A carriage horse has been euthanized after a video showed it collapsing in New York City's Central Park over the weekend. The incident has caused a furore on social media, with calls to ban horse-drawn carriages - which are a popular tourist attraction - in the city.
The footage, which was shared by the animal advocacy NYCLASS and distributed by CBS News, shows a horse named Aisha unable to stand on its own after collapsing on Saturday afternoon. Handlers can be seen trying to lift the horse, but are unable to as its hind legs appear to be too weak. At one point, an unidentified man is seen blowing tobacco smoke into the horse's face, as it is eventually placed into a vehicle to be transported away.
Watch the disturbing footage below:New York's mayor, Bill de Blasio has denounced the incident as "painful". Per CBS News, he said: "We've made real progress in animal welfare but we must go further," de Blasio tweeted Sunday. "The NYPD's Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad is on the case and WILL get answers."
The mayor previously made a campaign pledge to ban horse carriages during his first mayoral race.
Executive director of NYCLASS, Edita Birnkrant, has since stated that there was an underlying medical issue with the horse, branding its treatment as "abuse".
Citizens of New York protested the death of the carriage horse outside the Clinton Park Stable Association yesterday.
However, Christina Hansen, a spokesperson for the NYC carriage industry, released a statement to CBS News claiming that the 12-year-old mare was healthy and most probably suffered from "cardiac arrest". "Animal rights extremists are already exploiting this tragedy to further their anti-horse agenda during our time of grief and shock," she said. "This medical emergency appears to be something that could happen to any horse, any time, anywhere, for any number of reasons, under a wide variety of conditions."
