NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Activists rallied at City Hall on Thursday to demand New York City ban the use of horse-drawn carriages after a carriage horse collapsed in Hell’s Kitchen on Wednesday.
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Ryder, a 14-year-old carriage horse, fell to the ground just after 6 p.m. at the intersection of 42nd Street and 9th Avenue.
Video of the incident showed police using water hoses to try to cool down the horse on a day in which temperatures reached the high 80s.
A spokesperson from Transport Workers Union Local 100, the union that represents horse-carriage drivers in New York City, originally claimed the horse tripped, and that it was able to walk itself to a trailer for transport.
The union later told Gothamist the horse was suffering from equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, a neurological disease horses contract from eating infected possum dung.
The New York Post reported eye witnesses saw the carriage driver repeatedly striking the collapsed horse and demanding it “get up.”
Protesters organized by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets gathered outside City Hall around 12:30 p.m. ahead of a City Council meeting at 1:30 p.m.
Demonstrators voiced their support for a bill the Council is currently considering to replace horse-drawn carriages with electronic carriages in New York City.
Councilmember Robert Holden, who introduced the bill, described Ryder as “emaciated” and called for him to be moved to a new home.
PETA Director Ashley Byrne called on the NYPD to initiate an animal cruelty investigation into the incident.
"Just weeks after a horse in New York City’s carriage trade collapsed and died in his stall, another horse collapsed yesterday and lay on Ninth Avenue for over an hour with no veterinary care while his driver reportedly slapped him, whipped him, and screamed at him to get up,” said Byrne. “The city’s horse-carriage trade has been plagued for years by complaints of mistreatment and overwork of horses, and PETA is calling on the NYPD Animal Cruelty Investigations Squad to launch a criminal investigation into this incident.”
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