Roxanne Delgado (Bronx resident) testifies supporting ban

Good evening, my name is Roxanne Delgado.

I reside in the Bronx.

If it matters, I'm Latina.

My parents are immigrants.

And I'm here because I support this bill.

I just left work, and I work a very physical job, and my back is killing me, and I feel tired.

But after this, I'm gonna go home, rest, take some medication,

And if I don't feel better, I'll call out tomorrow.

But the horses don't have that luxury.

They work to death.

And I have seen, first,

how these horses are double shifted, overboarded, left to bake in the sun despite the fact that the driver is underneath a tree, refuge from the heat.

And during those holiday season, they work to death.

They work around with no rest.

And there's no enforcement of the minimal humane laws.

Like I said, I was here almost 15 years ago with the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages with Intro 89, and things have not improved for the horse.

It's gotten just worse.

Things that we can't even address, like global warming.

I'd like to mention that the drivers have unions.

Those unions have many jobs on the website.

They could help employ many of their workers.

But the horses, it's not right what we're doing to these horses.

These horses are worked to death.

And I feel like the city council in general, the city has been the forefront of many issues that other cities follow along.

But with horse-drawn carriage, we've been behind the issue of many cities throughout the country.

And the city banned horse-drawn carriage for the same issues why we're here.

Because it's abusive.

And yes, of course we want people to be employed.

But there's not jobs on an excuse to abuse animals.

We are better than that.

And I voted for term limits because of Gennaro.

And he hasn't evolved.

He's still with that same nonsense.

I just, after 15 years, he's still back in that mentality.

We as humans have to evolve every day.

And I'm so disappointed in his behavior.

I'd like to thank you for your time and hopefully to see you do the right thing.

I want to tell you that, for the record, all of us that are here now are on the bench.

Well, thank you for doing the right thing, and thank you for having the courage for those who don't have a voice in the most marginalized community like myself.

We're marginalized, and we need people to advocate for us, and so do those horses.

That's why I'm here, because they're marginalized just like me.

I understand.

You have a great evening.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next.

Oh, put your mic on.

Sorry.

You have to push the button.

Thank you.