Mayor Mamdani reiterated his support for a ban on carriage horses in Central Park Wednesday, just hours after a horse collapsed and died in the park at W. 72nd St. and West Drive Tuesday evening — and as a bill on the controversial issue heads back to the City Council.
“I know that many New Yorkers were disturbed by what they saw yesterday, and I’m one of them,” Mamdani said at an unrelated press conference Wednesday morning.
“I support removing horse carriages from Central Park,” he said. “I’ve also said that I look forward to working with union partners and community leaders to actually deliver on that.”
Today in Chicago History: City Council bans horse-drawn carriages
The mayor added he wants to “figure out a way” to ban the horse-drawn carriages — but didn’t offer specifics.
Mamdani also supported banning carriage horses from Central Park when he was running as a candidate for mayor.
The comments came after a horse named Deniz collapsed while pulling carriage driven by his owner, Nurettin Kirbiyik, 52, on the park’s west side Tuesday night.
Kirbiyik told the Daily News he’d been driving the carriage horse through the park when it suddenly began shaking and collapsed.
“I just don’t understand. It just fell down,” he said. “In 20 years, I’ve never seen anything like this, a good-looking horse, a beautiful, lovely horse just died in two seconds.”
“Believe it or not, I feel like I lost somebody from my family,” Kirbiyik added.
A coalition of animal rights activists have long called for carriage horses to be banned from Central Park, arguing that using the animals to pull people around the park is inhumane.
The Transport Workers Union, which represents some 200 drivers, maintains that the horses are well cared for.
TWU boss John Samuelsen has previously told The News that he believes efforts to phase out the industry are meant to “monetize the cessation of the Central Park horse carriages, through real estate development and the procurement of electric touring vehicles.”
The back-and-forth has sparked legal threats from the union, and several pitched battles over “Ryder’s Law” — proposed City Council legislation to wind down the carriage horse industry, named for a carriage horse who collapsed in Midtown Manhattan in 2022.
Support for the proposed law grew last year, with the Central Park Conservancy and the administration of then-mayor Eric Adams joining calls to ban carriage horses from the park.
But Ryder’s Law died in committee last year, after only one member of the Health Committee, Brooklyn Councilman Simcha Felder, voted in favor of advancing it to the full Council. Four committee members voted against it and two abstained. Two others — including now-Council Speaker Julie Menin — didn’t show up for the vote.
Council Member Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan) announced earlier this week that he would be moving to reintroduce Ryder’s Law at Thursday’s Council meeting.
Alexander Kemp, administrative vice president of TWU Local 100, responded to Marte’s effort Wednesday.
“We strongly disagree with Councilman Marte’s premise that carriage horses are mistreated and need to be banned and evicted from their homes,” Kemp said in a statement. “It’s also telling that he has not spoken in any real detail about providing economic support or a just transition for more than 150 carriage drivers and owners that Ryder’s Law would financially ruin, nor a realistic plan for caring for almost 200 horses for the rest of their lives.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Council Speaker Menin said, “The death of a carriage horse in Central Park is always troubling, and we understand this is a difficult and emotional issue for many New Yorkers. Multiple bills will be introduced this week and will go through the legislative process to allow for input from all stakeholders.”
