Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides: Less Beautiful Than They Seem

Written by Grace Brosofsky

Rides in horse-drawn carriages seem like a beautiful, memorable, and sentimental way to tour cities such as New York, but in truth, they are all but beautiful in the light of what the horses who pull them undergo. First and foremost, horse-drawn carriages can cause accidents fatal for both horses and humans to occur. When pulling carriages through streets full of honking traffic, horses can be easily spooked by the chaos and noise surrounding them. According to PETA, "A simple car backfire or a honking horn can cause a horse to panic and run around uncontrollably, endangering the horse, the carriage occupants, and car drivers." It is hard to understand why the lives of humans and animals would be endangered for the romance of a carriage ride.

Not only are the horses put at risk on the streets, they are often treated with very poor standards outside of the unavoidable dangers of their "jobs". There are few regulations put into place to protect the rights of these animals.  In describing the plight of carriage horses, actress Lea Michele said, "Imagine for a moment that you're forced to do hard physical labor all day, seven days a week- whether it's sweltering hot or freezing cold outside. At the end of the day, instead of relaxing on [an] easy chair or sleeping in a comfortable bed, you are locked in a tiny closet all night long." Sadly, this is the life of the horses forced to pull carriages. They are made to labor extensive hours through extreme weather conditions, only to come home to far from spacious, dilapidated, multi-level "stables" that they have to trudge up narrow ramps to enter. The horses suffer from many health problems, often having lung illnesses and becoming lame from walking on streets made for cars, not animals. After all their toil, they are often sold to slaughterhouses instead of being allowed to live the remainder of their lives comfortably. The average life expectancy for horses given the job of pulling carriages in New York City is sadly low- less than four years, in comparison to a police horse's working life of fourteen years.

In the words of Debbie Leahy, the director of PETA, "There's nothing 'romantic' about animal abuse, injury, and death. How many more horses will be mangled and how many more drivers will land in hospital beds before New York City bans these devices?" The truth is that horses deserve to be grazing in pastures, not dragging carriages through busy city streets. You can make a difference by signing a petition to stop this seemingly romantic, but truthfully inhumane practice at http://www.change.org/petitions/ban-horse-drawn-carriages-in-new-york-city-new-bill-needs-support.

Links to Information Sources:
http://thestir.cafemom.com/entertainment/114617/glee_star_lea_michele_horsedrawn
http://www.usuallyvegan.com/tag/horse-drawn-carriage-rides-cruel/
http://www.banhdc.org/

Save a Life

Each year, animal shelters kill around three to four million dogs and cats whose only crime is having no home. These animals lose their life in a matter of days after being captured and caged by the "pound". Before being euthanized, they are often kept in sad conditions with uncomfortable cages and little protection from cold, heat, and disease. Please, if you're considering buying a new pet, save a life by adopting a shelter animal who would otherwise be cruelly disposed of. Give an animal the chance to escape the death sentence and serve as your lovable companion.

The Cosmetic Crisis: The Sad Facts on Animal Testing

When using make-up or household goods such as furniture polish, it is easy not to think that these products are doing any harm. However, I have learned that each year millions of animals suffer and often die in cosmetic testing, the inhumane testing of these consumer products. Essentially unknown to most shoppers, animals as loved as dogs, guinea pigs, and rabbits who did nothing to make themselves deserving of punishment are tortured and jeopardized. The conclusions to the tests do not even help human health, making the conduction of animal testing difficult to justify.
 There are multiple different types of these tests, and none can be described as anything but irrationally cruel. In some tests, albino rabbits are confined to stocks that do not allow any movement and let only their heads stick out. Their eyes are forced open with painful clasps so that a substance can be dripped in. The adverse effects of the product being tested are recorded at set amounts of time. This can go on for up to eighteen long and gruesome days, while the rabbits endure such symptoms as blood loss, inflammation of the irises and eyelids, ulcers, large-scale depreciation, and even permanent vision loss. Not only must the rabbits experiences these painful symptoms, they also often die by breaking their necks in attempt of freedom from the tight hold of the stocks.

The acute toxicity (lethal dose or poisoning) test is another, possibly even crueler, type of cosmetic testing. An animal victim to this form of testing is given a substance through its mouth or eyes, punctures cut in its throat, or tubes inserted into its stomach. It can also receive the product being tested through a gas mask or shot into its blood vessels or beneath its skin. Animals receive more and more of the product until a certain quantity of them, which can range from 50 to 100 percent, sadly dies. Before dying, they experience such symptoms as blood loss through the mouth, nose, and eyes, difficulty breathing, seizures, atypical body stance, emancipation, rashes, constipation, and diarrhea.

Animal testing can be accredited with purposely killing large masses of animals and harming many more, but it cannot even be said to produce solid results judged as scientifically accurate. Many companies use animal testing simply because by performing it they can sell products that are not truly safe due to the tests' inaccuracy. They often try to argue that they must use animals in cosmetic testing, but over 500 companies have shown that other accurate testing methods can be used, such as technological simulations, tissue and cell cultures, and tests on corneas from eye banks. The Food and Drug Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission do not require animal testing, so there is no reason for it to be performed. Take a stand against this inhumane process that tortures millions by buying cruelty-free products.   

Information Source: http://www.mercyforanimals.org/cosmetic_testing.asp

Introduction

Hi, my name is Grace Brosofsky, and I have an enormous love for animals. I am writing this blog to bring awareness to the cruel misfortunes of animals about issues such as animal testing, slaughtering, and homelessness. Animals need a voice, and I am hoping to help be their voice by presenting not just an opinion, but factual information about their sadly true situations. By doing this, I hope that I am able to help animals have the better life that they deserve.