PETA, the international animal rights advocacy organization, has a deal for the Newport City Council: They will help fund the restoration of the Easton’s Beach carousel, but only if the seats are switched to be all non-animals. That means getting rid of the carousel’s vintage iron horses.
“Times change, and our understanding of animals has greatly evolved over the past few decades,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a letter to Mayor Xay Khamsyvoravong. “Animal-themed carousels unintentionally celebrate animal exploitation. Animals used for rides and other entertainment – including horses – are confined and in servitude, never free to pursue their own lives and interests.”
The historic Easton’s Beach carousel was built in the 1950s and has been housed in the Easton’s Beach rotunda building since it was reconstructed in 1991 after Hurricane Bob demolished its previous home. However, in 2019, the building was closed to the public after concerns were raised regarding the building’s integrity, leading the Beach Commission and Newport City Council to the question of what to do with the carousel and its many iron horses.
Recently, the decision was made to demolish the rotunda, but not before the horses were safely extracted and put into storage with a Connecticut-based antique carousel restoration and appraisal company. There has yet to be a decision made on the best path forward for the carousel, however.
Rockets and Rainbows and Broomsticks, oh my
This is where People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA, comes in. Their offer to Khamsyvoravong is simple: replace the carousel’s horses with non-animal seats, such as cars, unicycles, rockets, or even rainbows and broomsticks, and they will help pay for the carousel’s restoration.
“Horses are affectionate, loyal individuals, not living taxis, and updating archaic carousel designs would help reinforce to impressionable young people that all sentient beings deserve our respect,” Newkirk said in a press release regarding the letter. “PETA is eager to help the Newport City Council restore the Easton’s Beach Carousel with a modern spin that engages children’s imaginations and helps create a kinder world for all animals.”
Media stunts not unusual for PETA
PETA has developed a reputation for aggressive media stunts as a function of its advocacy. Controversy, specifically instigating it, is how PETA ensures its message is heard by keeping media attention focused on them. This is by its own admission, which can be seen on its website.
The organization takes a very hardline stance on what it considers to be animal exploitation, and regards most interactions between humans and animals that are primarily for human benefit, such as labor, entertainment, meat or clothing, as exploitative. This position is based on a desire to combat “speciesism,” the belief that humans are superior to all other animals. This is why they have a problem with the carousel horses, as it is a representation of the horse as a working animal to be ridden by humans.
How is Newport responding?
As for Khamsyvoravong, to whom the letter was addressed, he believes this is all a little premature.
“Any decision regarding the carousel is ultimately going to be at the direction of what the community is looking for and of course we welcome all community voices, but in the meantime this really is in the hands of the administration to provide us with some additional direction behind the more complicated logistics behind the relocation of the carousel itself,” Khamsyvoravong said.
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: PETA offers to pay Newport to eliminate horses from historic carousel
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