Animals that can live meaningful and safely among us are among the most valuable resources on the earth, as critical to us and as vulnerable as clean air, fresh water. Everywhere, animals that once were part of our lives are disappearing. They are the children of Mother Earth as much as we are, it is the work of everyone who loves the natural world, animals,  the future of our children, or the very idea of the environment to answer the sacred call to save every animal that can possible survive us or live among us, there are few left to save.

Each one is precious, when they are gone, they can never be replaced. If you love the earth, you must love the horse or animal that can live among us.

The awful truth is that working animals are the very last chance for the most wonderful creations of the animal world to remain connected to human beings, the last animals we and our children will ever see or be aware of, the last opportunities for our leaders and politicians to do their moral duty and find ways to co-exist with animals and keep them safe and of value to us. For animals, this is life or death.

I see every animal that can live among us – carriage horses, border collies, donkeys, dogs and cats – as an ecstatic experience, a radioactive jewel in our world, a chance to save a piece of the earth, a vanishing opportunity to take a child by the hand and say, “meet this wonderful creature, he is part of our world, our history, our country, he is what we can never lose, what we must never let anyone take away.”

I am humbled to be shamed by the tourists I have been watching who come in wonder and ride the horse carriages in New York, I once was blind but now can see the magic that I was unable to see before. I was too arrogant to do the things the tourists do, I could not see what they see. Now, when I watch their faces light when they come upon these animals, and I see the the magical in their children’s eyes. I am reminded that it is the tourists who see our world anew, and perhaps the most clearly. Quite often, things are cliches because they are so very true and real to so many people.

We can’t save what has been lost, only what remains.