(William) Moss, Leaves and Carriage Horses

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Another visit with William Moss The Garden Boss

(November 18, 2018) William Moss, The Garden Boss is back on the show today. Before I sucker punch him with something that came up on my Facebook page this week, I will mention that his book, Any Size, Anywhere Edible Gardening is a practical look at getting growing in your own backyard and other areas close to home. In fact, William’s home website is not surprisingly called GetOutandGrow.org.

In addition to teaching people how to transform their outdoor spaces into their dream gardens, Moss enjoys working with students by using landscapes as living learning NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) AND STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Design, and Math) laboratories. As Moss explains,

Using a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to lessons, our programs can also incorporate nutrition, fitness, and wellness into garden activities. The culmination of these efforts help to improve student proficiency and simultaneously enhance aesthetics of the school and surrounding community.

Okay, now he’ll have to deal with a post that I noticed on the website Garden Rant this week. It’s called Leave the Leaves? I think not. and I’m pretty sure it’s a response to an article that showed up a few weeks ago from the Xerces Society called Leave the Leaves! Here’s their argument:

Many organic gardeners opt for shredding their fall leaves for use in compost piles. While this is certainly a more environmentally friendly practice than bagging leaves and sending them to the landfill – shredded leaves will not provide the same cover as leaving them whole, and you may be destroying eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalis along with the leaves. We suggest that leaves in garden beds and lawn edges be left whole. Where space allows, consider creating a leaf pile and allowing it to break down naturally, or add the leaves gradually to your compost pile over time. Such efforts will keep critters safe and allow you to benefit from the rich garden gift that falls from the trees above.

In the Garden Rant article, Elizabeth Licata argues,

On the forest floor, leaves drop and gradually decay, the operative word being gradually. Nobody rakes them or has to. In urban and suburban neighborhoods, it’s not quite the same. For example, on my street, the area in front of my house, including the sidewalk and neighboring driveways, is now inches deep in thick Norway maple leaves (with some other maples mixed in). We have dense tree cover for a city street. The leaves on the hardscaping are not going to do anything except maybe end up in the storm drains, where they’ll clog things up and add some extra algal content to our rivers and lakes for good measure. Obviously, they are not adding organic benefit to the sidewalk.

She adds,

There are good ways to deal with leaves that, sadly, are not mentioned in these science-free, commonsense-horticulture-free posts from well-meaning wildlife organizations. Yes, leaves can be left to mulch perennial beds, but leaves like mine should be shredded first. For lawns, a mulching mower will break up the leaves, allowing them to benefit plants and soil. Unfortunately, the National Wildlife Federation link (from 2014) mentioned above does not bother to mention any of these strategies. (I do agree with not cutting back perennials or clearing beds as part of a “fall clean-up” effort.)

We’ll see what William Moss has to say about all of this. And I’m sure he’ll also have a lot of horticultural wisdom to share with us today.

Will carriage horses be banned in Chicago? One year and counting…

Almost a year ago, an ordinance was introduced into the Chicago City council that would figuratively change the City’s landscape. Ordinance O2017-8598, co-sponsored by Aldermen Brendan Reilly, Brian Hopkins and Raymond Lopez.

The ordinance they jointly introduced would delete all of the language governing city licenses and regulations for horse-drawn carriages and replace it with the single sentence that would mark the beginning of the end of the industry.

It states, “No horse-drawn carriage license shall be renewed.”

That ordinance would put an end to a decades-long tradition of horse-drawn carriages in Chicago, which, in the past few years has become a source of controversy. Groups like Chicago Alliance for Animals contend that the continued use of horses in crowded urban areas amounts to animal abuse. Organizations like the Horsemen’s Council of Illinois (HCI) counter by saying that

Chicago’s carriage horses are among the most regulated horses in the country to insure that they are well cared for in terms of stabling, access to appropriate food and water, grooming, horseshoeing, veterinary care and working conditions. 

Regardless of the arguments on both sides, the proposed ordinance has sat in the Committee on License and Consumer Protection for almost a year, and there appears to be no movement in sight. In the September meeting, Chairwoman Emma Mitts of the 37th Ward declined to take action on the measure. But it wasn’t an ordinary meeting:

The decision by the committee not to vote followed three hours of often-emotional testimony from both sides. After testimony ended, Mitts expressed anger that she was being pressured to make a quick decision about the carriages when people are dying from violence in other parts of the city.

That response from the chairwomen left more than a few people scratching their heads.

Meanwhile, Jodie Wiederkerh from the Chicago Alliance for Animals, claims that Chicago’s three horse carriage companies continue to flout City laws. She and her team have documented what they say are hundred of violations.

And, with nothing happening in City Council, she has written to Chicago’s Office of Inspector General, seeking action:

We have submitted our documentation to Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, the city agency that’s supposed to monitor the horse carriage trade and enforce the laws on the books. Unfortunately, BACP is still not doing its job, horses are still being overworked almost every weekend we are able to document, yet each of the three horse carriage companies settled with the City over the summer and likely got upwards of $100,000 worth of fines they should have owed dismissed. They settled with the promise to start following the law and keep detailed logs of when the horses leave and return to the stable, but chauffeurs are still consistently and flagrantly ignoring these laws.

What laws is Wiederkerh referring to? She was on The Mike Nowak Show with Peggy Maleckin in April of this year. At the time, I noted that CAA has

documented horses forced to work 12 plus hour days (in blatant violation of the City’s 6 hour per 24 hour limit), working in oppressive heat and humidity in summer and bone chilling cold in winter.  We’ve witnessed drivers routinely disregarding the laws that impact public safety such as being on their cellular phones while driving in traffic and being on streets at times when they are not allowed.  The horses must also endure contempt by the drivers who were caught on video washing their hands in the horses’ drinking water and flicking their lit cigarette butts at the horses feet.

After our show in April, I received word from representatives of the Horsemen’s Council of Illinois, seeking equal time on the program. When it became clear that I would be covering this issue again in the fall, I contacted them and invited them to be on the show. We have communicated over the past few weeks, and I received this statement from their organization. It reads, in part,

First and foremost, Chicago’s Carriage Horse operators and the Horsemen’s Council of Illinois (HCI) agree that the best interests of the horses are of the utmost importanceas well as preserving part of Chicago’s cultural heritage and their connection to agriculture. The carriage horses of Chicago are an iconic symbol of the city and reflects its cultural heritage. Seeing, touching and smelling these animals may be a key to connecting with and understanding agriculture. HCI also hopes this is the first of many future discussions we can have about the welfare of Illinois’ horses and horsemen.

Chicago carriage horses work 10-12 hour days:

A carriage horse may do ten rides, which is not even four hours of work per night. The Chicago city ordinance does not differentiate what is work and what is break time. This has been left to the carriage industry under the watchful eye of Chicago’s Animal Care and Controls.Over the year’s this has been talked over with numerous Commissioner’s and has been agreed upon, but with each change in leadership this understanding has been lost.

Click onto the link above to read the entire document.

I have learned over the past few months that this has become a “we said, they said” issue. For instance, the groups against horse drawn carriages present this statement from Holly Cheever, DVM, who wrote a letter to the New York City mayoral candidates in 2013.

To begin with, I would like to state unequivocally that I don’t believe that horse-drawn carriages and motor vehicles should share the same roadways due to the distressing history of injuries and deaths (both equine and human) that have occurred across the country due to carriage-car collisions.  There is no way that cities with their exhaust fumes, hard road surfaces, and busy traffic patterns can provide a humane (as opposed to merely survivable) environment for a carriage horse. For that reason, I recommend that a ban against city carriage horse rides be implemented in each municipality, unless the horses can be restricted to a park or other area where they will not be competing with motor vehicles for road space and where their stabling can provide the essentials for comfortable, humane, and safe housing, including the provision of daily “turn-out.

But the Horseman’s Council of Illinois posts this rebuttal from Dr. Sheryl (Sheree) King, who is Past-President of the Horsemen’s Council of Illinois and has been a member of its Board of Directors since 1988. In it, she states,

• Chicago carriage companies have been operating for 37 years without a serious accident much less a fatality to either horse or human.
• None of the carriage horses in Chicago suffer from any respiratory conditions attributable to exhaust emissions or other environmental irritants.

She concludes,

In my opinion as an Equine Physiologist, I can say that what is written in this ‘article’ is mostly theory spouted straight from a text book.  It shows no indication to me that the author has an intimate understanding of the equine.

Like I said, it seems to be a case of “My vet is better than your vet.”

But, regardless of the my vet/your vet stalemate, there are some unanswered questions:

• If there are 28 Aldermen who have signed on to the ordinance to ban carriage horses in Chicago, why hasn’t it come out of committee? What’s going on there, Alderman Mitts?
• Is there a way to compromise, as some folks have suggested, by relegating horses to city parks and not to congested city streets?

Jody Wiederkehr joins us this morning. We hope that Alderman Brian Hopkins will also be on the program. We welcomed representatives from the Horsemen’s Council of Illinois but, judging from communications we have received from them, we doubt that they will take us up on our offer. I could be wrong.

So I guess that whoever shows up gets to have a say. That’s show biz. Actually, that’s how life works, too.