination for 80% of the exported U.S. horses bound for slaughter.

We worked with 17 GOP members of the U.S. House in recent weeks who sent a letter to President Trump asking him to make this ban permanent. We urge President Trump to act and spare horses this terror and harm.

Our work also extends to America’s wild horses and burros. We are working with our partners and with lawmakers to replace costly helicopter roundups and long-term warehousing of captured horses with humane population management, mainly remote-delivery fertility control. Seven years ago, we secured $11 million for humane fertility control programs as an alternative to dangerous roundups and removals, and renewed that level of funding every year since. But the federal Bureau of Land Management is just spending a fraction of the money Congress designated for this purpose, mechanically continuing the round-ups even though alternative forms of management are superior.

Over the course of my lifetime, I’ve watched our society reject practices once defended as major features of the American experience. Dogfighting and cockfighting have retreated to the margins because citizens demanded stronger laws and better enforcement. Circus elephants have largely disappeared because the public no longer accepted entertainment purchased through suffering. Increasingly, the use of dogs, cats, primates, and other animals in laboratory experiments is giving way to superior, animal-free and cruelty-free technologies. Kangaroo-skin shoes are now passé in the world of professional soccer as I wrote last week.

In short order, we can end the use of carriage horses in all major American cities. We can permanently close the horse slaughter pipeline, and we can keep wild horses on the range, delivering safe and effective fertility control to manage the populations humanely.

Humane progress typically comes in increments, but often in bold strokes from policymakers who choose to wind down outdated and inhumane enterprises.

With your support, we can get there.

Please make the most generous contribution you can today.