Push to Ban New York Carriage Horses Gains Steam

EMILY B. HAGER The New York Times 12/07/2011 15:00

A ride through Central Park in a horse-drawn carriage is one of New York City’s most storied attractions, the rhythmic clip-clop offering a respite from the hustle of everyday life. But now this old-fashioned industry is facing unprecedented turmoil. After campaigning for decades, animal rights advocates are gaining support for legislation that would ban the hansom cabs, including endorsements from mayoral candidates and celebrities.

The carriage owners say they are being harassed, but they also acknowledge carrying out a campaign to infiltrate the activist groups and secretly record their strategy sessions.

Both the animal rights advocates and the carriage owners say they have been subjected to threats of violence by the other side.

The struggle is so tense that when an accident last summer left a carriage driver in a coma, the hospital where he was recovering was not immediately disclosed, out of concern that activists would stage protests there.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has become ensnared in the debate over the carriages. The group’s chief equine veterinarian, Dr. Pamela Corey, said her supervisors pushed her to slant her conclusions about the death of a carriage horse, to generate sympathy for a ban.

Besides the animal rights campaigners, the industry is facing a classic New York peril: rising real estate values. Developers covet the stables on the Far West Side where the horses have long been kept.

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