NYC pol wants DA Bragg to probe animal cruelty after carriage horse collapse
Queens Councilman Robert Holden on Friday urged the NYPD and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to investigate possible carriage horse cruelty across the city — just days after another animal collapsed on a busy Manhattan street.
“Horses that are easily spooked, collapse on the street and even die abruptly are not normal behaviors,” Holden said in a letter to the DA.
“I suspect there is a systematic problem with how these horses are being treated. Only an investigation from your division will uncover the truth.”
His push to have Manhattan’s top prosecutor and NYPD’s Animal Cruelty Investigation squad probe the carriage horse industry comes after a 14-year-old horse, named Ryder, collapsed on a Hell’s Kitchen street on Wednesday.
The horse was filmed lying on the asphalt as his driver hit the beast and shouted for the animal to “get up.”
“We only know of these incidents because they happened in public, in front of large
crowds who were able to record the events,” Holden said in his letter to Bragg.
“After each tragedy, the horse carriage industry tries to explain away the horse’s illness as a natural occurrence.”
“We are reviewing the letter,” a spokesman from Bragg’s office told the Post on Friday.
Holden, who is pushing a bill to eliminate horse-drawn carriages across the Big Apple, on Thursday called on the New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan to investigate Ryder’s health — and release his medical records to rule out whether the animal was allegedly mistreated.
In the wake of Ryder’s collapse, a stable steward and the Transport Workers Union, which reps the carriage drivers, both said a veterinarian believed the horse likely had a neurological disease known as Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis.
Christina Hansen, a carriage driver who works at the stable, told The Post on Friday that the horse was already on the mend and doing “well.”
She added they were waiting on final blood work to confirm the EPM diagnosis.
But Holden, a Democrat, pointed to images and videos of the horse that showed his ribs sticking out.
“The horse, Ryder, appears malnourished, while the driver appears unconcerned that his horse might die right before his eyes,” he wrote to the commissioner, referring to footage of the driver ordering the horse to get up again.
The Queens pol added that an investigation was warranted given the “widespread attention” the latest incident has attracted.
He also urged the health department to inspect the stables scattered around Midtown where the carriage horses are kept.
Holden’s bill — introduced last month — aims to replace horse-drawn carriage with electric ones instead. If passed, the new measure would give drivers preferences for electric carriage licensure and also require they be paid union wages.
