With all the recent uproar about carriage horses, and Fashion Week recently bringing out the fur brigade, we thought it was a good time to talk to an animal lover—one who happens to know exactly what's happening out on the front lines. Patrick Kwan is the New York State Director of the Humane Society of the United States, and recently he schooled us in some current animal rights issues.
What's the latest with the carriage horse situation, and how is the Humane Society involved? I recently testified at a City Hall hearing in support of Councilman Tony Avella’s bill, Int. 658-A, to protect public safety and end the inhumane treatment of horses used for carriage rides. The hearing sets the bill in motion for a committee vote to happen (no date has been set yet).
Also heard that day was an irresponsible industry bill, Int. 653-A, sponsored by Councilmen Kendall Stewart, Oliver Koppel, David Weprin, and Simcha Felder which the HSUS opposes. This bill will weaken enforcement of current laws by removing authority from the ASPCA, New York Police Department, and others to enforce the meager protections that the horses have while providing fare hikes for the industry and shifting the costs of providing water to horses to taxpayers. It opens the door for the industry to self-regulate and escape oversight by independent agencies. What makes Int. 653-A especially reprehensible is that a year and a half ago, City Comptroller Bill Thompson released an independent audit documenting the inhumane conditions the horses live and work in, which found the horses are forced to stand in their own waste in stables and work without adequate water, protection from harsh weather conditions, and oversight by authorities. More enforcement needs to be done, not less.
What is the HSUS's typical approach to educating people on fur during Fashion Week? In addition to attending and participating in fashion industry events to promote fur-free fashion, we also organize some of our own to draw attention to the pointless cruelty and killing perpetrated in the name of fashion. In the past, we have sponsored the Fashion Week shows of fur-free designers such as Charlotte Ronson and Jay McCarroll. During the height of this season’s Fashion Week, we held a press conference with Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal to discuss the findings of our undercover investigation which uncovered big retailers like Bloomingdale’s, Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue violating state law by selling unlabeled fur-trimmed garments.
Do you feel fur is becoming less in fashion, especially at events like that? Fur is literally a dying industry and we expect fur sales in the United States to be the lowest in several years, and it’s not just because of the recession. Last year, The HSUS Fur-Free Campaign added major retailers like Henri Bendel and Overstock.com, and labels like BCBG Max Azria, to our Fur-Free Designers and Retailers list which now number over a hundred.
Our efforts in engaging the younger generation is also paying off - our annual “Cool Vs. Cruel” competition, which honors fur-free designs by fashion students is more popular than ever, and we’re always inspired by the creativity of the thousands of design students who participate in the international “Design Against Fur” poster design and advertising contest who are helping to spread the fur-free message in their own perspectives.
All this gives us hope for a more compassionate future. And we see it every day through our “Coats for Cubs” program where we encourage those who have had a change of heart about fur to donate their furs to be used for wildlife rehabilitation to warm and comfort orphaned and injured wildlife. A few years ago, we were getting a few hundred each year, but now we’re seeing thousands of coats being sent to us to help animals. We’re also partnering with the resale clothing chain Buffalo Exchange to help collect furs for “Coats for Cubs” - they are accepting furs through Earth Day on April 22nd at any of their 36 locations across the country, including their two NYC locations in Williamsburg and the West Village.
We hear a lot about the horses, and the fur, what else should New Yorkers be aware of? New York State has some of the weakest laws when it comes to dogfighting. In a ranking of the strength of state dogfighting laws by The Humane Society of the United States, New York State ranks at an abysmal number 47.
New York is only one of four states in which possessing dogs for fighting is not a felony. And the penalty for spectators - the people who finance dogfights through admission fees and gambling and cheer and enable this cruelty - is only a violation on a first offense and misdemeanor on a second offense. (Parking your car illegally is a violation.)
Our neighbors in New Jersey has the strongest anti-dogfighting laws in the nation and is ranked #1 where animal fighting is a felony, possession for fighting is a felony, and spectators are also charged with felonies. It's no accident that we’re seeing criminals from other states traveling to NY to deal in and watch animal fighting. We’ve also seen several cases where the majority or more than half of the perps were from out of state.
The Humane Society of the United States will be hosting the New York State Humane Lobby Day on Monday, March 30th in Albany and I hope Gothamist readers will join us to talk to our legislators up there and lobby to strengthen our anti-animal fighting laws as well as for other animal protection legislation to combat the migration of puppy mills from PA into NY and put an end to the canned shooting of captive exotic wildlife.
What is the biggest challenge organizations like the HSUS face on a daily basis? Helping people realize that they have great power to make a difference. It can be depressing to think about the many unspeakable cruelties and how every single second thousands of lives hang in the balance, but the great part is that every single one of us, with every single action we take, can make a whole world of difference to those who have no other hope.
When all of us get active, organize, and take action, we will create a ripple effect that will turn the tide on animal cruelty.
Does the HSUS support PETA's stance on euthanasia as a necessary evil to control overpopulation? The use of euthanasia to end the lives of healthy, adoptable animals is still conducted in many parts of the United States for dogs and cats because open-admission shelters and animal control agencies do not turn away animals and do not have sufficient space to house all of the animals who need shelter. These public and private facilities face the lose-lose choice of euthanizing healthy animals or turning them away.
The HSUS advocates the use of a wide range of tools - including training and education of the pet-keeping public to reduce the frequency of animal relinquishment, public and private spay and neuter programs to slow the birth rate for animals, active promotion of adoptions of shelter animals, and aggressive policies to discourage excessive breeding of animals, especially from puppy mills - to create a social environment where the number of people seeking to adopt animals is roughly equivalent to the number of homeless animals.
We’re now at the tail-end of the annual “I Love NYC Pets” city-wide pet adoption month, which is a great opportunity to help our four-legged New Yorkers. There are city-wide adoption events and extended shelter hours to help facilitate adoptions, and great promotions to help you get your pet spayed/neutered to keep your pets healthy and reduce pet overpopulation.
Can you explain how the HSUS is different from the Humane Society's found in different states? Traditionally, each humane organization or rescue group has been independent, with its own set of policies, governance, and priorities. The Humane Society of the United States is the nation’s largest animal protection organization, with more than 10.5 million members and supporters or one in every thirty Americans. For more than half a century, The HSUS has been a national voice for animals, fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education, and hands-on programs, and is the nation’s most important advocate for local humane societies.
The HSUS provides training programs, hosts the nation’s largest trade and educational show for shelter professionals, and provides national shelter standards. The HSUS also provides millions of dollars of support for spay and neuter programs. The HSUS is the leading disaster response agency for animals by responding to floods, fires, hoarding cases, animal fighting and puppy mills, and has given millions of dollars to rebuild animal shelters destroyed in natural disasters.
In addition to these services, The HSUS operates its own network of sanctuaries, making it one of the largest providers of animal care and sheltering in the United States. Through our affiliate, the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, The HSUS provides no-cost veterinary care to dogs and cats in low-income communities around the world. More than one quarter of all U.S. veterinary students participate in our rural areas program.
Please share your strangest "only in New York" story. A couple years ago, I was walking by a tour group that had stopped right outside of Chinatown Fair, the video game arcade on Mott Street. The tour guide was telling the group that the arcade once had a famous attraction of a chicken who was forced to play tic-tac-toe in order to get food - which, as many old-time New Yorkers would know, is true, but then he proceeded to say that the reason why the game didn’t exist anymore was because some animal activists had broken in to rescue the chicken and had threatened to burn the arcade down.
I had to jump in to set the record straight. And I would know the real story, since I actually was one of the two people who begged and pleaded with Mr. Samuel, the owner of Chinatown Fair, to release the hen to a sanctuary back in 1998. He was a kind man who had always felt bad for the hen and the other chickens before her. He gave us the hen, whom we renamed Lillie, after we assured him that she would be taken care of.
We later sent him a picture frame of the photos of Lillie at the sanctuary. And you can still see the photos of Lillie hung above the office. When people would ask him what happened to the tic-tac-toe chicken, he would point up to the photos and say, “FREED!”
After I told the dozen or so people in the tour group the story. A few of them took photos of me and a couple asked to take photos with me. It was weird.
Which New Yorker do you most admire? Jane Hoffman, a former corporate lawyer who founded and is now the president of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals. But that’s just one of her many hats, she’s also the founder and chair of the Animal Law Committee of the NYC Bar Association and chair of Farm Sanctuary, a farmed animal rescue and advocacy group - and that’s just what she does for animals, she also wears several more hats with other non-animal-related groups in NYC. Her compassion is boundless and contagious.
Given the opportunity, how would you change New York? Make NYC affordable so every New Yorker can pursue their dreams here.
Under what circumstance have you thought about leaving New York? I lived in DC for a little while back in 1999 and considered moving there for the nonprofit job opportunities. Even though I loved my job, the people and the energy down there, I missed NYC terribly. I don’t think I can ever leave NYC again.
What's your current soundtrack to the city? Jay Brannan.
Best cheap eat in the city. I actually write about cheap vegan eats on my blog at SuperVegan, but my favorite is the NY Dosas cart in Washington Square Park.
