Sherry Ramsey (NYC Bar Association) testifies remotely supporting ban

Can you hear me?

Ah, good.

Thank you.

My name is Sherry Ramsey.

I'm co-chair of the New York City Bar Association Animal Cruelty Committee, and we're very happy to be here to speak on this topic and be in support of

intro number 0943 in relation to prohibiting the operation of horse-drawn cabs.

For approximately 20 years or more, the city bar has urged the council to enact legislation to not only ameliorate the extremely harsh conditions under which our city carriage horses work and live, but at the same time, the city bar has argued that

all of these legislations previously would not create a fully humane condition and that the ban of carriage horse rides was the only humane solution.

Despite broad...

Public vocal support for reforms, including the ASPCA and the Maine Society, no legislation can ameliorate some of the conditions which make the city a deadly and inappropriate

environment for horses or eliminate the threats to the public safety.

And as such, this has hurt the horses and served as a betrayal of the public interest.

As indicated by a landmark 2007 audit report by the New York City Comptroller, there's been no at all adequate protection provisions under the current laws that have turned out to be failures so far.

The administrative code, particularly the audit, found that horses were not provided enough drinking water, risk overheating on hot asphalt.

He also discovered that the horses lacked proper veterinary care and were forced to live in their own waste due to inadequate draining.

He also cited the New York City Department of Mental Health and Hygiene and the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs for their legal noncompliance.

Moreover, the presence of horses on the city's congested streets have always posed a danger to the public, as is evidenced by the numerous and unceasing instances of spooked horses bolting, putting both horses and people at risk.

In a report on the previous time expired, this bill.

We identified dozens of...

Just give a summary, because we have to move on.

We have a lot of...

Certainly.

Okay, thanks.

So there are lots of, although the agriculture and markets laws have prohibited things that should have been addressed through our laws, they haven't been.

And as a result, the horses get very little good.

Treatment and are not being turned out appropriately as is essential for horse care.

So in addition to addressing the problems, there are things that we think would be helpful in getting rid of the care of horses.

We need to wrap it up like a couple of sentences.

Just tell us where you're at and we have to move on.

So the ban would reduce the city's exposure.

They would protect

the public from risk, and it would also be the most meaningful thing we can do for the horses.

So we thank you so much, and in sum, we'd like to support the passage of 0943, which we believe is law.

Okay, and I also want to encourage you, if you have longer testimony, to submit it at testimony.

I did, thank you.

Oh, you did, great, because we want to see the whole thing, and we want to also thank the Bar Association for being helpful to us in this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Next is Pauline Burns.