Ashley Byrne (PETA) testifies in support of ban

My name is Ashley Byrne, and I am here speaking on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

You cannot regulate the abuse and danger out of the horse-drawn carriage industry.

It is cruel and reckless to force a horse, a prey animal, to live and work in the noise, traffic, and chaos of New York City.

The carriage operators fight and flout the most mild and common sense rules with little to no enforcement from the city, as you've heard today.

Oversight is almost non-existent.

Lame, sick, emaciated, elderly horses are regularly documented being forced to pull carriages.

This hearing is taking place in the middle of what has already proved to be a deadly summer delivered by the horse-drawn carriage industry.

The life of 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan was tragically added to the long death toll of horses whose lives have been claimed by this industry.

Some are names that we know well.

The footage of Ryder, Lady, and Denise collapsing in our streets sparked widespread outrage.

and calls for a ban.

Many more have died in anonymity, often sold to slaughter, after spending their days in traffic being worked to exhaustion,

and their nights in cramped, solitary, parking garage-like buildings denied everything natural, enriching, and comforting to them.

New Yorkers have been fed up with this cruel, deadly industry for years, and polls have consistently shown that New Yorkers want the carriages banned.

We applaud Speaker Julie-Menin for listening to New Yorkers and taking courageous action to move this ban forward.

Thank you to Councilmember Christopher-Marte for sponsoring the bill, to Committee Chair Lynn Schulman for holding this hearing, and to the committee members for your strong inquiries into the practices of this industry.

And to the family of Romesh Mahajan, we send our deepest condolences and gratitude.

It's time to pass Romesh's law.

Thank you.

Ms.

Falco?

Like that?

Yes.

Yeah.