"Crying Horse" Not Productive for Horses or Other Animals

Carriage horse and driver with new reason to celebrate.

 

It was the bill, not the horses, that needed to be euthanized and "put out of its misery" and thankfully, that happened yesterday.

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Mayor Bill deBlasio's self-described, "compromise" bill to limit carriage horses in New York City and slowly kill the industry was itself killed in the City Council -- one day before it was set to be voted on. 

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http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2016/02/8590220/mocked-resented-and-now-dead-de-blasios-horse-debacle-makes-histor

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http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2016/02/8590167/after-union-backs-out-de-blasio-horse-deal-finally-falls-apart

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http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/bill-neigh-day-article-1.2520277

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Personally speaking, I am pleased with this development for reasons described in previous blog posts. Put simply, it helps restore faith in fairness and government not crumbling to the whims of political pay back and quid pro quo.

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But even more than these, it is relief to know that the horses -- at least for now and the immediate future -- are secure and safe.

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On the flip side, this development represents a significant defeat for the overall cause of Animal Rights.

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But as noted in recent blogs, this was a poor battle to pick in what is otherwise a noble and  necessary pursuit.

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Justice normally occurs from the bottom up, not the top down. (The Civil Rights movement did not after all, begin with protests about lack of African American representation at the Oscars or non-inclusion at country clubs.)

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Focus in any social movement or justice cause should always be on the most egregious and far reaching of abuses perpetrated on either animal or human. When one considers the countless ways billions of animals (both domestic and wild) are exploited, mistreated and killed (or slaughtered) for human desires or convenience, horses pulling carriages through Central Park wasn't even on the radar (as was intimated by prominent Animal Rights leader, Peter Singer).

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That some people chose to make carriage horses the issue of intense "Animal Rights" focus, energy and resources is sadly to the detriment of the overall cause and acts to trivialize and marginalize it.

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It was more than apparent at last month's City Council hearing on the proposed horse carriage bill that most Council members couldn't understand the intense focus on the issue and this makes them far less likely to take AR measures of the future seriously.   

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So, it is a day of both, relief and concern.

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Relief for the horses still welcomed in our city and safe for the time being.

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Concern for the cause whose mission it is to speak for the rights of the animals, but instead (in this case), "cried horse."   -- PCA

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