Two years ago, when I first visited the horse carriage stables in New York, a former carriage driver named Eva Hughes, a brilliant, intense and sometimes angry woman who has been fighting for the horses for much of her life, told me the horses were calling us to a new social awakening, a new way of understanding animals, a new consciousness about our own rights and values as animal lovers.
Less than a year later, I sat in Central Park with Chief Avrol Looking Horse, a famed advocate of the horses and a spiritual leader of the Lakota Nation. He told me the horses had chosen me to help speak for them, he told me to accept this reality, even if I found it hard to believe. He said it was essential that the horses stay in New York, we need them as much as they need us, if they left, they would take the magic and the wind and the rain with them.
The Chief said the horses would be speaking to me, they would be guiding my writing. He was right, I do not believe that the horses are talking to me, and he was right about the messages, too: I am still getting them
I thought of these two quite remarkable people yesterday, as the horses won their greatest victory yet against some frightening and powerful and determined enemies – the mayor of New York, various real estate interests coveting their property, lazy reporters happy to pass along untruths, wealthy and fanatical and unknowing groups that call themselves supporters of animal rights, and some members of the New York City Council wishing to restrict or eliminate the carriage trade.
I read many calls online yesterday for an end to the reign of the mayor, wishes for him to be defeated next year, denunciations of him for being arrogant and possibly corrupt, trading the lives of horses and the livelihood of so many people for money. He is much despised in the horse world.
Something is wrong, I thought, at first I couldn’t figure out what.
I thought about this after a dream this morning, a visitation from a beautiful horse, and then again on my morning walk with the dogs. As a lover of the horses and a writer about animals and an advocate for keeping animals in our everyday lives, I have a different thought about the mayor now, it came to me in a flash, it was inspired by the horses.
It is this: I hope he stays in office forever, no one in all of the animal world or in the entire spectrum of our civic and political life has ever done more for the horses, or is owed more by them. He is one of us.
In my dream/visitation this morning Spartacus, a beautiful carriage horse in New York, came to me and told me that the horses had secretly supported him in the mayor’s election two years ago. He is, they told me, a secret agent, a sleeper, a mole, planted right in the ranks of the animal rights movement and the city government to unite the city behind the carriage trade, and to make sure the horses remain safe and loved and understood and in the city forever. He is brave and resourceful in his own confused way, one day he will come out and reveal himself as the great-grandson of Irish immigrants, lovers of horses for a thousand years.
Clever girls and boys, those horses.
Look, Spartacus reminded me, at what the mayor has done:
Five years ago, a private poll found that two-thirds of the people of New York believed the horses were overworked, abused and mistreated and should not be working in the city. Today, and two years into the mayor’s campaign, polls find that two-thirds of New Yorkers believe the carriage horses are safe and well treated and should remain in the city.
Every newspaper, labor union and business group in the city now supports the carriage trade, every age, racial, ethnic and gender cohort supports the horses. No one accepts the transparent falsehood that they are being treated poorly and tortured. The mayor has completely turned public and media sentiment around, an achievement the carriage trade and horse lovers could never have accomplished by themselves.
Several years ago, politicians, journalists, residents, animal rights groups almost universally believed that abuse was the central issue behind the carriage horse controversy. No one even bothered to come and look. Today, and after two years of political machinations by the mayor, the New York Times reports that “no one believes any longer that this issue is about animal welfare. It is about real estate and money.”
The horses, Spartacus whispered, could never had done that by themselves.
The mayor, it turns out, is not an arrogant ideologue, but a powerful leader, our new Winston Churchill. In the long and fractious history of New York, there has only been unanimity on two issues: the coming together after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the New York Carriage Horses. Everyone in the city supports them now, and it took the mayor to bring them together, which is what great leaders do.
One year ago, NYClass, the animal rights organization run by the mayor’s friend, a generous real estate developer who spent millions of dollars in support of the horse carriage ban, introduced the idea of the “vintage” electric car. The group spent another $500,000 (in addition to more than $300,000 to hire PR and marketing specialists to harass city council members) to build a prototype of a shockingly ugly and inappropriate electric car to replace the horses in Central Park. The car horrified park lovers, joggers, horse lovers, environmentalists and city residents. The members of the wealthy and powerful Central Park Conservancy practically upchucked over the plans.
Two years into his campaign to ban the horses, the idea that cars are more environmentally sound than horses, or are better suited to drive visitors around the park, is seen as a kind of awful and fleeting joke, it was utterly rejected. Nothing helped New Yorkers appreciate the beauty, grace and history of the horses more than those awful cars. The mayor supported the cars, he said they were more environmentally friendly than horses.
Do you think, asked Spartacus, that any sane opponent of the horses would suggest replacing us with those mutant Disney electric carts? Would you want to do a selfie with your new spouse in one when there was a horse like me around?
The mayor played the role, said Spartacus, tearing up, of the horse’s ass. He made himself look stupid for us.
Before the mayor’s ban, the carriage trade was silent, confused, stuck in the past. Today, they are coming together, fighting back, setting up Facebook and Twitter campaigns, and blogs, seeding the Internet with photos of happy horses. It is quite clear they will not roll over again. The mayor did that.
Three years ago, the public in general, inside of the city and out, was losing touch with the horses and other animals, were utterly disconnected from the natural world and the real lives of animals. Today, thanks almost entirely to the mayor of New York, the social awakening that Eva Hughes foresaw is coming to pass.
There is a great awakening, a re-connection has between people and the real lives of real animals. Many people, in and out of New York City, have begun to understand that these horses are the luckiest horses in the world, work for working animals is not cruel or abusive, the horses are not unhappy, depressed or suffering in any way. Many know now that these horses have never lived in the wild, and could not survive there, even if there was still a wild for them to go to.
Animal lovers all over the country woke up, sent letters, e-mails, money and support to the carriage trade. They made the issue a national, not a local one. And the mayor did it, almost entirely by himself!
All across the country, and in New York City, the animal rights movement had come to be accepted as the primary voice for animals in trouble or in transition. The mayor helped us to see that this movement has lost its way and sense of purpose, they neither know or understand animals, neither are they fighting for their rights and welfare. We need a new understanding of animals, they need people speaking for them to wish to save them in the world, not remove them and kill them and isolate them.
More and more, people are coming to understand that pulling carriages on asphalt in New York is light work for a working horse, and that the horses do not suffer from any kind of respiratory disease from breathing city fumes. People are beginning to think for themselves about animals, not simply parrot the dogma others are feeding them. They are learning that the horses are safe, well-suited for crowded urban streets, the streets of New York are safer and cleaner than they have ever been for horses.
Before the mayor began his assault on the carriage trade, few people knew for sure how the horses were being cared for, or how healthy they are, or how well-supervised and regulated (five different city agencies). Many people had heard the Big Lie of the animal rights movement in New York so often and so loudly they were coming to believe it. If they were saying it for so long and so loudly, didn’t it have to be true? No reporters ever came near the stables, they just went to NYClass press conferences for their information.
But now we all know it isn’t true.
The mayor’s quite odd and shocking vow to ban the horses on “day one” of his administration sparked a small army of respected veterinarians, behaviorists, writers (like me) movie stars (like Liam Neeson), horse trainers and lovers, residents and tourists to come to the stables and see the horses for themselves. His ban inspired them to make the trip.
Since the mayor wouldn’t come to see the stables for himself, it seemed that the equine community – veterinarians and trainers from everywhere – in New York and in much of the country decided to fill the vacuum and take a look for themselves. No one is less tolerant of horse abuse than horse people, and there was an outpouring of support from the people who know horses best. They all said, to a one, that the horses were content, healthy, extremely well cared for and safer and more secure than almost any horses anywhere.
When the took a look, they could hardly believe what they were hearing from the mayor and from the groups pushing the horse ban. The truth spread like a digital meme.
In just two years, the mayor has completely changed the narrative and dynamic surrounding animal welfare and the failed vision of animal rights. Animals do not need our rights, they need their own – mainly the right to survive.
While parroting the NYClass line – they either bought or stole his mind – the mayor has actually discredited the extremist ideology the animal rights movement, whose only vision seems to be removing animals from people.
Thanks to the mayor, the horses will still move about the city’s streets, interact with residents, be seen and loved by children.
Why, Spartacus asked me, would we want to get of this guy? He promised on his first day in office to ban the horses from the city, and today, the very idea of even proposing a ban to the City Council seems ludicrous. One reporter wrote today that the mayor’s obsession with banning the horses to repay a campaign debs was “the worst debacle” in the political history of New York City. Several city council members said “this issue is dead, it’s over.”
The horse people need to stop trashing the mayor and invite him to their annual Clip-Clop Festival and give him a gold horse statue to put on his desk. Maybe name a horse “deB.” Has any mayor ever done more for them?
Who could do more for the horses, Spartacus wonders, and so do I.
I hope the mayor tries to ban them again, as he has promised to do.The horses might just end up living in the Plaza Hotel, and walking to work right across the street. Please, Mr.Mayor, run again.