As bikes and strollers fill Central Park, its managers want to push horse carriages out

NEW YORK -- For more than 150 years, horse-drawn carriages have been trotting through Manhattan's Central Park, weathering the arrival of the automobile, years of criticism from animal rights activists and even a mayoral administration that vowed to ban the tourist activity.

But now the influential nonprofit that manages the 843-acre park — and has previously stayed out of the debate — has now thrown its support behind a proposal to wind down the industry as early as next summer.

The Central Park Conservancy argued in an Aug. 12 letter to the City Council that horse carriages have an outsized impact on public safety and road infrastructure in the increasingly crowded park.

“We can’t be just frozen in time,” said Elizabeth Smith, the conservancy's CEO, in an interview this week. “Horses are too unpredictable and the roadways are too busy with too many different kinds of users now — bikers, runners, pedestrians, strollers.”

Smith noted other cities have done away with the nostalgic rides, including San Antonio, which passed a five-year phase out of the industry last year. Chicago banned it starting in 2021 and Montreal did the same the year prior.

The carriage industry argues it’s being unfairly singled out, despite the number of horses in the park barely budging since World War II.

There are currently 68 licensed carriage owners with a total of about 200 horses and 170 drivers, according to the Transport Workers Union, which represents industry employees.

Meanwhile, Central Park sees some 40 million visitors annually, many of them increasingly zipping around on rental bikes or hitching a ride on one of the human-powered pedicabs that line the park’s entry points. Cars were banned from the park's drives in 2018.

Eliminating carriage horses also goes against famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s vision for the park, with its hilly paths and undulating roads tailor-made for leisurely carriage rides, argues Christina Hansen, a longtime carriage driver and industry spokesperson.

“We’re seeing the park the way it was meant to be seen,” she said as she gave a recent tour, which runs about $72 for the first 20 minutes and $29 for each additional 10 minutes.

Animal rights groups have long complained the horses can get easily spooked on city streets, leading to accidents and injuries. They also claim the horses are overworked and live in inadequate stables and their drivers flaunt city regulations, including leaving behind piles of horse manure. All animals are supposed to be fitted with manure-catching devices.

“There’s simply no way to operate horse-drawn carriages and have it be safe or humane for the horses,” said Edita Birnkrant, executive director of the animal rights group New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets. “No amount of regulation can change that. Lord knows we have tried.”

The conservancy’s call came after a carriage horse collapsed and died near its stables earlier this month, with videos and photos of the animal’s body in a city street circulating widely online.

But the organization, which was formed to revitalize the park in the 1980s, didn’t weigh in on the animal welfare concerns in its letter to the council.

Smith said the tipping point was two recent incidents of carriage horses running amok: in May, a spooked horse bolted from its handler and ran loose through the park. Days later, two more horses broke free from their drivers and crashed into a fleet of parked pedicabs, breaking a driver’s wrist and causing other injuries.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ office declined to say this week whether the proposed ban would even be heard, let alone put to a vote this session.

Zachary Nosanchuk, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams, said the Democratic administration will meet with industry representatives and advocates to discuss a “better path forward” on the “sensitive issue,” acknowledging Adams’ predecessor spent eight years unsuccessfully trying to end the industry.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, also a Democrat, vowed to shut down the industry “on day one” during his winning 2013 campaign, only to come up against years of council opposition and even the ire of actor Liam Neeson, who remains an outspoken supporter of the carriage industry.

Carriage horse owners and drivers maintain their horses enjoy a life of relative ease compared to rigorous farm life in Pennsylvania Amish country, where most are purchased.

Under city regulations, each is inspected by a veterinarian twice a year and the maximum age they can work at is 26.

They work a maximum of nine hours a day and must stop giving rides if it’s above 89 degrees (32 degrees Celsius) or above 80 F (27 C) with high humidity.

They also don’t work if the temperature plummets below 19 F (minus 7 C) or if there’s severe weather, and must get at least five weeks vacation a year outside city limits with daily access to pasture.

“My horses, I give them a nice life,” Onur Altintas, a longtime carriage owner and driver. “In Kentucky, they’re racing the horses. That’s abuse, if you are looking for abuse.”

On a visit to one of the Manhattan stables this week, ornately decorated carriages were parked on the ground level and horses were housed on the second and third floors in stalls measuring at least 8-by-10 foot (2.4-by-3 meter) and padded down with hay, although there was no outside pasture.

Lynn Buckalew, a tourist from Utah lined up for a carriage ride earlier this week, said a guided jaunt through the park was high on her to-do list. But she was taken aback when she learned about the complaints of abuse and the Aug. 5 death of a 15-year-old mare from an aortic rupture less than two months into the job.

“You know that’s sad, if that’s the case. It makes me look at it a little different,” Buckalew said as her husband hopped on the carriage and the driver called her aboard.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo