Meanwhile, another city with iconic horse-drawn carriages, Vienna (where the carriages, unlike in New York, actually use city streets), is debating whether the horses should get a day off if temperatures rise above 30° C (currently it's 35°), and only a few officials are meekly suggesting that a complete ban might be considered at some point in the future.
Viennese Fiaker horses are limited to 18 working days per month and there's already temperature limits. Whether those should be lowered further is up for discussion. the current limits for horses are already lower than for outdoor laborers in Vienna.
IMO completely banning horse carriages in Vienna is overshooting.
I was a bit surprised to see quite so many when I was over last August and it was well north of 35°C - you'd think with the water-bottle and sprinkler stations everywhere they'd also throw out a couple of troughs of water for the horses.
They all seemed to be in good health, from what I saw, but horses are pretty finicky creatures - we humans domesticated the horse about 20,000 years ago, breeding the strongest healthiest creatures we could, and they're still a bit shit - and I wouldn't be surprised if a less attentive driver is going to end up killing one.
> throw out a couple of troughs of water for the horses
They have, while not throughs per se, there are extra hydrants all around the fiaker places at Stefansdom, Albertina, Hofburg, etc for them to fill their horses water buckets, spray them down, etc.
Good. We (Montreal) did that some years ago and nobody misses it - tourists, operator, citizen and very likely the horses too. You think it's a staple until it's gone, then you realize it was just animal abuse for profit.
Also, it is a lot better for tourists than having horses faint or die on the pavement in front of your kids - which is bound to happen more frequently with the weather becoming warmer.
Did the locals realise before or after tucking into their burgers?
Banning something just because kids 'might' (would love to see a % chance on this) die on the streets is alarmist nonsense. Should we ban trains and cars, too?
There's ways to mitigate cruelty and exploitation, just like we do for humans.
What's the difference between this and people keeping pets couped up indoors and exploiting them as 'emotional support', etc? If animals are meant to be wild and not exploited, people should at least be consistent.
We didn't ban horses, we banned touristic carriage rides specifically because the few companies that operated treated their animals questionably. You can still see horses, just not ones that are getting abused.
And for what it's worth, even if you provided your animals with the greatest care (which they didn't), just putting them to work for 12 hours a day on a hot paved street was largely seen as abusive.
It might not have happened often that a horse fainted or died on the job, but when it did it caused enough of an uproar to pressure the people in charge to do something. As someone who has witnessed it, you really only want to see that once.
Humans adapt. Even if people miss them they get over it quickly. You get a lot of (social)media articles for a couple of months but after that everyone moves on.
This is a bigger deal than it might sound. Despite lots of consensus that the horse carriages are bad, it has taken years to get this done. It infamously stalled during De Blasio's mayoralty too, for example.
This is also an L for the TWU, and I suspect there will be more of those to come in the following months.
It seems kind of strange that the entire meat industry exists and is tolerated, yet a few horses in Central Park are making people so angry. Surely these horses have far better lives than the cows did that everyone's tucking into over lunch?
I do not know. I have not looked into this issue on the merits. I have just observed the gridlock and status-quo bias around it.
I suspect though that mandating better conditions would have the same effect --- the horse tourism business probably stops penciling out if they have to make the required changes. And given that, TWU would fight it just as hard --- a de jure or de facto ban has the same effect as far as they are concerned.
In other words, people will lose jobs with no off ramp, horses will get dumped somewhere (because they can't be used for any work, or slaughtered), city will lose one more tradition and get a bit more bland.
They are mentioned as things the union is unhappy with. The city has said they’ll come up with a transition plan by next year, but there are no details and that doesn’t mean people won’t lose jobs. The bill prohibits the horses from being sold to slaughter or other rides, but doesn’t say where they’d go instead.
I think it’s reasonable to raise concerns about both.
Im not one to take a horse drawn carriage except in maybe two instances, but i see the appeal as a "general tourist", the horse ride around central park is one of those touristy things that seems like you do, because youre there. That being said, i agree that its not great for the horses, and unfortunately i can understand the want for it gone.
It's a shame we live in a social studies world, where endless debates and committees boil everything down to bland, corporate soup.
It's almost as if anything which has got us here, and which makes us human, is being eroded away as competing groups look for clout and want to show off they're the most ideologically purist.
If horses aren't being looked after, or drivers aren't playing by the rules, you can design for that. City centres should be designed for people first and foremost, and be a celebration of our achievements and histories, not glorified carparks.
Having horses around cities is beautiful, and is a reminder of our histories and who we are. I love seeing the horses in my city trotting around with their beautiful carriages, it's part of the fabric of the city.
It's the same thing with bullfighting, horse racing, greyhounds, etc. It's performative as fuck to whinge endlessly about this shit when there's literal factory-scale slaughterhouses operating.
Levy all animal-related industries and pump that money into animal welfare, and let the animal rights activists make engineering solutions to issues with this money rather than endlessly cry, ban, whinge, cancel, shitpost, etc.
> City centres should be designed for people first and foremost, and be a celebration of our achievements and histories, not glorified carparks.
I think a poll of local residents would find a large majority view horse drawn carriages for hire as an irritating tourist trap that if anything detracts from a "people first" city center designed for human enjoyment.
Horses only know a human world and removing them from it is wrong, very very wrong, if they have any right, it is to stay.
Horses KNOW there purpose , and ENJOY there work and those who are part of that also know and enjoy there co joined lives, which at times is as close to magic as to be found.
But let me fuck right off, and may the sterilisation bring you some sort of shiny
comfortable pristine experience.
Even if you think this is true generally of horses and humans, I can't understand feeling that it remains true regardless of setting and conditions for the horse? Like, they're overworked, never ever leave cement and heavy traffic and loud city noises and small confined spaces.
the fact is that EVERYBODY is on board to steal the last remaining horse space, not improve it, not expand and enhance it, not accept that if horses have ANY right it is to STAY.
after 10000 years with us, this is a cowardly shamefull act, despicable as few things are.
SHAME
India averages 20,000 deaths by train every year. About 16 deaths per 100,000 people.
Compare to 40,000 vehicle deaths in the US (and 960 train deaths, 2.8 deaths per 100,000 people), and 177,000 vehicle deaths in India.
But India only has 1 death per _4.1 billion passenger-miles_. The US is 1 death per 2.33 billion passenger-miles.
Anecdotally, there's a _lot_ of Indians-walking-near-trains-and-getting-hit-posting-them-doing-it videos on reddit.
In any event, the OP is way off target anyway. The poor kid was in a carriage with his mom, the horse got spooked, she fell out and he leapt out to try to save her but hit his head and died.
> I mean the part about Indians being notorious for being hit by trains.
I'm genuinely surprised we don't see more Indian tourists getting hit by cars, at least here in Scotland. There's a bit of a trend on social media over there, where you'll get an Indian couple on holiday in Scotland taking photos of themselves sitting in the middle of a road.
Roads here are often narrow, twisty, fast, uneven, and extremely busy, so it's quite possible if you do this that the last photo ever taken of you will be the frame juuuust before the dashcam triggers.
If you look at the bush on the right of the road here just as the road curves (we drive on the left; this is looking from the back of the Streetview car heading south), when I was up a few weeks ago there was an Indian couple in wedding clothing sitting cross-legged in the middle of the road right at that bend taking a photo. I should actually pull the dashcam footage of that!
Anyway, that's a 60mph road. Do not sit in the middle of busy 60mph roads, no matter how cool the photo is. That was nearly a very short marriage, "until death do us part out into a thin smear with small chunks in for several hundred metres"...
Meanwhile, another city with iconic horse-drawn carriages, Vienna (where the carriages, unlike in New York, actually use city streets), is debating whether the horses should get a day off if temperatures rise above 30° C (currently it's 35°), and only a few officials are meekly suggesting that a complete ban might be considered at some point in the future.
https://www-ganz--wien-at.translate.goog/wien/news/pro-contr...
Viennese Fiaker horses are limited to 18 working days per month and there's already temperature limits. Whether those should be lowered further is up for discussion. the current limits for horses are already lower than for outdoor laborers in Vienna.
IMO completely banning horse carriages in Vienna is overshooting.
I saw a lot of sad horses in Sevilla, with above 36°C that day
I was a bit surprised to see quite so many when I was over last August and it was well north of 35°C - you'd think with the water-bottle and sprinkler stations everywhere they'd also throw out a couple of troughs of water for the horses.
They all seemed to be in good health, from what I saw, but horses are pretty finicky creatures - we humans domesticated the horse about 20,000 years ago, breeding the strongest healthiest creatures we could, and they're still a bit shit - and I wouldn't be surprised if a less attentive driver is going to end up killing one.
> throw out a couple of troughs of water for the horses
They have, while not throughs per se, there are extra hydrants all around the fiaker places at Stefansdom, Albertina, Hofburg, etc for them to fill their horses water buckets, spray them down, etc.
Can't afford to lose some of that sweet tourist cash so they make up any excuses.
Meanwhile in Florida cowboys ride their horses every day in 38C+ weather.
There are no cowboys in Florida. Clownboys.
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And then have to hose them off for an hour so they don't get heat exhaustion. I have a barn full of horses I grew up with in FL. You're misinformed.
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Because Vienna politicians have some sense.
Good. We (Montreal) did that some years ago and nobody misses it - tourists, operator, citizen and very likely the horses too. You think it's a staple until it's gone, then you realize it was just animal abuse for profit.
Also, it is a lot better for tourists than having horses faint or die on the pavement in front of your kids - which is bound to happen more frequently with the weather becoming warmer.
Vehicular traffic was, for the most part, equine until the 20th Century. That doesn't negate your argument; it's just interesting to reflect upon.
https://youtu.be/NLxRoDuwaeY London traffic circa 1900
Did the locals realise before or after tucking into their burgers?
Banning something just because kids 'might' (would love to see a % chance on this) die on the streets is alarmist nonsense. Should we ban trains and cars, too?
There's ways to mitigate cruelty and exploitation, just like we do for humans.
What's the difference between this and people keeping pets couped up indoors and exploiting them as 'emotional support', etc? If animals are meant to be wild and not exploited, people should at least be consistent.
We didn't ban horses, we banned touristic carriage rides specifically because the few companies that operated treated their animals questionably. You can still see horses, just not ones that are getting abused.
And for what it's worth, even if you provided your animals with the greatest care (which they didn't), just putting them to work for 12 hours a day on a hot paved street was largely seen as abusive.
It might not have happened often that a horse fainted or died on the job, but when it did it caused enough of an uproar to pressure the people in charge to do something. As someone who has witnessed it, you really only want to see that once.
2 replies →
Humans adapt. Even if people miss them they get over it quickly. You get a lot of (social)media articles for a couple of months but after that everyone moves on.
This is a bigger deal than it might sound. Despite lots of consensus that the horse carriages are bad, it has taken years to get this done. It infamously stalled during De Blasio's mayoralty too, for example.
This is also an L for the TWU, and I suspect there will be more of those to come in the following months.
Why can't they pass legislation to get the horses treated better instead of banning them?
It seems kind of strange that the entire meat industry exists and is tolerated, yet a few horses in Central Park are making people so angry. Surely these horses have far better lives than the cows did that everyone's tucking into over lunch?
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I do not know. I have not looked into this issue on the merits. I have just observed the gridlock and status-quo bias around it.
I suspect though that mandating better conditions would have the same effect --- the horse tourism business probably stops penciling out if they have to make the required changes. And given that, TWU would fight it just as hard --- a de jure or de facto ban has the same effect as far as they are concerned.
They've tried but the owners continuously don't.
2 replies →
Not that I disagree but what has that consensus centered around?
Egregious & consistent mistreatment of the horses.
The past four mayors have all tried to end the practice but the jockeys (drivers?) are part of a powerful transportation union.
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Gandhi said you can judge a society by how it treats its animals.
Eventually, we will decide that all uses of animals for entertainment are unethical.
This is another nail in the coffin of these unnecessary actions which aren't helpful to animals.
Outlawing cetacean shows, roadside zoos, and horse and dog racing are other terrific aspects of this trend!
In other words, people will lose jobs with no off ramp, horses will get dumped somewhere (because they can't be used for any work, or slaughtered), city will lose one more tradition and get a bit more bland.
No. These are both explicitly addressed in the article.
Are they really “addressed”?
They are mentioned as things the union is unhappy with. The city has said they’ll come up with a transition plan by next year, but there are no details and that doesn’t mean people won’t lose jobs. The bill prohibits the horses from being sold to slaughter or other rides, but doesn’t say where they’d go instead.
I think it’s reasonable to raise concerns about both.
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I live here and I'd be thrilled if it loses this particular dumb cruel tradition.
It'd be a very sad world if we banned everything which 'some' people believe is dumb and cruel.
Meat, cars, religious practices, schools, military, anything which pollutes...
Be careful what you're thrilled for! Diversity is good for a reason.
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I feel for the animals, but it’s the end of an era.
An era of seeing tourists do tourist things, and smelling horse shit in central Park?
I mean, there's human shit in Central Park. I once watched some genteel ladies hilariously clean up before an Easter egg hunt one morning. Surprise!
If you want to prioritize removing one type of Central Park shit, the list is probably human then dog then pigeon then horse.
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Im not one to take a horse drawn carriage except in maybe two instances, but i see the appeal as a "general tourist", the horse ride around central park is one of those touristy things that seems like you do, because youre there. That being said, i agree that its not great for the horses, and unfortunately i can understand the want for it gone.
Surprised no mention of electric carriages to act as replacement
There are already tourist rickshaws that blare music extremely loudly. Those are effectively the replacement.
It's a shame we live in a social studies world, where endless debates and committees boil everything down to bland, corporate soup.
It's almost as if anything which has got us here, and which makes us human, is being eroded away as competing groups look for clout and want to show off they're the most ideologically purist.
If horses aren't being looked after, or drivers aren't playing by the rules, you can design for that. City centres should be designed for people first and foremost, and be a celebration of our achievements and histories, not glorified carparks.
Having horses around cities is beautiful, and is a reminder of our histories and who we are. I love seeing the horses in my city trotting around with their beautiful carriages, it's part of the fabric of the city.
It's the same thing with bullfighting, horse racing, greyhounds, etc. It's performative as fuck to whinge endlessly about this shit when there's literal factory-scale slaughterhouses operating.
Levy all animal-related industries and pump that money into animal welfare, and let the animal rights activists make engineering solutions to issues with this money rather than endlessly cry, ban, whinge, cancel, shitpost, etc.
I think a poll of local residents would find a large majority view horse drawn carriages for hire as an irritating tourist trap that if anything detracts from a "people first" city center designed for human enjoyment.
They for some reason made the area around Central Park more sophisticated
They made it more of a tourist trap.
Good riddance, let’s see this play out
Horses only know a human world and removing them from it is wrong, very very wrong, if they have any right, it is to stay. Horses KNOW there purpose , and ENJOY there work and those who are part of that also know and enjoy there co joined lives, which at times is as close to magic as to be found. But let me fuck right off, and may the sterilisation bring you some sort of shiny comfortable pristine experience.
Even if you think this is true generally of horses and humans, I can't understand feeling that it remains true regardless of setting and conditions for the horse? Like, they're overworked, never ever leave cement and heavy traffic and loud city noises and small confined spaces.
the fact is that EVERYBODY is on board to steal the last remaining horse space, not improve it, not expand and enhance it, not accept that if horses have ANY right it is to STAY. after 10000 years with us, this is a cowardly shamefull act, despicable as few things are. SHAME
2 replies →
Agree with the sentiment, but it's "their"
Liam Neeson (yes, that one) wrote an op-ed defending these carriages in the NYT, back in 2014:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/15/opinion/carriages-belong-...
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> He's doing this because an Indian tourist was killed by a horse - they are quite notorious for being hit by trains, jagannatha etc.
Is that real or just a meme? I mean the part about Indians being notorious for being hit by trains.
India averages 20,000 deaths by train every year. About 16 deaths per 100,000 people.
Compare to 40,000 vehicle deaths in the US (and 960 train deaths, 2.8 deaths per 100,000 people), and 177,000 vehicle deaths in India.
But India only has 1 death per _4.1 billion passenger-miles_. The US is 1 death per 2.33 billion passenger-miles.
Anecdotally, there's a _lot_ of Indians-walking-near-trains-and-getting-hit-posting-them-doing-it videos on reddit.
In any event, the OP is way off target anyway. The poor kid was in a carriage with his mom, the horse got spooked, she fell out and he leapt out to try to save her but hit his head and died.
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> I mean the part about Indians being notorious for being hit by trains.
I'm genuinely surprised we don't see more Indian tourists getting hit by cars, at least here in Scotland. There's a bit of a trend on social media over there, where you'll get an Indian couple on holiday in Scotland taking photos of themselves sitting in the middle of a road.
Roads here are often narrow, twisty, fast, uneven, and extremely busy, so it's quite possible if you do this that the last photo ever taken of you will be the frame juuuust before the dashcam triggers.
If you look at the bush on the right of the road here just as the road curves (we drive on the left; this is looking from the back of the Streetview car heading south), when I was up a few weeks ago there was an Indian couple in wedding clothing sitting cross-legged in the middle of the road right at that bend taking a photo. I should actually pull the dashcam footage of that!
Anyway, that's a 60mph road. Do not sit in the middle of busy 60mph roads, no matter how cool the photo is. That was nearly a very short marriage, "until death do us part out into a thin smear with small chunks in for several hundred metres"...
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I dont normally up these kinds of posts, but this one got me.
Was it the racism or the sexism that appealed most to you?
Or because 78% of voters asked for this
Spit my tea out laughing!
SJP :)