When Mayor Bill deBlasio took office two years ago and promised to ban the carriage horses on his first day in office, the carriage drivers despaired, their backs were to the wall, and they were up against a staggering array of powerful enemies, the mayor, a millionaire animal rights activists obsessed with destroying them, real estate developers drooling over their stables, and a lazy and manipulable media happy to relay any wild or unproven accusation against them.
Yesterday, the mayor folded, abandoning his ban and running from the issue. An impossible win for the horses and the beleaguered and hard working people who worked and lived with them.
We are all hoping for another great and once seemingly impossible victory this week in the new struggle to keep animals in our world, to protect farmers and animal lovers from the growing and irrational intrusions on their work and lives. We wish to create a new kind of movement to save animals and to treat the people who live and work with them with dignity and respect.
Joshua Rockwood needs help, you can follow his story here. He was unjustly accused of animal abuse and cruelty, he faces trial on 13 different counts, all of them outrageously irrational, trival or false, from having an unheated barn to allowing his water bowls to freeze in – 27 degree temperature. He is an idealistic young farmer fighting to keep his farm moving forward. If he is guilty of anything, it is of not asking for enough help when the worst cold wave in modern history hit the Northeast last winter.
Justice in America is not cheap or simple. Joshua has already raised more than $58,000 for help with his legal fees, that money is going rapidly. He needs help to improve his farm and get it ready for another hard winter.
To keep moving forward with West Wind Acres in the face of horrendous distractions, legal proceedings and fees, he needs $16,000 to built new eco-friendly water tire tanks and Greenhouse Shelters for his pigs, cattle and sheep. in the past 24 hours, his gofundme site has raised more than $5,700. We are on the way, not yet there. A little more than $10,000 to go, it seems like a lot, but there are a lot of you out there who understand his plight.
The money will help him care for his animals, run a more efficient farm, prepare for the winter, and sell more of his healthy food to local people.
I’ve written a ton of articles about Joshua, I’m not going to belabor it here again. He is a good and honest man, he deserves our support. If you have ever had a water tank freeze in the winter or owned an unheated barn, then you could be standing in his shoes today. He has been trapped in the new hysteria over animal abuse, the new Orwellian world of secret informers, unknowing police, feckless politicians. We have lost touch with the reality of farming, of animals, of the natural world.
We need for that to change, Joshua is a great place to start.
The role of government is to protect the freedom and property of human beings, not to take them away. We are redefining animal abuse to include the very real nature of life itself, an impossible standard for many farmers and animal lovers to maintain. Joshua needs and deserve some help, you can get to his gofundme site and check it out for yourself. And thank you.
Like the carriage drivers, Joshua is brave and determined. I hope that like them, we will soon have another victory in the new social awakening over our treatment of animals and people. I believe he must prevail. For his sake, for ours, for the future of animals in our world.