I want to share with you an extraordinary piece of courage and journalism: “The Real Story Behind Central Park Horse Conditions,” by Rain Dove Dubilewski,which appeared recently on a website called the doost.com. Rain Dove Dubilewski reminds us what truth means, even when it subsumed by the mob.

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Winston Churchill said that courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, and courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.  Rain Dove Dubilewski, an self-described androgynous model in New York City was hired to work during Fashion Week in a runway show where the fashion designer decided that his models would ride in horse carriages to show off his new collection. Animal rights demonstrators booed the models and repeatedly attempted to disrupt the runway show. The police made little effort to control them, according to many  people present

. “The voices of hundreds of angry animal activists greeted me unexpectedly,” wrote Dubilewski, “to tell me that the minute I step into a carriage I am stepping into the life of an animal that is suffering. News crews, reporters, bloggers, photographers, swarmed me. I could not control them. The police could not control the crowd.”

Dubilewski said she was upset and frightened. She was told she was supporting animal abuse, she was shouted at, handed pamphlets and posters, told that the carriage horses were starved, dehydrated, worked to death. She listened, took notes. Most people would have left it there. She did not.  Here, she  wrote, is the list of the top ten concerns that the demonstrators, who described themselves as supporters of animal rights, had about the horses:

The food is of poor quality; there is pigeon excrement mixed with the feed, it is left out for rats to roll in in the stables; horses are left at the stables alone for days without water, and are not given water at their work site (Central Park), even in extreme heat; the barns are freezing cold in the wintertime and boiling hot in the summer because of poor ventilation; the horses are worked to death and never given a day off; when the horses are too old to work, they are sold to slaughterhouses; horses get hit by cars frequently and are subject to heavy traffic; drivers beat their horses and whip them; horses do not have free space to run or frolic in fields; many of the horses are lame because the asphalt is too hard on their hooves; the horses breathe pollution all day and have to breathe in automobile exhaust constantly.

These charges have been repeated for years, in speeches, demonstrations, press conferences, on blogs, websites, TV and radio and in countless newspaper accounts and in hundreds of thousands of pamphlets. The mayor of New York City has accepted and embraced these accusations, they are the cornerstone of his efforts to ban the carriage horses from New York City.  Veterinarians and horse associations repeatedly denied these charges, said they were false. But until recently, no journalist had ever gone to the stables to see the horses for themselves, very few citizens had, and the mayor never has, nor have any of the people who call themselves supporters of animal rights and defenders of the horses.

I went to the stables in January to see for myself, and the experience was profound, it altered my sense of truth, justice, journalism, the environment,  animal rights and fairness. I have been writing about it ever since. I am humbled by Rain Dove Dubilewski’s piece, she is a true journalist and a warrior for light.

Rain Dove Dubilewski – clearly frightened to even approach a subject she considered to be so sensitive and controversial – decided to go and see the horses for herself. “I love animals,” she wrote. “I love most people. And – I love education. Some might believe that as a model I don’t have the brain cells nor the knowledge to investigate this topic thoroughly but that is not true. I do have an entire childhood spend growing up on a farm, and a degree from UC Berkeley – one of the most activist driven schools in the country. PLUS – all people deserve the right to education and to be educated. EVERY person should be able to seek truth for themselves the way they know best – qualified or not in other people’s eyes.”

If Thomas Jefferson were alive, he would throw his arms around Rain Dove and praise her to the skies. This is the highest calling of a citizen in a free country – seeking the truth, speaking the truth, gathering the information needed to make up his or her mind, even in the face of a howling and angry mob.

So Rain Dove Dubilewski went to the Clinton Park stables and she investigated every single one of the animal rights complaints with thoroughness and an eye to detail – greater, I have to say, than mine or anyone else I have read or heard about. Here is her report, I commend it to anyone who cares about truth  or the welfare of the carriage horses and who wishes to understand the meaning both of courage and true citizenship. At the end of her report, she conceded that this truth was hers and hers only, she said she was eager to listen and learn and hear other points of view.

Rain Dove may feel that people may dismiss her ideas because she is a model, but my wish for her – for all of us – is that she come to understand that she put the journalists, the angry protestors and the mayor of the world’s greatest city to shame.