I have nothing against the carriages. I just haven’t seen any horses in my 15-20 visits that looked healthy. Granted its a small sample.
I know a guy who grew up in NYC. He heard a sound here in tampa he had never heard before. It was a frog. I guess the park is beautiful but certainly not on the same level as real outdoors.
The Central Park horses are seen by vets, farriers and equine dentists several times a year. Horses are not like lapdogs or cats … they like working, just like service dogs and sheep dogs do. It is not cruel to hitch a horse to a carriage and drive it at a leisurely pace around Central Park. Being stuck in a stall is no fun and hard on the horses. Horses that don’t have jobs often have psychological issues … they are meant to be more than mere lawn ornaments.
It would cost between $400-500 thousand A YEAR to care for the 200+ horses removed from the streets. Rather than do that, the small business owners involved will sell them. No, they are not going to rich, pre-teen girls in the Hamptons. They will be sold to the horse markets in Canada where they will be slaughtered and made into pet food.
New York City was built by horses. They did all the work cars and trucks do now. They died in the streets from overwork and were left where they dropped. It should be out of respect of the legacy they left that those remaining have a place of honor with people who understand, love and have formed a bond with them.
If humaneness is your chief concern, it would make more sense to shut down racetracks and outlaw thoroughbred racing. I’d hate to see that too, but it does make more sense.
PS: I live in rural Florida now. Sometimes the clatter the frogs make after a storm reminds me of the noise the steam-heated radiator made in my NYC pre-war apartment.