The City Council passed a bill last week that speaks volumes about how out of touch this legislative body is with the working class. The bill mandates that the carriage horse industry give horses five weeks vacation each year.
There are many two-legged workers in the city who get two weeks or less paid vacation and others who do not get any.
Adding insult to injury, the bill requires the vacation to be taken outside the city. The bill also mandates owners give the horses roomier stables and blankets if the temperature drops below 50 degrees.
This piece of legislation is not without its good points. It allows the carriage horse industry to raise the rate from $34 to $50 for a 20-minute ride, a change long overdue. It also requires carriages to be equipped with bags to catch horse droppings.
The extremists who pressured the Council into cracking down on the carriage drivers say the legislation is unenforceable. Who will make sure the horses get their five weeks in the Poconos? Who will be there to make sure horses get their Snuggies when the temperature drops?
The radical animal rights activists wanted to kill the entire industry and did not care how many people they put out of work. With a looming budget crisis and the dilemma of what to do with many failing schools, we cannot see how the Council found the time to appease these extremists.
A Sad Justice
A Queens Islamic religious leader learned last week he will pay a terrible price for informing would-be terrorist Najibullah Zazi that he was being monitored by federal agents who had learned of his plot to set off a bomb in the city subway system.
Imam Ahmad Wais Afzali avoided prison but was told that he must leave the country that is now the home of his wife and children and other family members. The imam had warned Najibullah Zazi, who along with two other students from Flushing High School was planning to set off a bomb in the subway system, that he was under surveillance.
We have no sympathy for Zazi and his alleged accomplices, but feel some empathy for the imam. He was caught between a rock and a hard place and made a bad choice.
