Yet another Hacker News

New York City’s horse-drawn carriages expected to take their last trot

56 points 1659447091 3 days ago 83 comments

dyauspitr 1 day ago | parent

They for some reason made the area around Central Park more sophisticated

wateralien 1 day ago | parent

They made it more of a tourist trap.

Ericson2314 1 day ago | parent

This is a bigger deal than it might sound. Despite lots of consensus that the horse carriages are bad, it has taken years to get this done. It infamously stalled during De Blasio's mayoralty too, for example.

This is also an L for the TWU, and I suspect there will be more of those to come in the following months.

jimbob45 1 day ago | parent

Not that I disagree but what has that consensus centered around?

sincerely 1 day ago | parent

Egregious & consistent mistreatment of the horses.

The past four mayors have all tried to end the practice but the jockeys (drivers?) are part of a powerful transportation union.

gpt5 1 day ago | parent

If that's the reason, then the solution sounds like a typical bad bureaucratic government - instead of fixing the problem (improved treatment for horses), ban the whole thing.

Ericson2314 1 day ago | parent

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50116002 See that.

There is no business here that can afford any capital outlay, this is a bunch of mom-and-pop shops that rent stable slots (I think) and own medallions. No capital outlay -- nothing can really change.

The city could also spend money on the stables. And NYC NYS have spent money propping up stupid small businesses unable to take care of themselves before. But I do not endorse that outcome at all.

dataflow 1 day ago | parent

Why can't they pass legislation to get the horses treated better instead of banning them?

leoedin 1 day ago | parent

It seems kind of strange that the entire meat industry exists and is tolerated, yet a few horses in Central Park are making people so angry. Surely these horses have far better lives than the cows did that everyone's tucking into over lunch?

jonnybgood 1 day ago | parent

You think the animal rights activists who are opposing the carriages are tolerable of the meat industry? This is just low hanging fruit.

NoLinkToMe 1 day ago | parent

But the activists are not the point. Animal rights activists are a minority, things change because the majority or a significant share of people backs them.

In this case this large group that backs banning horse drawn carriages is very likely eating industrially produced meat. That’s the inconsistency, 95% of Americans eat meat and a substantial share cause far greater inhumanity on animals through their diets which are completely optional (as in, they could vote with their mouth and stop it), than these horse drawn carriages which they want to ban.

mattmaroon 1 day ago | parent

Horseshit sucks and being around those animals in a city sucks so it’s an easy sell.

tyromaniac 1 day ago | parent

I think if a bunch of horses were dropping dead in my city from heat exhaustion, and the only upside to having them was that they congested the roads and left shit everywhere, then I would weigh the two and probably say better to not have them. Turns out 78% of registered New Yorkers agree. Maybe they are all massive hypocrites and should actually support this, since they also eat meat.

modo_mario 1 day ago | parent

They're in proximity to people that run on a progressive threadmill. When it became socially opportune to so i've seen city folk elsewhere shift their animal rights stance to defend halal slaughter laws deeming it to be progressive because it's tied to a group lower on the proverbial ladder.

mattmaroon 1 day ago | parent

There’s nothing more cruel about halal slaughter, as long as they stun (which most do), than the common method.

amiga386 1 day ago | parent

That's a load-bearing "as long as".

Animal welfare laws don't give atheist butchers the option to be cruel. They're required to stun the animal first. Why give halal/kosher butchers the option to be cruel? Especially if you claim "most do" choose to stun.

Be kinder to animals, change "most do" to "all do" by removing the religious exception.

...and then come the progressive types to defend 1000+ year old ritual slaughter customs.

mattmaroon 1 day ago | parent

In the US at least, freedom of religion does grant some exceptions. The Amish do not participate in Social Security and Medicare, for instance, but I cannot opt out. I’m not sure how it works other places.

I’m not saying I endorse this, but that is why.

nixon_why69 1 day ago | parent

Presumably any and every religious tradition on slaughter is better than max-capitalism factory farming style?

What's objectionable about halal?

amiga386 1 day ago | parent

> Presumably any and every religious tradition on slaughter is better than max-capitalism factory farming style?

It's really not. You're mixing two things, "max-capitalism factory farming" alludes to how the animal is treated while it's alive, e.g. caged hens vs free-range hens, while what we're talking about here is animal suffering via religious ritual slaughter.

Kosher and halal slaughter are not animal-friendly. They mandate cutting the animal's throat but preserving its spinal cord so it feels every possible pain in its last moments alive as the blood drains out.

Stunning it before death and/or putting a bolt through its brain would be a lot more humane, but those methods didn't exist when those religions came up their rules, so of course not one iota of progress can be added.

Read more about it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhabihah

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechita

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_aspects_of_ritual_slaugh...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronarcosis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captive_bolt_pistol

You'll see that authorities in e.g. the UK have been asked to regulate kosher/halal butchers, require them to at least stun the animal before doing their ritual slaughter... and the authorities chose not to, and let them keep their religious exemption to animal cruelty laws. Kosher and halal slaughterers can choose to stun the animal first, which would be humane, but they don't have to.

nixon_why69 1 day ago | parent

Thank you, that was really informative, I was totally mixing those two things. Perfect case of Cunningham's law.

The fact that kosher/halal are very similar is a hilarious wrinkle for the culture war aspect that OP was pushing.

nixon_why69 21 hours ago | parent

I don't normally talk about downvotes but whomever downvoted the informative comment from amiga above should not have, it was very interesting, I learned from it, and as such it's in line with hacker news ideal.

ATMLOTTOBEER 2 hours ago | parent

It’s not about animal rights at all. Animal rights angle is the strawman used by TWU. Source: I spend 7h in CP/week

nkrisc 1 day ago | parent

The meat industry at least has a useful output. Horse drawn carriages have no meaningful benefit and a long list of drawbacks.

dataflow 14 hours ago | parent

There's nothing strange about this. You're just failing to recognize the obvious.

Would you seriously have the heart to, say, kick, injure, and torture a calf or lamb that you know was heading for slaughter and was going to end up on your plate?

Do you also fail to see why people ban torture despite still permitting killing in circumstances like capital punishment or war or self-defense or whatever? Would you be okay with getting tortured during your life if you were sentenced to death?

Just because society blessed your excuse to kill a living being, that doesn't make it strange or illogical to oppose your cruelty or their torture during their life. I'm not even taking a position here; this is so obviously not hard to comprehend. If you're looking to point out hypocrisy, this is not an example of it.

adfglknk 12 hours ago | parent

You should re-read the comment you replied to. It was not commenting on the killing of animals, but rather on the horrific ways animals are abused while they live. The killing is the least odious part of the meat industry.

The dairy industry is worse.

october8140 1 day ago | parent

They've tried but the owners continuously don't.

dataflow 20 hours ago | parent

Fascinating, thanks. Sounds to like they must not have tried hard enough if that's the case. Surely they could enforce it through audits/inspections/fines/etc. if they really wanted to?

Ericson2314 18 hours ago | parent

They probably were unwilling to impose penalties that would be strong enough because they would also put them out of business, and until they were willing to ban it outright they were uncomfortable with that outcome.

Ericson2314 1 day ago | parent

I do not know. I have not looked into this issue on the merits. I have just observed the gridlock and status-quo bias around it.

I suspect though that mandating better conditions would have the same effect --- the horse tourism business probably stops penciling out if they have to make the required changes. And given that, TWU would fight it just as hard --- a de jure or de facto ban has the same effect as far as they are concerned.

rob74 1 day ago | parent

Meanwhile, another city with iconic horse-drawn carriages, Vienna (where the carriages, unlike in New York, actually use city streets), is debating whether the horses should get a day off if temperatures rise above 30° C (currently it's 35°), and only a few officials are meekly suggesting that a complete ban might be considered at some point in the future.

https://www-ganz--wien-at.translate.goog/wien/news/pro-contr...

ErroneousBosh 1 day ago | parent

I was a bit surprised to see quite so many when I was over last August and it was well north of 35°C - you'd think with the water-bottle and sprinkler stations everywhere they'd also throw out a couple of troughs of water for the horses.

They all seemed to be in good health, from what I saw, but horses are pretty finicky creatures - we humans domesticated the horse about 20,000 years ago, breeding the strongest healthiest creatures we could, and they're still a bit shit - and I wouldn't be surprised if a less attentive driver is going to end up killing one.

throwaway270925 1 day ago | parent

> throw out a couple of troughs of water for the horses

They have, while not throughs per se, there are extra hydrants all around the fiaker places at Stefansdom, Albertina, Hofburg, etc for them to fill their horses water buckets, spray them down, etc.

phyzix5761 1 day ago | parent

Meanwhile in Florida cowboys ride their horses every day in 38C+ weather.

bahmboo 1 day ago | parent

There are no cowboys in Florida. Clownboys.

Tostino 1 day ago | parent

And then have to hose them off for an hour so they don't get heat exhaustion. I have a barn full of horses I grew up with in FL. You're misinformed.

kzrdude 1 day ago | parent

I saw a lot of sad horses in Sevilla, with above 36°C that day

PorciiVorbesc 1 day ago | parent

Can't afford to lose some of that sweet tourist cash so they make up any excuses.

ginko 1 day ago | parent

Viennese Fiaker horses are limited to 18 working days per month and there's already temperature limits. Whether those should be lowered further is up for discussion. the current limits for horses are already lower than for outdoor laborers in Vienna.

IMO completely banning horse carriages in Vienna is overshooting.

clarionbell 1 day ago | parent

Because Vienna politicians have some sense.

gautamcgoel 1 day ago | parent

Liam Neeson (yes, that one) wrote an op-ed defending these carriages in the NYT, back in 2014:

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/15/opinion/carriages-belong-...

yieldcrv 1 day ago | parent

Good riddance, let’s see this play out

toppa33 1 day ago | parent

I feel for the animals, but it’s the end of an era.

CurrentB 1 day ago | parent

An era of seeing tourists do tourist things, and smelling horse shit in central Park?

RhysU 23 hours ago | parent

I mean, there's human shit in Central Park. I once watched some genteel ladies hilariously clean up before an Easter egg hunt one morning. Surprise!

If you want to prioritize removing one type of Central Park shit, the list is probably human then dog then pigeon then horse.

ATMLOTTOBEER 1 hour ago | parent

Ok I’ll bite:

30 horses in the park, 6h per horse per day, uniform pooping

Call it 14 kg of feces per day per horse

Humans shit ~100g/day

115k park visitors a day

For humans to match that horse output, nearly 1% of all daily visitors would have to be pooping on the ground…

Granted, the horses have waste catchers, but even under a 90% efficiency regime it’s still 10kg of horseshit spread over the lower loop

pluc 1 day ago | parent

Good. We (Montreal) did that some years ago and nobody misses it - tourists, operator, citizen and very likely the horses too. You think it's a staple until it's gone, then you realize it was just animal abuse for profit.

Also, it is a lot better for tourists than having horses faint or die on the pavement in front of your kids - which is bound to happen more frequently with the weather becoming warmer.

expedition32 1 day ago | parent

Humans adapt. Even if people miss them they get over it quickly. You get a lot of (social)media articles for a couple of months but after that everyone moves on.

gaiagraphia 1 day ago | parent

Did the locals realise before or after tucking into their burgers?

Banning something just because kids 'might' (would love to see a % chance on this) die on the streets is alarmist nonsense. Should we ban trains and cars, too?

There's ways to mitigate cruelty and exploitation, just like we do for humans.

What's the difference between this and people keeping pets couped up indoors and exploiting them as 'emotional support', etc? If animals are meant to be wild and not exploited, people should at least be consistent.

pluc 1 day ago | parent

We didn't ban horses, we banned touristic carriage rides specifically because the few companies that operated treated their animals questionably. You can still see horses, just not ones that are getting abused.

And for what it's worth, even if you provided your animals with the greatest care (which they didn't), just putting them to work for 12 hours a day on a hot paved street was largely seen as abusive.

It might not have happened often that a horse fainted or died on the job, but when it did it caused enough of an uproar to pressure the people in charge to do something. As someone who has witnessed it, you really only want to see that once.

stevekemp 21 hours ago | parent

I'm kinda curious what other horses you'd have in the streets, there?

I've lived in the UK, and now Finland, and generally the only time I see horses are when ridden by the police.

(In Scotland it was common-place to see mounted police outside Rugby and Football matches, apparently the increased height gave them good visibilty. I'm sure they trained and selected for even-tempered horses, but I always imagined the combination of thousands of shouting pedestrians and horses was a bad one. If a horse got spooked things would end pretty badly, and quickly.)

pluc 17 hours ago | parent

We have mounted police (that's the MP in RCMP) along with their stable (barrack?) that I think they organize group things with (to get the horses in training used to crowds maybe?), for a time the stable where the carriage horses used to stay were turned into a zoo type of thing where you could hang with the horses until they figured out where to go, and then most of them went to refuges outside the city. Admittedly horses are a rarer sight in the city now, but they also don't belong there at all.

thomassmith65 39 minutes ago | parent

Vehicular traffic was, for the most part, equine until the 20th Century. That doesn't negate your argument; it's just interesting to reflect upon.

https://youtu.be/NLxRoDuwaeY London traffic circa 1900

metalman 1 day ago | parent

Horses only know a human world and removing them from it is wrong, very very wrong, if they have any right, it is to stay. Horses KNOW there purpose , and ENJOY there work and those who are part of that also know and enjoy there co joined lives, which at times is as close to magic as to be found. But let me fuck right off, and may the sterilisation bring you some sort of shiny comfortable pristine experience.

sakex 1 day ago | parent

Agree with the sentiment, but it's "their"

CurrentB 1 day ago | parent

Even if you think this is true generally of horses and humans, I can't understand feeling that it remains true regardless of setting and conditions for the horse? Like, they're overworked, never ever leave cement and heavy traffic and loud city noises and small confined spaces.

metalman 1 day ago | parent

the fact is that EVERYBODY is on board to steal the last remaining horse space, not improve it, not expand and enhance it, not accept that if horses have ANY right it is to STAY. after 10000 years with us, this is a cowardly shamefull act, despicable as few things are. SHAME

causesothere 22 hours ago | parent

The last remaining horse space? There are so many horse spaces, what are you on about. Being amused in Central Park is not the last space for horses.

metalman 3 hours ago | parent

(ohferfucksake)The last remaing horse space in Manhattan(nitpickity,nitpickity,boo!), and someone here bragged about removing horses from central Montreal, the horrifying theme of destroying horses to save them bieng consistant in all of these fake animal rights crusades. The assult on having a big dog on/in a truck is so empowered and rabid that a happy dog in a truck, sitting on a city street, will gather a small crowd of concerned citizens working there phones to bring about a 'rescue' instantly, enthusiasticly lieing about the whole situation. It's gotten so bad that there is an app that integrates with cars cameras to document these incidents. I would go into my personal experiences with horses and dogs, owning and careing for, and other general battles, but as this is all a rear guard action, thats where my real efforts go. And in any case things are so desolate inside citys now that there are people feeding the rats,enjoy and be amused!

clarionbell 1 day ago | parent

In other words, people will lose jobs with no off ramp, horses will get dumped somewhere (because they can't be used for any work, or slaughtered), city will lose one more tradition and get a bit more bland.

sleet_spotter 1 day ago | parent

No. These are both explicitly addressed in the article.

mithr 1 day ago | parent

Are they really “addressed”?

They are mentioned as things the union is unhappy with. The city has said they’ll come up with a transition plan by next year, but there are no details and that doesn’t mean people won’t lose jobs. The bill prohibits the horses from being sold to slaughter or other rides, but doesn’t say where they’d go instead.

I think it’s reasonable to raise concerns about both.

HeyLaughingBoy 23 hours ago | parent

The horses will probably go to a rescue. We run one and take in and rehome lots of horses that have been seized for mistreatment via court order.

CurrentB 1 day ago | parent

I live here and I'd be thrilled if it loses this particular dumb cruel tradition.

gaiagraphia 1 day ago | parent

It'd be a very sad world if we banned everything which 'some' people believe is dumb and cruel.

Meat, cars, religious practices, schools, military, anything which pollutes...

Be careful what you're thrilled for! Diversity is good for a reason.

causesothere 22 hours ago | parent

Sure, but the things you describe losing aren't overwhelmingly unpopular. But the people who live in New York want this. Overwhelmingly.

Do you live in New York? If not, why should you have any say -- especially in keeping a performative tourist amusement around? "Dance for me, New Yorkers!"

If you are from New York, your neighbors overwhelmingly want this. Are you against losing this because it's genuinely good? Or some more abstract philosophical reason? If it's the latter, do you apply that evenly?

adfglknk 11 hours ago | parent

I don't think that's the argument. Slavery was overwhelmingly popular in the American South. Nevertheless massive violence was appropriate to stop it.

Democracy has frequently produced monstrous outcomes.

adfglknk 11 hours ago | parent

Slavery, murder, torture, rape, robbery…

Diversity is good when it means people are free to be themselves. Diversity is bad when it means people get away with evil because no one is allowed to call them out. I am a liberal, not a relativist.

CableNinja 1 day ago | parent

Im not one to take a horse drawn carriage except in maybe two instances, but i see the appeal as a "general tourist", the horse ride around central park is one of those touristy things that seems like you do, because youre there. That being said, i agree that its not great for the horses, and unfortunately i can understand the want for it gone.

gaiagraphia 1 day ago | parent

It's a shame we live in a social studies world, where endless debates and committees boil everything down to bland, corporate soup.

It's almost as if anything which has got us here, and which makes us human, is being eroded away as competing groups look for clout and want to show off they're the most ideologically purist.

If horses aren't being looked after, or drivers aren't playing by the rules, you can design for that. City centres should be designed for people first and foremost, and be a celebration of our achievements and histories, not glorified carparks.

Having horses around cities is beautiful, and is a reminder of our histories and who we are. I love seeing the horses in my city trotting around with their beautiful carriages, it's part of the fabric of the city.

It's the same thing with bullfighting, horse racing, greyhounds, etc. It's performative as fuck to whinge endlessly about this shit when there's literal factory-scale slaughterhouses operating.

Levy all animal-related industries and pump that money into animal welfare, and let the animal rights activists make engineering solutions to issues with this money rather than endlessly cry, ban, whinge, cancel, shitpost, etc.

qlte 11 hours ago | parent

  > City centres should be designed for people first and foremost, and be a celebration of our achievements and histories, not glorified carparks.

I think a poll of local residents would find a large majority view horse drawn carriages for hire as an irritating tourist trap that if anything detracts from a "people first" city center designed for human enjoyment.

neko_ranger 23 hours ago | parent

Surprised no mention of electric carriages to act as replacement

Ericson2314 18 hours ago | parent

There are already tourist rickshaws that blare music extremely loudly. Those are effectively the replacement.

dtagames 16 hours ago | parent

Gandhi said you can judge a society by how it treats its animals.

Eventually, we will decide that all uses of animals for entertainment are unethical.

This is another nail in the coffin of these unnecessary actions which aren't helpful to animals.

Outlawing cetacean shows, roadside zoos, and horse and dog racing are other terrific aspects of this trend!