A carriage horse collapsed and died in Central Park on Tuesday — traumatizing parkgoers and prompting advocates to call for the Big Apple’s horse-drawn carriages to be phased out once and for all.
Witnesses saw the carriage horse struggling and thrashing on the ground with its tongue hanging out below Strawberry Fields around 7:30 p.m., according to Edita Birnkrant, the Executive Director of the nonprofit New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets.
The distressed equine died roughly 10 minutes after it collapsed, Brinkrant said. It’s not immediately clear whether passengers were inside the carriage during its medical episode.
The dead horse was reported in the vicinity of West Drive and 72nd Street inside the park. EMS services were responding to the scene of the dead animal as of Tuesday evening, the NYPD confirmed.
Video obtained by The Post showed the brown-and-white horse strewn across the pavement, with a man who appeared to be the horse’s handler standing in front of the animal and making a phone call.
Concerned parkgoers gathered around the horse and hugged each other after witnessing the tragic scene.
“That horse, without a doubt, had an agonizing death right in front of everyone. People will never forget seeing that happen,” Birnkrant told The Post.
“Every few months there’s a horrific incident … We can’t have this happening in the park, whether it’s horses dropping dead or being worked while sick or injured, or running wild.”
The cause of the horse’s death, or its age, is not yet known.
Just weeks ago, a coachman was injured when a spooked carriage horse charged into another horse-drawn carriage and caused it to overturn in Central Park.
The horrific death comes less than 24 hours before animal advocates and council members are slated to gather for a rally on the steps of City Hall in support of Ryder’s Law to phase out the city’s horse carriages.
The bill is set to be reintroduced to the City Council on Thursday. The legislation’s name is a nod to a carriage horse named Ryder who tragically collapsed while working on a hot August day in 2022 and died months later, the NYCLASS director said.
The City Council’s health panel refused to advance Ryders Law out of committee in November, despite support from equine activists and former Mayor Eric Adams.
“This is a disgrace that this is still happening, that we are letting the city council, the mayor, is letting these horses be worked to death,” Birnkrant said.
“Horses can collapse at any moment, they can spook at any moment. We can’t have them maneuvering through Manhattan, Midtown traffic day and night through the increasingly congested and busy park,” she said. “This is enough.”
