Our day begins with Maria’s morning meeting with the donkeys, I can’t imagine a life that begins any other way. They seem eager to hear the news, so is she, they talk and talk.

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Many of you have written asking how you can help save the New York Carriage Horses from banishment either to rescue farms or, more likely, slaughter. It is one thing to send a sick and abandoned or aging horse and donkey to a rescue farm, quite another to send a healthy, well-cared for and engaged working animal to one. The Carriage Horses need to be saved, but from their mayor and self-proclaimed rescuers, not from the people who own them, drive them, care for them well and value them highly. The carriage horse owners want to keep these animals in our lives, the people who say they are for animal rights want to drive the away.  If you wish to help, here’s a way. Randie Blumhagen is organizing a fund-raiser for the horses.

You can also contribute directly to the carriage owners and their legal defense fund here.

The carriage trade people are now getting flooded with messages and e-mails asking how people who really love animals and are concerned for their welfare can help. People are awakening to the importance of giving animal rights that are based on compassion for them and the people who live with them and a new understanding of their real lives. We need a real animal rights movement that is about them, not just us. Every one with an animal or who loves one has a horse in this race, pardon the pun. Check out Randie’s project. I will keep on writing and help in any way that I can, I am  returning to New York next Thursday to spend the day with a carriage driver, one of the many people whose voices have not been heard in this sad and unnecessary affair. Hard-working and law-abiding people should not have to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend their livelihood in court.