Horse and Carriage Controversy

Horse and Carriage Controversy

January 2nd 2006 animal rights activists found the perfect opportunity to speak out against a practice they had long opposed. On this day a spooked horse ran into traffic fatally injuring itself and severely injuring the driver. The horse ban group was the one I decided to side with. Our group came up with many arguments against horse drawn carriages in the urban environment. I feel that our strongest points were taken directly from PETA’s website. One point was the inhumanity of horses living a “nose to tailpipe existence 1.” Horse’s noses are 3-3 ½ feet off the ground. In an urban environment (especially uptown and midtown Manhattan) this close proximity to the ground certainly means that horses breathe in automotive exhaust almost directly. Another point our group brought up relates directly to the accident of January 2nd. This is the fairly obvious point that a noisy, chaotic and unpredictable is not a place for an animal with poor vision and the potential cause some serious damage.

While it is true that draft horses historically served many vital purposes (commercial, public transit etc.) in urban America from 1886-1920, in today’s urban America draft horses are a public safety hazard 2. I believe the previous two points make a strong point for the abolishment of horse carriages in New York City and other urban settings. However, the group’s overall conclusion was much more moderate than mine. In consideration of already rigid animal cruelty laws and horse carriage operating regulations the group decided just to further reform the laws in order to prevent anymore car accidents. I believe abolition is the only truly just and humane answer to this problem. The Pro-carriage group used the preservation of the tourism industry as a reason why the horse-carriages should be left as is. I believe the nature of modern tourism put into dialogue with the decline of the draft horse in America truly exposes how senseless, selfish and inhumane horse carriages in a modern American urban environment.

The International Museum of the Horse has this to say about the decline of the draft horse in America, “The market for heavy horses went into a steady decline after World War I. The reduction in the number of domestic draft horses, an increased demand for American grain exports, and the improvements in the gasoline powered tractors combined to hasten the replacement of the draft horse by machines. This was especially true of pure-bred draft stock. In 1920, there were 95,000 registered draft horses in America. By 1945, this figure dropped to under 2,000. By the early 1950s, registrations for all draft breeds dropped dramatically, with many breeders going out of business. The numbers of Shires and Suffolks dropped so low that in 1985 they were listed as ‘rare’ by the American Minor Breeds Conservancy 3.” Despite very low numbers for a significant portion of the 20th century, after 1985 it seems that the demand for draft horses increased. The Draft Horse Journal states, “The flourishing tourism industry has prompted the return of horse drawn trolleys and carriages. They are again commonplace in historic areas and on many big city streets 4.” According to this statement the re-emergence of the draft horse in the modern American urban environment is due to tourism. So, why did historical areas and big cities need draft horses [and carriages] in order to remain popular tourist destinations after 1985? The answer to this seems to be, Disney.

Alan Bryman in his book “The Disneyization of Society,” describes “Disneyization” as, “the contemporary world increasingly converging towards the characteristics of the Disney theme parks. This process of convergence is revealed in: the growing influence of themed environments in settings like restaurants, shops, hotels, tourism and zoos…5.” In a 1967 Disney newsreel, the themed environment that Bryman is referring to is described. “To all who come to this happy place: welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts which have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the [sic] world 6.” In the newsreel, when the sentence “Here age relives…” is uttered it is matched with the image of group of children and adults riding in the back of a horse drawn buggy. There seems to be a connection between “found memories of the past” and horses drawn transportation. For the early Disneyland described in the newsreel, horse drawn vehicles reminded “age” of the simplicity of the past. In today’s Disneyized American culture horse drawn carriages remind tourists of Disneyland or Disneyworld themselves. I believe many modern day American tourists relate being on vacation with going to Disney-esque themed environments. Recognizing this shift in the ideology of the American tourist, businesspeople; like Disney, began to bring elements of the past back to the present. Draft horses play an important role in this transformation process.

Disneyworld and Disneyland are the perfect place for draft horses. Disney has the money to give these animals the best care possible and the militantly controlled and policed Disney theme park certainly brings much of the risk factors associated with Horse and carriage accidents to a minimum. Despite the many business people who may hope for otherwise, historical areas and especially big cities do not share many characteristics with a Disney theme park. Horses do not belong next to busy Manhattan traffic. It is not good for their health and asking a horse to be calm under Manhattan traffic conditions is to ask it to reject its proclivity. I believe the Disneyization of New York City and other big cities and historically significant sites is a grave sin. Why strip places of their present character in the name of Disney-like homogeneity? Should people and animals continue to die and suffer so that a family from South Dakota can have a picture on their mantle from the year they decided to go to New York City instead of Florida? What kind of past are we trying to re-create by Disneyizing cities? Turn of the century Urban America? The America of Jim Crow, utterly detestable industrial jobs and women without the right to vote; is this what we want? I think Urban Entrepreneurs should think outside the box and try to give tourists to their city truly unique experiences. There are places for draft horses such as farms, horse competitions and Disneyworld. This is where these animals belong and I hope PETA is successful in its campaign to ban horse drawn carriages in New York City.

1 http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=135
2 http://www.easterndrafthorse.com/History/drafthorseinamerica.htm
3 Ibid.
4 http://www.drafthorsejournal.com/drafthorsehistory/drafthorsehistory.htm
5 http://www.sagepub.com/book.aspx?pid=10049
6 http://www.waltopia.com/film.html (this is a link to the actual film)
Picture Credits:
Horse drawn carriage at DisneyLand: http://www.mickey-mouse.com/picdlhorsedrawnstreetcars.htm