Carriage horse dies in Central Park after medical episode, police say

NEW YORK — A carriage horse died in Central Park on Tuesday evening, apparently after experiencing a medical episode and collapsing, the New York Police Department said.

Although it was unclear what killed the horse, the death quickly added fuel to a long-running push by animal welfare activists and others for New York City to ban the horse carriage trade.

On Thursday, Christopher Marte, a Democratic City Council member from Manhattan, plans to reintroduce a bill that would impose such a ban and that failed to win passage during the council’s previous term.

Marte, in a joint statement late Tuesday with Julie Cappiello, president of Voters For Animal Rights, an advocacy group based in New York, said that the horse’s death hours earlier underscored the need for the ban.

“Horses are living beings who deserve dignity and compassion,” Marte and Cappiello said in the statement. “They should not be forced to navigate the noise, traffic and demands of New York City streets.”

Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents carriage drivers and stablehands, has fought even the hint of a ban fiercely for years, saying that it would kill jobs, that the horses are well cared for and that carriage rides remain a popular attraction.

Christina Hansen, a carriage driver and spokesperson for Local 100, identified the horse that died Tuesday as a 16-year-old male named Deniz. She said that Deniz had worked in the city for about 10 years and had been pronounced fit during his most recent examination, in March, by the veterinarian for the Police Department’s Mounted Unit.

Under the carriage trade’s protocol, she said, Deniz would be taken to Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine for a full necropsy.

Deniz’s death appeared to be the first of a carriage horse since last summer, when Lady, a 15-year-old mare that had worked in New York City for less than two months, collapsed and died at a Manhattan intersection while returning to her stable. A necropsy found a thoracic aortic rupture and an adrenal tumor had caused the death, according to city health officials.

The bill Marte plans to introduce, Ryder’s Law, is named for a horse that collapsed on a busy Hell’s Kitchen street in 2022 and was later euthanized. In July 2025, a jury acquitted Ryder’s driver of an animal cruelty charge stemming from the horse’s collapse.

New York’s carriage industry included 68 licensed carriage owners, 183 licensed horses and 231 licensed drivers as of August, city records showed. There were about 170 active drivers then, according to the union.

Rides cost $72.22 for the first 20 minutes and $28.89 for each additional 10 minutes under prices set by the city. Carriages may pick customers up and drop them off only at specific spots in the park, where they have been a fixture since the 19th century.

Supporters of a carriage horse ban gained a notable ally last summer when the Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit organization that runs the park, took a public stand on their side — the first time the group had taken a position on the issue.

Eric Adams, toward the end of his term as mayor, also came out in favor of a ban. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during last year’s campaign that he favors eliminating horse carriages but wants to find a resolution that also suits the union.