New York's Horse-Drawn Carriages: Icon or Animal Cruelty?
A bill proposes replacing horses with electric carriages by June 2024.
New York's horse-drawn carriages have been in operation since the 1800s, but some legislators now want to replace them with electric vehicles.
A video of a carriage horse collapsing on the streets of New York recently went viral, sparking a fresh wave of protests against the controversial tourist attraction.
Business owners have pushed back, claiming the industry is regulated and the animals are well cared for.
Why are people protesting against New York's horse-drawn carriages?
For some, carriage rides through Central Park are as much a part of the Big Apple as yellow taxis and Broadway shows. For others, however, the hired horses are out of place in the ethos of a leading progressive city in 21st-century America.
Animal welfare advocates have been trying to shut down the industry for years. Opponents say the horses live in cramped conditions, are often undernourished and dehydrated, are startled by cars, and are forced to work against their will.
«They are literally treated like machines, and that is what they are not«, says Edita Birnkrant, executive director of the anti-horse-transport group NYCLASS. «This should not be happening in modern New York City.»
Last month, their protests gained momentum when a video of a collapsed horse being struck and shouted at by its owner on the busy 9th Avenue went viral.
When a passerby asks: «Why are you hitting it?«, the owner replies: «Because I'm trying to get it back up.» The horse is then hosed down by police officers.
This was not the first incident of its kind. In 2020, a carriage horse collapsed in Central Park — where 45-minute rides cost over 160 euros — and was euthanised. In June of this year, a frightened carriage horse galloped into oncoming traffic in the park.
Following the horse's collapse, protesters gathered in August carrying signs calling for «21st-century horseless carriages
Their demands have not fallen on deaf ears.
«Manhattan is probably the worst place in the world to make a horse work, in traffic, in noise, in pollution, in terrible heat and under terrible conditions«, says New York City Council Member Robert Holden, who has introduced a bill to replace the animals with horseless e-carriages by June 2024.
On Instagram, supermodel Bella Hadid urged lawmakers to pass Holden's law, calling the tourist rides «barbaric«.
