Defending New York's Horse Carriage Industry Amid Renewed Scrutiny

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, we have another controversy. Well, a horse, a horse and carriage. The horse died in Central Park again, and with us today is John Samuelson, the American labor union leader who runs the Transport Workers Union, which is like one hundred and sixty nine thousand last I remember, since twenty seventeen. Well, John Samuelson, me and you were very

0:28 much emotionally involved with the horse and carriages in Central Park. What the heck is going on now?

0:35 Speaker 2 Well, unfortunately a horse passed away in Central Park while it was pulling a carriage. It doesn’t mean that the horse passed away because it was pulling a carriage. You know, just like human beings, they have diseases and heart attacks, and in this case it went undetected because the horse passed medicals from a New York City veterinarian that inspected

0:56 the horse so assist an unfortunate.

0:58 Speaker 1 Tragedy understood, And because some of the people in the City of New York have brought it front burner again trying to get rid of the horses. Why are they doing that?

1:13 Speaker 2 Well, we believe, and there’s a lot of evidence that points to this as being the truth. We believe that Manhattan real estate people want to develop the stables that the horses are in. It makes perfect sense, and there’s a lot of evidence that points at that. As I said, so, night Class is largely it was founded by real estate developers.

1:33 Night Classes the main advocacy group that wants to get rid of the horses out of Central Park. We believe that has nothing to do with seeking the well being of the horses. We’ve repeatedly had inspections by veterinarians and assessments that demonstrate that the horses are not mistreated and that pulling a carriage for a horses is right within

1:53 the duties that a horse will be expected to do.

1:56 Speaker 1 Yes, agreed. Now there’s other problems going on, know, if you have time to talk about it, I understand. Uh in the state, a great state of Michigan that the United Auto Workers have have endorsed as somebody that uh, you know, it’s not about being Democrats or Republicans, but it’s a little bit non American, you know what.

2:23 Speaker 2 Yes, we stay in our lane. The t W stays in our lane. We assess candidates, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans or rather strictly based on their on their ability to deliver economic security for working people. And I do believe that when unions go into another realm, when they start assessing candidates on on what their social beliefs are,

2:45 we run a fat We run a foul of our own membership. So the one hundred and sixty five thousand members of the tw would be divided if we started assessing candidates based on what their views on non economic issues are. So we we just we strictly stay on that line.

2:59 Speaker 1 Understood anything else you want to tell the American people on this Sunday.

3:03 Speaker 2 Morning, I do the horses in Central Park have been repeatedly assessed as well taken care of. It’s an industry that is storied, and it’s part of the fabric of New York City. And we are fully in support of a bill that was also introduced to the New York City Council to create a blue ribbon medical panel of

3:23 veterinarians and horse experts, health experts to bring an answer to the question once and for all, bring an answer to the allegations that are being made by nightclass, whether they’re useful idiots for the real estate industry or not.

3:37 We want an answer. We want independent, neutral, veterinarians to assess the conditions of the horses and bring an answer the question.

3:44 Speaker 1 John Samuelson, that sounds like common sense, and I thank you for your common sense and God bless you and we stand side by side. I love those iconic horses in Central Park. I think it’s the part of living on Central Thank you so much for coming on and we’ll talk again real soon.

4:03 Speaker 2 Thank you, John,