On 9th June 2026, a horse forced to pull a carriage collapsed and died in Central Park, alarming parkgoers and adding fresh urgency to calls for New York City’s horse-drawn carriages to be phased out. The animal reportedly struggled near Strawberry Fields around 7.30 p.m. before dying about 10 minutes later, according to Edita Birnkrant, executive director of New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets (NYCLASS).
Witnesses said the horse was thrashing on the ground with its tongue hanging out, while video from the scene showed the brown-and-white animal lying on the pavement as a man believed to be its handler stood nearby making a phone call. Concerned parkgoers gathered around and hugged each other after seeing the incident, which Birnkrant described as something people would never forget.
The incident comes only weeks after another carriage horse event in the park left a coachman injured, and it landed less than 24 hours before animal advocates and council members were due to gather at City Hall in support of Ryder’s Law. The bill, which would phase out the city’s horse carriages, was reintroduced to the City Council a few days later.
Edita Birnkrant, executive director of New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets, said, “Every few months there’s a horrific incident … We can’t have this happening in the park, whether it’s horses dropping dead or being worked while sick or injured, or running wild.”
Birnkrant also said the situation showed how urgently the practice should end, arguing that horses can collapse or spook at any moment and should not be manoeuvring through busy Manhattan traffic and an increasingly congested park. Ryder’s Law is named after a horse that collapsed while working on a hot August day in 2022 and died months later. The City Council’s health panel previously refused to advance the measure out of committee in November.
