BLINDERS Article on HSUS Website

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Vegetarian Network of Dallas invites the D/FW animal advocacy community to attend the U.S. Premiere of BLINDERS on Sunday, April 27 at 5 PM at the Angelika (Mockingbird Station) in Dallas. Today, HSUS published a fascinating article on their website on BLINDERS. See the story below. Margaret http://www.hsus.org/about_us/offices_and_affiliates/regional_offices/midatlantic_regional_office/blinders_premiers_suffering_.html Film Highlights Suffering of NYC Carriage

Horses April 24, 2008 Donny Moss Navigating the chaotic streets of New York City. A new documentary that exposes the animal cruelty behind New York City’s horse-drawn carriages premiers April 27 at the USA Film Festival in Dallas, Texas. “Blinders,” created by independent filmmaker Donny Moss, is being released at the same time that New York City Councilman Tony Avella pushes legislation to ban the carriage horses

from city streets. An Issue of Growing Concern During the past 10 years, there have been a number of accidents and deaths involving carriage horses in New York and in other American cities. Recognizing the issues of safety and animal welfare, Paris, London, Beijing, and several U.S. cities have banned carriage horses from their streets. “I introduced the legislation to ban horse drawn carriages,” Councilman Avella said, “One, to address the inhumane cruelty to the horses and, two, to address the horse safety factor of having horse-drawn carriages on crowded midtown streets. I’ve gotten so many e-mails in support of this, not only from New Yorkers but from people all over the country.” Urban Commotion The carriage horse rides should be banned, said HSUS New York State Director Patrick Kwan, because there’s no way to operate them humanely in the chaotic city streets. “These horses live an existence where their noses are breathing in exhaust from car tailpipes for at least eight or nine hours, day after day,” Kwan said. Horses are also easily spooked by the city’s loud noises, Moss points out, and the hard pavement damages their hooves. Donny Moss "Blinders" illustrates the plight of carriage

horses. Bringing the Issue to the Screen Moss has never made a film before. He said street protests by the Coalition to Ban Horse Drawn Carriages caught his eye one day. Then, a string of New York traffic accidents involving carriage horses brought the issue into sharp focus for him. At the time, Moss was working as a stand-up comedian. Like most New Yorkers, he’d never thought much about the horses hauling tourists through crowded streets. He decided to make a short YouTube video about the controversy, and before long, it ballooned into a 53-minute documentary. “Once I learned the truth behind this tradition,” Moss said, “I felt an obligation to do whatever it would take to get this story out. If people knew how these horses lived, they would never take a horse-drawn carriage

ride.” Acclaim for "Blinders" So far, seven film festivals across the United States have accepted the film for viewing. “Blinders” was named Best Film in the Point of View category at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Mont. It will be screened at that festival on May 16. HSUS Staff Attorney Sherry Ramsey is interviewed in “Blinders,” as well as HSUS Board Member Marian Probst. “This film is terrific,” Probst said. “It is a very objective portrayal of what, in my view, is a disgrace to the City of New York. We have no need for carriage horses in New York City in the year 2008. It’s just no life for a horse.” Moss interviewed dozens of tourists, and he asked them where they believed the horses lived. “They thought the horses live in the park,” Moss said. “It never occurred

to them that these horses would be living in warehouses up to two miles away.” “These horses go from their horrible cramped stalls in multistory warehouses to being attached to their carriages and then back to their stalls,” Moss said. “They have no opportunity to graze on a daily basis. They have no opportunity to interact with each other, to run, roll, anything that comes naturally to a herd animal. They’ve been stripped of everything—for what? Just to drag around a few tourists?” What You Can Do New York City ResidentsAttend upcoming HSUS grassroots meetings to find out about upcoming lobby days and public education activities. Non-New York City ResidentsAsk New

York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and New York City Mayor to support the City Council's proposed ban on carriage horses. Speaker QuinnPhone: 212-788-7210 Fax: 212-788-7207 Mayor Bloomberg Phone: 212-NEW-YORKFax: 212-788-2460

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