Are those carriages by Quincy Market cruel to horses?
By adamg - 12/7/08 - 11:28 am
Globe: Protest targets horse carriages.
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Globe: Protest targets horse carriages.
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Welcome to 4500 BC
The horse has been working alongside mankind for THOUSANDS of years. Horse owners are the *most* protective of their horses than any other pet owner I can think of. If they were to get their horse killed in some way, then that's their livelihood down the drain. I really detest the protesters who just act on a simple-minded goal and don't actually think about what they're implicating.
Have YOU read up on the subject?
Various humane societies have released statements saying that horses experience damage to knees and hips when they walk on pavement for long periods of time, and that they never get over the anxiety of being around cars and sirens and such. I don't know that much about horses either way, but I do know that groups such as humane societies and vets (who aren't people who are opposed to all human benefit from animals) say that they don't belong on city streets for long hours.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
You beat me to it
In 4500 b.c., as well as in colonial and Victorian times, the roads were paved a bit differently. They absorbed the excreted materials (I cycle through post office square and I know about what the other commentator mentioned) and also absorbed impact much better than modern pavements.
The police horses get to go off road and don't spend day after day in the streets. I've often wondered about how much rest these cart animals get away from pavement, and how they fare on cold days when you can see their breath.
Amish horses
This discussion makes me wonder how life is for the horses that Amish people use to drive their carriages, often on modern paved roads.
reasonable accommodations
These animals deserve reasonable accommodations. Special horsepaths should be put in on the most frequently traveled routes and clover must available at the watering hole.
Not on asphalt all the time
A car spends far more time on the driveway or parking spot than it does on the road - unless it is a taxicab.
My impression is that it is not the road surface per se, but the amount of time spent on that surface that causes damage.
A horse walking down a state
A horse walking down a state route outside of Coshocton Ohio has a much different life than one that pulls tourists down State Street. Asphalt is asphalt of course, but the city horse is breathing exhaust and has myriad stressors all around him. That horse in ohio is taking to the family to town and back as necessary, and its doubtful that it spends most of its waking life clip clopping the streets like a carriage horse.
Putting aside the argument
Putting aside the argument about the animals being mistreated, what about the humans? I work in Post Office Square, it stinks in evenings of ammonia and urine from the horses. I once had the misfortune of the stepping in a hot puddle of fresh piss, these horse pee gallons, usually at red lights (crosswalks). The people operating the carriages look like carnival riff-raff, even more so when they effect some Dickensian top hat. I'm always wondering about the passengers too, how romantic is it really to be stuck between taxis and a construction fence? Cant these guys think of anything better to spend their money on, take her out for cocktails at the Four Seasons or something.
Are animals used in enterprise necessarily used inhumanly?
You can't rent a dog in the city of Boston but you can rent a horse.
I suppose all the people and the MA Animals Rights Coalition that were working hard to ban greyhound racing suddenly have a lot of free time on their hands.
That said, I'm am not strongly in favor of dog racing or horse carriages but I'm not sure the enterprise of using animals is inhuman. That is where the debate should begin.
PICTURE
Horses' "rights" vs. Dogs'
It's illegal now to have dogs run races around a track wearing muzzles and little jackets with a number on them.
But it's okay to have horses run races around a track with a bit of metal in their mouth and a man on top of their back, often whipping the horse.
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who and the what now?
Next stop, jello
""Horses don't belong in city streets, they belong in fields," said Helen Rayshick, one of the protest organizers."
Yeah, that's just what's going to happen to these horses if they lose their jobs. They're going to be liberated to frolic in green meadows, where kindly farriers will tend their hooves with love. They will prance, and dance, and eat clover, but not too much.
Posts like that continue to
Posts like that continue to give liberalism a bad name..