Calls to ban horse carriages in New York City are growing after a horse collapsed and died in Central Park Tuesday.
Police responded to 72nd Street near Central Park West where they confirmed the horse died.
TWU Local 100, which represents carriage horse drivers, called it a sudden, catastrophic medical emergency.
“I really feel like I lost someone in the family”
Deniz the horse.
TWU Local 100
The horse was named Deniz. His owner and caretaker Nurettin Kirbiyik released a statement through the union about Deniz’s death.
“I really feel like I lost someone in the family,” he said. “He was a beautiful horse. The best. Very friendly with kids. Everyone loved him and wanted to take pictures with him.”
According to the union, Kirbiyik said there were no signs Deniz was ill, and he had been eating and drinking normally. Deniz was examined by the NYPD Mounted Unit’s veterinarian in March and determined to be fit, the union said. A necropsy will be performed by Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine to determine the cause of death.
“I’m in shock,” Kirbiyik said.
Carriage horse stables were closed Wednesday.
“We are all in mourning,” TWU Local 100 shop steward Christina Hansen said.
“They shouldn’t exist in the city at all,” Mamdani says
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says he supports removing horse carriages from Central Park.
“I look forward to working with union partners and community leaders to actually deliver on that. And I know that many New Yorkers were disturbed by what they saw yesterday, and I’m one of them,” Mamdani said Wednesday. “They shouldn’t exist in the city at all. I think in Central Park, what we’ve seen is a lot of concern about the welfare of these horses, and I want to figure out a way for us to actually get to the end of that path.”
The nonprofit group NYCLASS, which has repeatedly called for carriage horses to be banned, is holding a rally at City Hall to reintroduce Ryder’s Law, which would ban horse carriages in the city. An effort to pass Ryder’s Law back in November failed.
The Central Park Conservancy also called for the ban.
“The Central Park Conservancy has long believed horse carriages pose a public safety risk in the increasingly crowded park,” the group said in a statement. “Let’s pass Ryder’s Law and join the rest of the world in banning horse carriages from our busy urban streetscape.”
The Central Park Conservancy pointed to seven horse-related incidents in the park over the past 13 months, including an incident in which a horse carriage overturned when a horse got spooked last month.