I don’t know Christina Hansen all that well, I just met her Saturday and only spent a few hours with her, in the past few days she has been called upon to deny that she is an animal torturer, a greedy horse abuser, a cruel person who loves to harm animals and mistreat them, a callous human blind to the suffering of animals. On the front lines of the animal world, there is often the feel of combat, Americans, inspired by their favorite cable news networks, are forgetting how to disagree in a civil way, bad news for a democracy.

It is a great irony of the animal world that so many people choose to express their feelings about animals by attacking people. I’m not sure it can ever be reconciled, I’ve never seen a contented animal in the hands of an angry person, I don’t believe you can truly love animals if you hate and abuse people.

Christina is a history lover and former professor, but her love of horses, especially carriage horses, has become the focal point of her life, she lives in New York City and since she has chosen to work as a liaison between the New York carriage horse industry and the rest of the world – clearly she is a foolhardy soul, a glutton for punishment, it is now a David and Goliath story, she is up against the mayor, the City Council, real estate developers and hordes of angry so-called animal rights defenders, ideologues from Brooklyn with hyphenated names and the many people in New York who know so little about animals.

It seems somewhat  hopeless, she does not seem deterred. People like that often surprise you, they are tough and resilient, they sometimes win.

Christina has been assaulted continuously and relentlessly, on the street, in chants, on the phone,  in public comments, online. She drives carriage horses several times a week, and has often been a target there as well. She loves every minute of her life with horses, I bet she will never quit on it. She is well-known to the protestors who call themselves animal rights activists and make their feelings quite personal, (they even assault tourists who ride on the carriages)  they often tailor their most vicious chants to include her. Christina seems to accept this, this level of venom is something new in animal politics, just as hatred and anger have become embedded in conventional politics.

Just a few years ago, the carriage horses and their owners and handlers were considered a  historic and iconic part of New York and Central Park, it has only been in recent years that they have been increasingly singled out by a network of organizations, politicians and wealthy real estate developers – everyone says this has much to do with their troubles, the stables are on some of the most valuable land in Manhattan. These groups, ignored in much of the country, are friends and supporters of the new mayor

Remarkably, Christina has kept her center in all of this, at least in her dealings with me. She is funny, ironic, only occasionally does she reveal the hurt and anger she sometimes feel. Seeing her moon over the horses, talk to them, touch them, recall their stories, it was hard to quite accept the idea of her as an animal abuser. She was quite open with me, she answered every question, took me everywhere I want to go, showed me every animal I wanted to see, never hesitated, dissembled or avoided anything she was asked about.  The comments made about her and to her are tough to hear and see and I don’t see a great point in repeating them all, many are as cruel and nasty as people can get. To attack people like that, you have to demonize them, not see them as human beings but as cartoon characters, representations of evil. Many evil governments have done the same thing to the people they assault.

Whatever the issues involved, whichever side one is on, I have always looked to journalists and political leaders to condemn this kind of behavior. But they don’t seem to do that anymore. I guess I identify with Christina because I have experienced some of it, but mostly because I liked her a lot, and I just hate mobs. I think any thinking human does. I write this because it is wrong to de-humanize people, even the ones screaming insults in the streets. They are people too, it is important to see them in that way, but it’s important to put a face on the person fighting for the carriage horses, it is an important thing to do.

I have great compassion for the targets of enraged mobs, mobs are not capable of reason, thought or dialogue, they are the antithesis of democracy and solutions. Today, I was thinking about her, I imagine Christina’s life got worse today, after the mayor compared the treatment of the carriage horses to “waterboarding” – a form of torture that simulates drowning and can be fatal – on the Jon Stewart show Monday night. If we can’t look to elected officials to help us talk to people and resolve issues, then who, exactly can we turn to? Christina is tough, getting tougher by the day. The issues aside, I ought to point out she is something of a hero to me, anybody is who holds to their values and speaks their truth in the face of so much hatred and cruelty. Not many people could handle it.

I keep meaning to write about what I saw at the stables, I will get to it next, but first, I wanted to offer a digital and literal hand to Christina, to this very unlikely face of evil. I just went and liked her Facebook Page, if you are so inclined, perhaps you could do the same, she ought to know she is not alone in her struggle to understand animals, keep them in our lives and save the carriage horses. As is evident, I felt a real connection to her, I don’t recall having many connections with evil people before.  I am eager to get back to New York in the next week or so and take a ride in her carriage. It could well be one of the last rides I get to take in a carriage,  and perhaps people will shout hateful things at me. From my e-mail, it’s a good bet. I can’t think of a better way to ride or a better person to ride with.