Central Park Carriage Horse Dies

In For Central Park Carriage Horse, Death Arrives Inelegantly in this morning’s New York Times, Corey Kilgannon reports that Juliet the carriage horse, who took tourists around Central Park for twenty years, died at 5 am and her owner, Antonio Provenzano, 47, is grief-stricken.

There’s so much here. Let’s jump in and deconstruct:

• Kilgannon writes that Juliet "held forth" on the south end of Central Park. Is that New York-ese for "slaved, rain, snow, or shine, serving her master, and had no independent life?"
• "I can’t believe this is my baby, Juliet," says her bereaved owner. Did he really treat her like he would his baby?
• Juliet definitely did not die a peaceful death. The evening prior to her demise was apparently full of suffering, much of it at the hands of Mr. Provenzano, who had to be stopped from whipping her by the cops (but evidently the whipping was vet-prescribed).
• Mr. Provenzano paid $1,700 for Juliet last year. "That horse was a member of my family," he said. "I have no money to get another horse. I have a wife and two sons to support. Two things I can do: make pizza and drive a horse."
  • I just don’t get it. The horse was a member of his family, whom he bought, enslaved, and forced to work to pay his bills. Something about that equation doesn’t add up. The pizza-making idea sounds really good to me.

Look, I’m from New York, and I don’t go back to Manhattan–around Central Park–at all these days. Why? Because it’s so disturbing to see the horses there, all year round, in the fumes, in the bustle, being forced to participate in the concrete jungle, being used as entertainment.

As Alexis Stewart, daughter of Martha Stewart wrote in a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg in January of this year after a carriage horse hit a car, the carriage driver was seriously injured, and the horse was later euthanized:

As evidenced by this catastrophe, horse-drawn carriages aren’t just cruel to the horses who are forced to work long hours in extreme weather conditions while walking on hard pavement and inhaling exhaust fumes all day long; they are equally dangerous to riders, drivers, pedestrians and motorists.

Carriage horse bans are currently in effect in Las Vegas, Palm Beach, Santa Fe, Paris, Lodon, and Toronto. The petition site has an ongoing petition to ban them in NYC, as does petitiononline.com, and the Friends of Animals blog has a very informative post about horse advocates seeking the ban, as well.

The Coalition to Ban Horse Drawn Carriages obviously concentrates all their time on this issue. Visit them.