New York City COVID-19 Pet ResourcesAll of us at NYCLASS hope that you and your loved ones, including your furry family members, are staying healthy and safe during this uncertain time. If you or a loved one are a New York City pet owner affected by COVID-19 and need assistance, call the NYC COVID-19 Pet Hotline at 1-877-204-8821, 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week. Click here for more information and resources for pet owners from the Mayor’s Office of Animal Welfare related to COVID-19 and pet care.Chicago City Council BANS Horse Carriages in Vote Today! We have tremendous news to share with you today: The Chicago City Council voted to BAN the operation of horse-drawn carriages in Chicago today during their live-streamed Council hearing. The ban passed by a vote of 46-4! The carriage horses must stop operating by the end of the year. Huge congratulations to Jodie Wiederkehr for all her tremendous work to make this animal rights victory happen through her group Chicago Alliance for Animals and her team of dedicated activists. We applaud Chicago Alderman Brendan Reilly and Brian Hopkins who sponsored and championed Bill #SO2019-4125 and the entire Chicago City Council for making a compassionate vote for animals and for improved public safety in their City.More and more cities around the country and world are making the decision to severely restrict or completely end cruel and dangerous horse-carriage rides on their streets. Our work continues in New York City to end carriage horse abuse on our own streets, where in just the past several months we have documented, reported and exposed numerous cases of carriage horse abuse, deaths, and law-breaking by carriage drivers, including the gut-wrenching collapse and death of carriage horse Aisha in February.New York City’s carriage horses are temporarily no longer operating due to the forced closure of non-essential business on March 22. As we reported, NYC horse-carriage drivers were still recklessly operating right up until the forced closure, and were shockingly handing out reused, shared blankets to passengers and violating social distancing protocols during the height of the pandemic, in spite of our calls to the City to shut them down. Alec Baldwin wrote a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio on our behalf, urging him to shut down horse carriages to protect public safety.Many of our supporters have asked us where the NYC carriage horses are right now since they are not able to operate due to coronavirus. We have been told that the horses are all on farms in Pennsylvania and other states temporarily while the shutdown continues. We will update you with more information as we get it. Our priority is always to ensure the safety and well-being of the horses.NYCLASS joined a citywide demonstration of NYC live-animal slaughter markets on April 21NYCLASSwas proud to join a citywide NYC demonstration (while maintaining social distancing) on Tuesday, April 21 calling for the closure of the more than 80 live-animal slaughter markets operating right now in the epicenter of the pandemic. Executive Director Edita Birnkrant and supporters were at a live-slaughter market in Queens, the borough hardest hit by COVID-19. We stood in unity alongside PETA, Slaughter Free NYC, Animal Cruelty Exposure Fund, Total Liberation New York, and Their Turn. These storefront slaughterhouses operate within densely populated neighborhoods and can be breeding grounds for infectious diseases and future pandemics. Birds, sheep, goats, and cows are crammed into cages and pens, often have their throats slit and are bled out, an agonizing death. Their existence poses a public safety risk to New Yorkers who live and work in these areas. New York Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, a longtime hero for animals, announced that she is proposing legislation that calls for the closure of live-animal slaughter markets in New York. “It’s too great a danger to have these markets that have been shown through inspection records and hidden camera investigations to be filthy. It’s not safe. It’s not safe,” Rosenthal said. “And in this COVID-19 period, we know diseases jump from animals to humans, especially when species are mixed and that is the state at a lot of these markets.” Stay tuned for more updates and news on this legislation effort and how you can help!Our hearts are with all of you during this difficult time, and our work at NYCLASS continues to protect animals from abuse and cruelty. |
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