Manhattan DA’s Office ‘reviewing’ case of Ryder the ailing carriage horse
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is looking into the caught-on-camera whipping of an ailing carriage horse by its driver after the creature’s horrifying collapse on a busy Manhattan street.
A spokesman for DA Alvin Bragg said, “Animals should be treated humanely, and we take any incident of animal cruelty extremely seriously.
“We are reviewing the incident,” spokesman Doug Cohen added Tuesday.
The horse, named Ryder, fell to its knees in rush-hour traffic around 5 p.m. Aug. 10 on Ninth Avenue near the intersection of West 45th Street.
Cellphone video captured driver Ian McKeever hitting the bay gelding with its reins and repeatedly ordering, “Get up!” — only to have Ryder keel over on its side during the ordeal in Hell’s Kitchen.
After cops arrived on the scene, they repeatedly doused Ryder with cold water until the horse was able to stand up and be driven away in an NYPD Mounted Unit truck about 45 minutes later.
McKeever told cops that Ryder was 13 years and had just finished a 7-1/2 hour shift, but a veterinary exam “determined that the horse was 28-30 years old rather than the aforementioned 13 years old,” according to a police “unusual-occurrence report.”
In addition, the initial diagnosis was that Ryder “was malnourished, underweight and suffers from the equine neurological disorder EPM (Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis),” according to the report.
EPM results from a parasite that attacks the central nervous system and “can cause devastating and lasting neurological damage,” according to the American Association of Equine Practitioners.
McKeever did not immediately return a request for comment, but the Transport Workers Union, which represents carriage drivers, said in a statement Tuesday that “Ryder is retired at [a] private horse farm outside of NYC where he has a large and comfortable stall.”
The TWU also said the horse’s unidentified owner “relinquished ownership of Ryder to the farm’s owner/manager.”