Central Park Patrons React to Lea Michele's PETA Ad

By Amber James Posted Jan 6th 2011 10:07AM

Horse-drawn carriage rides through Central Park can be romantic and old fashioned, making them a staple among tourists visiting New York City. But 'Glee' star Lea Michele believes the Big Apple can do without the sight of carriages and has joined People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in a campaign to end the practice. Michele urges people to boycott the activity, claiming the horses are "raised in terrible living conditions and forced to do hard physical labor all day, seven days a week -- whether it's sweltering hot or freezing cold outside."

PopEater wondered what people on the street thought about Michele's PETA ad, so we trekked to Central Park on a frigid winter afternoon to see their reactions to the new campaign. Our fingers and toes were frozen after just 30 minutes in the cold, so we can only imagine how the horses must feel.

Watch Central Park patrons react to the PETA video:

Tags: peta

Comments

(44)

Thursday 06 January

By johnson

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A horse is not a house pet!

By Rosy

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I may not agree with all of the things PETA stands for or their tactics but I am with them and Lea on this.

If the City of New York doesn't ban horse drawn carriages because of their place in tourism, at the very least they should create new mandates for the treatment of the horses.

The City of New York can step up and make better conditions mandatory for owner and handlers of these beautiful creatures.

By Lynn

They did just that in April, long before the PETA nut jobs stepped in. There is a new minimum size the stalls need to be. The horses need to be able to turn around and lie down. They also mandated five weeks vacation a year for every horse. That's more vacation time than I get per year.

By Ally

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Yeah but do you go to work breathing in heavy CO2 emissions, walk around carrying hundreds of pounds, and walk on terrain you're not made for? Granted it's good that they mandated 5 weeks but thats still not good. Horses are not made to live in cities and this type of thing tortures them. They are beautiful creatures meant to live in pastures. I have always though this was cruel before this PETA ad came to surface on here.

Monday 31 January

By Cheryl Carter

I am a proud member of PETA and have been for the last 15 years or so. I trully believe in what they stand for-Sometimes there are no other methods to get peoples' attention than to do things a little radical. After all-look what the human race is doing to not only wildlife but to the entire planet itself.

By Celia

Horses have collapsed and died on the streets from working in the sweltering weather. I applaud Lea for speaking up for these horses--as a lifelong NYC resident I would love to see them in the countryside, not in the city.

By philster

Havacigar: Major ills such as poverty, injustice and wars should be addressed and they are. But people can also concentrate on minor injustices too. Speeding in school zones, sluggish snow removal, boating safety. One doesn't diminish the other. There are more than 300 million of us in the US, after all.

By jess

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hey, haveacigar, why don't you have another one, so you can leave this planet sooner..i would rather share it with an animal anyday, then the miserable likes of you.

Haveacigar, you're hysterical. Thanks for the chuckle. Celia, do you think that if carriage rides are no more, that some kind country people are going to adopt all the New York carriage horses? Very unlikely. Do you have any statisics on the percentage of horses that have collapsed doing their job, or are you just blowing smoke, like PETA does? Everything dies. Unfortunate, but true. Most of these horses are taken better care of than some peoples kids

By allyndp

It's it funny that the interviewer only asked the same few people over and over. No doubt to illustrate their own agenda.

By Dan

RUSTY !!!!

By Hannah Tietjen

It is a horse. It is meant to do labor.
In no way do I mean to sound like, or agree with beating and starving animals.
But it is an animal, not a human. They are here for work, and food.
Please stop whining about them.

By Lilly

Tell me...what animal works? If it weren't for humans, animals would not work! We exploit them and just because they can't speak up, we take advantage of that. And the mentality of "oh we are not beating and starving them so it's ok!" is just flat out ignorance. It's slow torture and that's just as bad.

By John

People are dying in the streets from both exposure and starvation in every major city of the US. the well being of our fellow man is a much more worthy cause to champion. Also, less than 1% of carriage horses have died from neglect or cruelty in NYC for the past 10 years.

By WHO EVER WHAT EV

if you think those horses get cold imagine the ones in the wild with no shelter at night i bet they are way colder. What should we do for them?

By Wloogs

We have a similar situation here in Michigan...on Mackinac Island up north near the Mackinac Bridge...cars are banned..only bicycles and horses. These horses work throughout the spring, summer and early fall...pulling supplies to hotels and restaurants...tourists up and down hilss..in heat rain and sometimes early snow.. sometimes and many as 20 people in a "carriage"....I wiating for a horse to turn around and say..."what the HELL am I doing here"...can anyone say...give me a can of "Beano"...

By vegcon

ALL FOR THE LUXURY AND CONVENIENCE OF PEOPLE WITH NO CONCERN FOR THE WELL BEING OF THE HORSE. THIS IS THE TYPICAL HUMAN REACTION INSTEAD OF HUMANE REACTION THAT PETA AND OTHERS HAVE.

By jo

This is the typical selfish self serving attitude that people have for themselves. At all cost to satisfy their taste regardless of needs and concerns of the horses.

By themeeker

Agreed. And by the way, who is this bimbo and why should I give a rat's azz what she says?

By Cathy

How do we really know how these horses are treated when not working, has anyone really investigated? What do you think wild horses do when it is cold/hot out? They have no heated/air conditoned barn to run to....should we round up all wild horses so that they are not being treated cruelly?? Yes, there should be regulations regarding how these horses pulling carriages are treated, but to just ban them entirely seems extremely ridiculous....sometimes PETA gets a bit carried away in what they deem mistreatment of animals...sometimes, not. In this case they are way off track...

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