it is claimed that there's an interest in getting hold of the stables, which rest on valuable property being developed as the massive Hudson Yards project. There's a really big financial interest there (as there is for the carriage drivers themselves). And also, it is claimed that these horses will not be able to be sent to some great horsey retirement community; they'll be killed. I don't know, but here is part of the story:
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is one of the groups leading the effort to ban the carriages. It is also one of the three entities — along with the city’s health department and the Department of Consumer Affairs — that regulate the industry.
“I don’t see it as a conflict,” the society’s president, Ed Sayres, said last month on the steps of City Hall after a rally against the carriages. “If we don’t bring forward the risk factor that we are observing, then it would be negligent.”
In 2008, Mr. Sayres teamed up with Stephen Nislick, chief executive of the development company Edison Properties, which owns Manhattan Mini Storage, to develop a plan to replace the carriage horses with electric-powered replicas of antique cars.
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The carriage owners also assert that Mr. Nislick wants to be able to gain control of the land under the carriage horse stables.
Two of the stables are on a prime block between West 37th and 38th Streets in the heart of Hudson Yards, a sprawling commercial and residential development.
Mr. Nislick denied being interested in the land, but other developers envision transforming the lots into hotels and office buildings.
If the stables were sold and then closed, the carriage horses could end up homeless, and their owners could go out of business. Relocating uptown, and closer to Central Park, may not be an option with real estate scarce.
The stables on 37th and 38th Streets are in the district of the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, a Democrat who is expected to run for mayor. Like Mr. Bloomberg, Ms. Quinn has supported the carriage industry, though she has called recently for increased oversight of the horses.
Two other likely Democratic mayoral candidates — Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, and William C. Thompson Jr., the former city comptroller — have supported the ban, as well as the electric car initiative.
NY-Class and other animal rights groups pledge that if the carriages are eliminated, they will find safe pastures for the 216 horses. But many veterinarians say horse sanctuaries around the country are full, and facing difficulties because of the economy.
“If we banned the carriage horse industry tomorrow, they would go straight to slaughter,” said Dr. Nena Winand, an upstate New York veterinarian who is a member of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. “There is no big field out there, there is no one to pay the bills.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/nyregion/ny-horse-drawn-carriage-industry-fights-for-survival.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0I don't see why there can't be a compromise position, in which stricter laws for both the horse owners and, say, errant taxis who ram into the horses, can't be legislated. I don't really have an opinion here, though.
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