Thursday, February 14, 2008

Horse-Drawn Carriages

A Face-Off Over Horse-Drawn Carriages

horse protestOpponents of the horse-drawn carriage industry, left, faced off against supporters of the industry in a pair of dueling Valentine’s Day protests on Central Park South. (Photo: Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times)

Even Cupid couldn’t bring these two together.

Valentine’s Day, like Christmas, is often associated with feelings of amity, reconciliation and goodwill toward others. But a rally by animal-rights activists seeking a ban on horse-drawn carriages in New York City resulted in police intervention this afternoon, after supporters of the industry held a noisy counter-protest. Police officers set up metal barricades to separate the two sides, which screamed and chanted at each other. Each group tried to drown the other out.

About 40 supporters of Friends of Animals, a nonprofit group that claims 15,000 members in New York City, gathered on Central Park South near Fifth Avenue around 1 p.m., seeking to draw attention to what they described as the neglect and mistreatment of the roughly 200 horses that are licensed by the city to carriages.

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