Save the Carriage Horses in New York City!

Final signature count: 2

2 signatures toward our 100,000 goal

It was February in New York City when a 12-year-old carriage horse named Aisha collapsed in Central Park. Aisha was struggling to stand for minutes before crumpling on the side of the road1.

As a trailer arrived to haul her away, carriage drivers pushed Aisha inside. She was euthanized later that day.

Aisha was one of about 220 horses registered to pull carriages in New York, but her death immediately sparked a firestorm, even raising the interests of New York’s Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad.

Aisha’s death was followed by two more in 2020, both horses euthanized after contracting colic2.

The harsh reality of the life of a carriage horse working in New York City is that horses simply are not meant to work in dangerous midtown traffic.

Carriage horses are live a miserable nose-to-tailpipe existence. They routinely work at least nine hours a day, seven days a week, pulling a vehicle that weighs hundreds of pounds, on hard pavement, while breathing exhaust from cars, buses and taxis. Unaccustomed to the urban environment, horses can be “spooked” easily and cause accidents that inflict great damage on vehicles, drivers and most often, the horses themselves3.

The average working life of a New York City carriage horse is four years, as compared to 15 years for horses in the New York City Police Department’s mounted patrol. ASPCA inspections since the 1980s have indicated that hoof and joint injuries, resulting from long hours walking on hard concrete, are pervasive, and that colic and other illnesses, brought about by bad or insufficient food, also are common.

In 1989, a veterinary consultant for the ASPCA inspected the city’s six carriage-horse stables and examined horses in the field. She found, among other things, that the majority of horses were housed in unsafe and unhealthy conditions, that most stables were firetraps, that horses were confined to narrow stalls and had no opportunity to exercise, that the stalls were not ventilated or even cleaned, that horses in the field rarely had access to water, that many horses were filthy and underfed, that many suffered injuries created or exacerbated by long hours of walking on hard concrete (some horses worked 70 hours per week), and that carriage drivers were typically ignorant of basic facts about equine health and even harnessing.

Something is wrong with this picture. Horses don’t belong in cities acting as taxi cabs and entertainment for humans. They are large, movement-oriented animals who need the freedom of fields and pastures to graze, run, and play.

The carriage industry is outdated and causing unnecessary harm to these beautiful creatures. Sign the petition asking New York City’s mayor to stand up for the safety and health of horses and outlaw the horse carriage industry.