Thanks to Jonathan Mark for his excellent article, “The Last Roundup?” (April 4).
Although I am busy packing for an extended trip to Israel, I feel impelled to write. When Mayor de Blasio took office I was dumbfounded to hear that one of his first pronouncements was to ask for the end to the horse-drawn carriages in Central Park. How totally absurd.
Having grown up in New York, and now an occasional visitor, the sight of the carriages and horses has always been a joy. Yes, there is a real consideration of humane treatment, but if it were the real issue then the answer is to assure the humane treatment of the horses, not to send them to the glue factory. From the article, it appears that the horses are well cared for and that there are rules in place and followed to prevent exploitation.
These horse-drawn carriages give so much pleasure to onlookers by the hundreds of thousands each year. Esthetically, politically, tourism-dollar wise and every other wise Mr. de Blasio would only hurt the city he is charged to help by removing the horse-drawn carriages.
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