Much of Maria’s art has always been about connection, restoring the connection with our own spirits, with the natural world, with our voices and with animals. A few months ago, she was asked to create a piece of art that celebrated the ancient partnership with animals like horses, a bond that is being shattered as the horses and other animals of the world have been driven from their environments, cut off from work and human connection.

She created the beautiful and touching image above.

Animals are vanishing from the world. The World Wildlife Federation says that half of the wildlife on the earth has disappeared since 1970. In New York, they are seeking to drive out the carriage horses – the last remaining domesticated animals in the city that are not pets – and replace them with huge electric cars. It is abusive and immoral, says the mayor and several animal rights organizations, for working horses to work with people in the city. More trucks and cars and condos are okay.

The best I can do is to say the mayor knows not of what he speaks. We need to speak for the horses, and for the people who care for them. Horses have helped us build our world, they have been working with us for centuries, something many of us have forgotten but the Indians have not.

Maria created the wonderful image above to remind us of the power of the human-animal bond, it was immediately adopted by the people who truly speak for the rights of animals. It is being used as a symbol of the movement to honor the partnership between people and horses, but it is, in fact, much broader than that.

It is a symbol and insignia of a new social movement, one that celebrates our partnership with animals and seeks in a loving and humane way to keep them in our world. You can see where the money goes and join right here. Maria’s vision has been made into beautiful blankets that are selling for $52. One will soon be hanging in my study.

The money will go to help horses in need, the blankets and the connection are a part of the passion of Blue-Star Equiculture, the famous rescue and retirement home for the New York Carriage and other draft horses. It will also go to help Native-Americans honor what they believe is a sacred connection between people and the horses. If the horses go, they believe, they will take the wind and the thunder with them. I believe that is so, I feel it.

It was my sad experience in recent years – I write this with  regret – to come to see that the leading spokespeople for animals in America, the animal rights movement, have  changed course and ideology. They are no longer a movement to keep animals in our world, but an angry political movement that drives them away, separates them from people,  and makes it more difficult – even frightening – to own them, live with them and work with them.

As a result, a great conflict has emerged between people who own pets and people who love animals. The struggle of the New York Carriage Trade to remain in New York City has become a national symbol of this deepening struggle. At stake for anyone who loves animals are the most basic questions about them – are they being sacrificed in order to be saved, can we continue to live and work with animals in our cities and towns, who will speak for them, what are their real rights, what is the future of animals in our troubled and greedy world?

We need a wiser and more mystical understanding of animals than this, their survival and their rights depend on it.

I have taken a stand, I share the view that animals like horses and dogs are our ancient partners in the joys and travails of the world, we need a new movement that will help people who wish to keep them and live with them, that honors the role of working animals in our lives rather than abolishes it, and that treats both humans and animals with dignity and respect – that listens to the real needs of both. For me, the most basic right of animals like horses is to survive in our world, and be ensured a role to play in our lives. To remain amongst the people who will care for them, and with whom they have shared work and life for thousands of years.

I do not believe it is true that horses no longer belong in New York City, it is our sacred responsibility to keep them among us, and make them safe and secure. Maria, who is powerfully drawn to animals and to the big horses, is touched that her art has become a symbol of the movement to save them and honor our traditions and history. For more information, you can read her writings about it and go to the Blue-Star site and consider purchasing a blanket.

This is an invitation to join the new order, the new and truly humane movement that seeks to harness our better sides, and our deep love of animals. It has arisen out of anger, controversy and a failure to honor the true meaning of animals in our lives and a knowing understanding of them. Animals deserve better than this, they deserve to be represented by people who know them, love them and seek to keep them among us. A movement to speak for animals ought to be loving and caring, not hurtful and divisive.

The people who live and work with animals deserve better as well.

You can purchase a blanket and join this movement here.