These may be the last days of the Central Park Horses, who have pulled carriages through Central Park since 1858. Animals rights groups, the ASPCA, the new mayor are all demanding that the horses be banned from pulling people in the park (they are supposedly heading to “rescue” farms) and replaced by “vintage electric cars.” Animals rights groups have been after the horses for years, and some recent accidents with cars and trucks have renewed calls for their elimination. The new mayor is adamant they be  replace. The argument is that it is inhumane for horses to operated in a crowded city filled with trucks and busses.

I don’t live in New York and have no say, but it seems a shame to me, horses have been pulling cars for thousands of years, usually in much rougher conditions than Central Park, many dogs and cats have accidents also and some are mistreated, but nobody is proposing to ban them from our cities. This seems to me a natural evolution in the idea that rights for animals means they need to live as humans would like to live – have no work to do and be dependent and pitied for the rest of their lives.

I’ve seen these horses all of my life and I’m sure some are mistreated, most of the ones I see love to work and seem much loved, the drivers do not want to be pulling electric carts, they want to keep working with their horses. Animals need to work among people, not be segregated in “rescue” and “no-kill” imprisonment facilities for the rest of their lives, that is not, to be, the definition of being humane.

I fear this is one of the last times I will see this horses before they are sent off to be “saved” from the only real work available to them in urban areas, where they can be seen and loved. Perhaps some judge will recognize the right of people to work with animals and keep them among human beings.