Hanif questions drivers and Dr. Cook on horse health protocols

Thank you.

I'd love to address these questions to the workers.

Could you describe what process you follow when a horse is sick or your horse is sick, injured, showing signs of dehydration, and then who decides whether the horse continues to work or stop?

So, like I said, I've been a commercial carriage driver for 20 years.

Just describe the process.

So the process is, I'm with my horse every day, okay?

So I know what they are normally like.

If there's anything wrong, I stop what I'm doing and I call Dr.

Cook.

So essentially it's up to the driver.

I mean, of course it is.

We know our horse best.

Obviously, if somebody said something to me, one of my coworkers, the stable man who noticed something different overnight, you know, if it was somebody on the street who said, hey, what's going on with this?

But aside from...

The driver knowing their horse, there isn't a set standardized process.

But I want to continue asking.

I want to answer your question about dehydration.

Could you respond to my next question, please?

Okay.

What policies are in place to ensure a horse is removed from service when there are concerns about its health?

And I know Dr.

Dr.

Cook was mentioned here, if you want to chime in.

Yes, so horses are creatures of habit.

They do things all the time, meaning if they normally pass five piles of manure overnight, there's usually five piles of manure every morning.

If they're depressed, you can see it.

Their heads are low.

Their ears are back.

They can look not okay.

And that's where my telehealth comes in.

That's a signal.

Pardon me?

That's a signal.

Those are definitely all signals.

For them to not work.

For life-threatening problems with colic or abdominal pain being the main one, they are very vocal.

They are pawing at the ground.

They're violent.

They're lying down, standing up, walking in circles.

It's obvious.

So in those moments, I'm usually receiving a telephone call.

We have a protocol in place because I am not there at all every day.

Which is?

So we have, there are medicines that I have directed them to give in that event.

My rule, and this has been implemented, and the vast majority of people have followed it, that if they do not respond to that medicine, the horse is to be trailered to my hospital.

Because it's silly for me to drive all the way down and then say we have a problem, and then have the horse, so the horses come to my hospital, and we evaluate.

Have there been times when a horse...

Was sick, was depressed, having physical, physiological issues, and continued to work.

So not to my knowledge, but I think, but I, but for a hundred, for how many horses do we have for a hundred, whatever that is, it has probably happened, but it can't continue.

Meaning that they may have started to work like that.

Maybe not to my knowledge, but if they did, they couldn't sustain a day and be, and, and be that sick.

So ultimately, it comes to our knowledge.

Now, I will say this.

Let's take a bad apple moment.

Let's say for a second, and this hasn't happened in the last year or two, but early on, again, I've been there four years.

In the event that I recognize there's a problem, and this has barely happened, if the person says, Dr.

Cook, you don't know what you're doing.

I know my horse.

The horse is fine.

I'm going to work.

And I disagree with that.

My only authority, and I have used it a few times, is to call the Department of Health.

And I consider the Department of Health, I believe this is a problem.

It's up to the Department of Health at that point.

And in those events, they have suspended the horse until we can evaluate the horse.

I hope that answers your question.

Yeah, that's it.

Could I just say one comment?

Just one comment.

One comment.

But your responses still demonstrate that there isn't a standardized process and having to call you and rely on the owner or call Department of Health.

So what would be a standardized process if my 10-year-old son...

Had a knee ache or had a belly ache or had a pin the

CITES.

The standard process is you have to call for help, recognize there's a problem, and then process.

Well, schools have our systems.

I'll move on.

Let's not do the back and forth here.

Okay, Councilmember Brewer.