Curtis Sliwa testifies supporting ban

Thank you very much, Curtis Sliwa, animal welfare activist, ran for mayor on the first ever animal welfare line.

Animals are people, and it is the responsibility of you elected officials to protect the rights of all animals.

This family that came from India to celebrate the graduation of their 18-year-old son, if they had gone to Bombay, now called Mumbai,

They would no longer have been able to take a horse-drawn carriage that predated back to Queen Victoria because the Bombay High Court ruled it to be a barbaric act.

In city after city around the world, first world, third world cities,

We should be ashamed of ourselves that they have led in banning this barbaric behavior and most times replacing them with electric carriages.

that the horse drivers, the carriage drivers, can continue to have an income.

We're not even considering that here.

We're saying, oh, we need to keep the tradition.

Let me tell you about the tradition at the Bronx Zoo.

They always had elephants.

Remember Happy the Elephant wasn't all that happy.

Happy died.

And the Bronx Zoo decided to send Patty, the remaining elephant, to an elephant sanctuary and will have elephants no more, even though they will lose money.

Because they recognized finally, after many of us animal welfare activists pounded their door, that is enough is enough.

We know why this continues to be a problem here.

It's the result of the former president of TWU Local 100, the bully John Samuelson.

Who has threatened to sue anyone who stands in his way, the state senator who spoke here, former Mayor Eric Adams.

Did you know of any issue that ever brought mayoral candidates together as in this past election?

Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo, Zohan Mondami, Curtis Sliwa, your speaker.

So if you're going to take the money from TWU Local 100, the blood money, you are not humanitarians.

People will be escorted out.

Stop.

If people are going to act out, we're going to have people removed.

I'm telling you now.