Schulman questions on horse removals and stable violations
Schulman asks about horses removed from service for medical concerns, stable violation counts, and inspection staff. Schiff says six inspectors work on this among other duties and promises to provide violation data.
Over the past five years, how many horses have been removed from service due to medical concerns?
So it is a very routine process for us to take in complaints, often by video,
to make observations ourselves, or to take in referrals from NYPD, which is often at the hack stands.
And we will, depending on our veterinarian's assessment of those, we will require the owner to have its veterinarian assess the horse.
And during that time, the horse is not in service.
And we require the veterinarian to, the owner to provide the veterinarian's determination before the horse can be returned to work.
I do not have the count.
We can continue to work on that to try to provide it.
We want the count, so we want you to get that to us.
And I want to know what are the most common concerns that lead to removal.
I can say some of the common concerns would be that the horse is lame, for example, and we might see a video that either shows that it is or that it needs further assessment to be able to determine that.
That would be a common consideration.
Okay.
DOHMH is responsible for enforcing requirements governing stable conditions including adequate heating and ventilation, sufficient food and drinking water, and minimum stall dimensions.
Over the past five years, how many violations has DOHMH issued for failure to comply with stable requirements?
And please provide a breakdown by violation type.
If you don't have it here, then you need to send it to us.
Answer whatever you can answer right now.
We do make routine inspections of the stables two to three times a year.
I don't have the violation numbers, so we will get back to you.
Okay.
How many staff does the OHMH currently employ to inspect and oversee horse carriage stables?
We have six health inspectors who work in our veterinary public health program.
They do a variety of work, including the inspections of the horse carriages, and we have equine veterinarians we work with on a contract basis.
Have any stables repeatedly failed inspections or required corrective action plans?
The stables have not.
required corrective action plans.
Okay.