New York City Carriage Ban?

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Animal rights advocates rallied in Central Park on Saturday to ban horse-drawn carriages.

The demonstrators said horses are being exploited for profit, then slaughtered once they can no longer pull the carriages.

Advocates said last week they rescued a carriage horse from slaughter and they want to save more.

"We can't rescue them all, so we're educating New Yorkers that there are so many other fun, attractive tourist options that they can do that doesn't support animal abuse," said activist Edita Birnkrant.

"The carriage industry claims they love their horses, but a third of them go to auction where nobody knows what will happen to these horses," said activist Claudia Emerson.

"I'm not saying that there's not abused animals somewhere else around the world, but I know for sure we drive the horse and carriage, and we take very good care of our horses," said "Oliver," a local carriage driver.

New York Horse and Carriage officials released a statement saying they do not practice or condone the sale of their horses to slaughter.

The organization says 99 percent of its members work to provide retirement for their horses both on privately owned property and through the New York Humane Society's Carriage Horse Adoption Program.

They also say the owner of the horse saved from slaughter has not paid dues or participated in the Association for some time.

Let's pretend for a second that carriage horses in New York City were banned.

First of all, where are all the horses going to go? Are you guys going to take on however many draft horses there are that pull NYC's carriages? I'm guessing the answer to that question is no and since the carriage drivers will be out of a job, they're not going to be able to afford them. No one wants to buy a perfectly good horse these days, let alone a carriage horse so selling them is out. If you see a problem and you want to fix it, you have to think about all the problems you're going to be creating trying to fix the original and then come up for a solution for them.

Second of all, you're putting quite a few people out of a job. For many of them, this might be all they know and what they love. In this economy, where are they supposed to go?

Third of all, what are you going to do, shut down Standardbred and Thoroughbred racing next? Because you know a lot of slaughtered horses come from racing.

Fourth of all, where do you guys get these statistics? Do you just make them up off the spot or do you really know that a third of carriage horses go to auctions where they're sold to kill buyers?

I have a solution. If you're going to protest the slaughter of carriage horses, why don't we just protest slaughter in general?