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Two weeks ago I truly enjoyed a weekend visit to
Charleston, SC with members of the South Carolina Farm Bureau. Without question
one my most enjoyable experiences was visiting with a couple of horse drawn
carriage operators. We own 35 horses on our ranch in central Nebraska. We enjoy
raising, training, driving and riding horses on a regular basis.
That is why I was completely disheartened with the
recent article written in their local paper posing the question “Is it time to
revisit the banning of horse drawn carriages in Charleston?”
The answer is NO. I repeat NO!
For most people the highlight of a trip to this city
is to slow life a great deal, jump in a carriage and see the city in whole new
light.
There are those that say horses do not belong in the
city because it is too dangerous. I contend that horses under the care of
carriage owners have the lowest risk of all horses in the nation.
For example, in our herd that never sees a stable or a
barn, most of the injuries they suffer are from another horse. Horses are
pecking order animals and the boss will always be proving himself/herself as
the leader. In the Nevada desert where 30,000 BLM horses roam, a stud fight will
leave a horse suffering a long, cruel, miserable death on a DAILY basis.
In fact, the most safe environment for any horse is
quite possibly the under protection afforded to the horse by the carriage owner
who has invested thousands of dollars to keep the horse healthy and safe. If
you look at the history of the industry, you must go back several years to even
find reports of scattered incidents of injury to either horse or human.
The article references NYC and its foiled attempt to
ban the beautiful creatures from the streets but leaves out a couple of key facts.
In the past 10 years, a couple dozen horse have been injured on the job and one
died. Yet in 2012 alone, more than 15,000 New Yorkers were injured in traffic
accidents not involving a horse and 155 of them were killed.
Another fact that must be considered and is too often
forgotten is that accidents do happen. It is reported that nationwide that
riders make approximately 75,000 horse related visits to emergency rooms every
year and most are just from people working with their own horses.
People need to look at the facts and the safety record
of the horse and carriage industry in Charleston before they even think about
considering this discussion. The horse owners care more about the health and
well-being of their own animals than any animal rights zealot ever will.
And bear in mind that it is the “ownership of animals”
that these animal rights people are really working to achieve, not simply
removing these beautiful horses that offer visitors to their fine cities a
relaxed view of the area.
Fortunately I took the time to visit with Broderick
Christoff, owner of the Charleston Carriage Works while I was in Charleston. I
would encourage you to spend 6 minutes listening to what genuine animal welfare
sounds like when you actually care about the animal.
Trent Loos is a 6th generation United States rancher in Central Nebrasksa. To contact Trent email trentloos@gmail.com or just call his cell phone 515 418-8185. More information can be found at www.LoosTales.com
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