NEW YORK | Like yellow cabs, the Statue of Liberty, or Broadway, horse-drawn carriages are New York Metropolis clichés. But these sightseeing walks all around Central Park are being targeted by elected officials and animal advocates who would want electric carts.
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“Manhattan is probably the worst position in the world to operate a horse, website traffic, noise, pollution and warmth,” protests Robert Holden, a 71-year-outdated New York metropolis councilor and writer of a textual content contacting for the substitution of horse-drawn carriages. from electric powered vehicles by June 2024.
For several years, animal legal rights activists – increasingly in the United States – have wished to put an end to this vacationer attraction, which has existed considering the fact that the 19th century about the green lung of Manhattan.
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New York now has 130 coachmen who share 68 licenses and close to 200 horses housed in municipal stables.
Opponents of horse-drawn carriages rallied in early August, notably some activists from the Peta (People today for the Moral Procedure of Animals) association, when a horse abruptly collapsed on a very hot afternoon on the massive 9th roadway. Avenue in Manhattan, lined with skyscrapers.
“Cruelty” and “barbarism”
A video clip on social media exhibits the animal on the floor as indignant drivers inform it to get up.
A micro-demonstration in opposition to the “cruelty” of horse-drawn carriages then brought collectively 15 people. American product Bella Hadid judged these “barbaric” walks on Instagram. The fashion star urged the New York Town Council to approve Mr. Holden’s bill.
For animal advocates, New York horses live in precarious problems, go through from malnutrition and dehydration, are terrified of motor vehicle website traffic and do the job hard.
“They are taken care of like equipment and they are not devices,” thunders Edita Birnkrant, director of an animal rights team, NYCLASS, who thinks horse-drawn carriages have no position in “a fashionable New York”.
On the contrary, the operators be certain that these horses are taken care of properly and that their sector is closely monitored by the town wellbeing authorities.
In actuality, it is forbidden to operate extra than 9 several hours a working day, at far more than 32 levels in summer months and much less than 7 levels in winter.
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Horses “are content and healthful. You can’t pressure a 1,500-pound (680 kg) animal to do what it won’t want to do, “insists Christina Hansen, a coachman in New York for 10 decades and whose Oreo horse is entitled to five months to” go away for the nation.
“Immoral” or “cultural”?
And then what would New York be without having its horse-drawn carriages, queries this 42-12 months-outdated female: “See you at the cinema and on Tv set. We are as photogenic as the Empire Condition Developing and the Statue of Liberty. “
In Central Park, in which a 45-minute stroll continue to costs $ 160, in a single of the most high-priced cities in the globe, travelers are divided.
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“Certainly immoral!” exclaims the British Cailey Tyler, who is in favor of the ban, just like Maria Luzynska, a Polish lady for whom seeing horses “warm” provides New York “the worst impact”.
On the opposite, Argentina’s Marina Perry sees in it “a cultural dimension that has been heading on for generations”.
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Mentor Christina Hansen clarifies that the sector is now “dominated by immigrants” from about twenty international locations such as Italy, Ireland, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico.
A carriage driver can get paid $ 100,000 a calendar year, he says.
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Opposite, supporters of Mr. Holden’s monthly bill are hoping for a vote in Oct. The textual content is anticipated to garner 26 out of 51 votes and the last word will go to New York Mayor Eric Adams.
A ban is much from noticeable as the coachmen are backed by the mighty City Transportation Union and Ms. Hansen thinks that no 1 in New York is in the mood for an “electric powered golfing cart” trip.
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