HE VOICELESS just, fair society. Animals matter, and I think that same! the collective conscious about how animals matter morally has shifted and will continue to shift in the right direction. What is the biggest challenge(s) you face when advocating for the horses? How did you get involved with NYCLASS?
We operate in New York City, which has so much going on every single day and is the city that never sleeps! Getting mainstream attention for your cause and passing legislation and changing laws can be a challenge at times because of the overwhelming number of other things and important causes happening at any moment in New York. However, there is so much support among New Yorkers and many of our elected officials for making positive changes for the horses, so we are grateful for that.
I have worked closely with NYCLASS on the carriage horse issue and other New York City animal rights initiatives and legislation in New York since 2009 through my involvement with other animal protection organizations. In 2017, when NYCLASS restructured as an organization, I was thrilled to join the team as Executive Director. As a lifelong New Yorker, the plight of the longsuffering carriage horses has always been close to my heart. NYCLASS focuses on making big differences for animals in New York by both passing legislation to protect animals and end abuse and Where are we today regarding the carriage doing advocacy work. horses and progress? What is the mission for 2021?
As Executive Director, what is your typical At the end of 2019, we made significant progress with two big significant changes to improve the day like? welfare of New York City’s carriage horses. The There is no typical day! As a small organization, hack line was moved out of traffic on 59th Street I wear many different hats for NYCLASS on any into car-safe no traffic locations in Central Park. given day. One day I may be monitoring and film- Secondly, we passed a signature legislation Caring the carriage horses and documenting and ex- riage Horse Heat Relief Bill. It was signed into law posing the many violations and cruelties that oc- in November of 2019 by Mayor de Blasio. Prior to cur to the horses at 59th Street and throughout the this bill, horses were subjected to extremely high city, I may be leading an educational outreach or heat during the day. They suffered in heat indexes rally event for the horses with volunteers, I may up 150 degrees, resulting in horses collapsing, getbe meeting with elected officials, or testifying at ting sicker and some dying. a City hearing or an event on behalf of NYCLASS or doing a media interview. NYCLASS is the only The goal in 2021 is to completely ban horse carorganization with a focus on helping New York riages. So many other locations around the world City carriage horses, so we need to be constantly have already done so. New York is lagging in makvigilant in regard to being aware of what is going ing progress compared to other countries and citon with them on city streets daily, documenting ies. The challenge is that the industry is one of and reporting any abuse or violations that we see the largest in the country. But, our goal is to keep or that are reported to us. In addition to advocat- fighting, address local governments, educate touring for the carriage horses, we also support and ists and locals on just how cruel the carriage inlobby for many other pro-animal, pro-environment dustry is and how badly the horses are mistreated pieces of legislation in both the City Council and and mishandled. on a state level, and we endorse and help elect can- NYCLASS is committed to creating positive changdidates for office who support animal rights. es for the horses and righting these wrongs. This Every day I am also communicating with our sup- is the year to make it happen! porters and volunteers, answering emails and questions, posting content on our social media accounts, sending out email action alerts and uphttps://www.nyclass.org/ dating our website. I love that no day is ever the