NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Animal rights advocates marched in Central Park on Sunday, a day after a carriage horse collapsed there and later died.
Video shot by a pedicab driver on Saturday afternoon shows the horse falling onto a roadway in the park and struggling to get up.
Animal rights advocates accused the carriage driver of not calling in a veterinarian and tying the horse's legs before hauling the animal into a trailer to go back to the stable, where the horse was euthanized.
The advocacy group NYCLASS took part in Sunday's protest. Edita Birnkrant, the executive director of the group, said the horse was treated inhumanely.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who unsuccessfully tried to get carriage horses banned in the past, said the NYPD's Animal Cruelty Squad is investigating the incident.
"We have footage of multiple carriage drivers tying this horse up, dragging, shoving, pushing him like a piece of machinery," Birnkrant said. "This horse was killed by carriage drivers by their lack of compassion, by their greed."
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and city Comptroller Scott Stringer also responded to the video.
There should be an immediate investigation into what happened to this horse and the cause of death.
— Corey Johnson (@CoreyinNYC) March 1, 2020
This video is painful to watch and the public deserves answers. https://t.co/9NKvqWJgv8
Absolutely heartbreaking to watch the video of a horse suffering and dying in Central Park.
— Scott M. Stringer (@NYCComptroller) March 1, 2020
How we treat our animals is a measure of our decency—this tragic incident must be fully investigated.
In NYC, animal safety matters.
The Horse and Carriage Association of New York City said the horse had only gone out on a single ride before the 12-year-old mare, Aisha, suffered what appeared to have been a heart problem.
The association insisted that a veterinarian and an emergency horse trailer were immediately called and that standard protocols for large animals were followed. They said the vet and trailer arrived within 10 minutes, but the horse couldn't get up and was slid into the trailer. The mare was then taken to a stable on 52nd Street.
"Unfortunately, she was never able to stand, apparently due to cardiac insufficiency in her hind end, and her owner, in consultation with the vet, made the difficult but humane decision to put her to sleep," the association said in the statement.
Robert Boyle, a carriage driver at the same stable where the horse who died, said they did "everything to save the horse" but "unfortunately it didn't work out."
"You just cannot pick up a horse like a human being and put them into a trailer," he said.
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