Mel Sobolewski (emergency responder) testifies on flight response and hitching post dangers
Mel Sobolewski, a large animal emergency responder, testifies that no reform can make the industry safe because the risk is a horse's involuntary flight response, and argues hitching posts add new layers of danger.
My name is Mel Sobolewski.
I am a large animal emergency responder with a decade of experience rescuing horses who've been trapped in fires.
I am also a founding member of the Coalition for Responsible Carriage Horse Retirement.
I urge you to support Intro 943 and pass Roemont's Law.
In my work, the goal is the same.
Identify the hazard, understand the failure points, and act before people or animals are hurt.
I am not here evaluating one isolated incident.
I am examining a pattern.
No reform can make this industry safe because the inherent risk is not a gap in regulation.
It is a horse's involuntary flight response.
A horse's body is...
designed for sudden explosive acceleration.
It is the very reason horsepower became the standard metric for engines.
When a horse perceives a threat, the fear response fires and before the horse's brain has time to process what is happening.
This is a reflex.
Good training can build a horse's tolerance, but even the best trainers cannot erase survival instincts.
The union's proposed solution is to install hitching posts throughout Central Park.
Hitching posts will not remove a horse's flight instinct.
They add new layers of risk.
Creating dangerous conditions on public property that would be approved, installed, and owned by the city.
If a horse is hard-tied with no chance of breaking away, the restraint itself becomes the danger.
This is a known, predictable, and documented behavior.
A panicked horse that cannot flee will continue to escalate its fear response, increasing the risk of catastrophic injury to anyone within the vicinity.
If a horse is tied with a quick-release knot and can break away, it brings us to where we are today, mourning the unnecessary loss of Romange Mahijan.
Additionally, I would just like to add that horses are the only grazing animal in Central Park, which is why Japanese yew is
an issue for them and not for other animals because a horse is a herbivore, a squirrel, a dog are carnivores.
So while this plant may be toxic to species in general, how much they consume and what part of the plant needs to be taken into consideration.
And the toxicology report on Dennis.
Sorry.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We got it.
Thank you.
I think I made it.