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Distressing video footage of a carriage horse repeatedly collapsing on the street and being dragged into a trailer triggered a massive vigil at the site of the tragic incident and a protest at the midtown stable where she later died. The horse, Aisha, was 12 years old and had been pulling a carriage in New York City for one year when she died on February 26th.

At the request of NYCLASS, an animal rights group that advocates on behalf the horses, the NYPD Animal Cruelty Squad launched an investigation into Aisha’s death.

“To the carriage operators, these horses are commodities,” said Edita Birnkrant, the Executive Director of NYCLASS. “By forcing Aisha into the trailer in order to get her out of public view, the drivers prioritized optics ahead of the welfare of the horse, who should have been kept where she was until a veterinarian arrived to examine her. The carriage operators did not follow the protocol on moving a downed horse. The trauma they caused by treating her with such brutality may have contributed to her death.”

Aisha, a horse who pulled carriages in NYC, repeatedly collapsed and was loaded into a trailer. She was euthanized at a midtown stable later that day.

Footage of Aisha collapsing and a carriage driver blowing smoke into her face to force her into the trailer went viral on social media. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has been widely criticized over his failure to fulfill his campaign promise to ban horse-drawn carriages, said that he was “disgusted” by the City’s horse-drawn carriage trade.

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson called for an investigation:

Aisha’s death is the third carriage horse fatality on record in 2020. According to the New York City Department of Health (DOH), the other two horses died of colic.

In addition to the horses who died, one horse collapsed on the street after being electrocuted and crashing into a pole, and another horse was emaciated was documented on several occasions pulling a carriage. In spite of NYCLASS’ pleas, the DOH allowed the horse to continue working.

NYCLASS documented an emaciated horse being forced to pull a carriage in New York City

During the vigil for Aishi, NYC-based musicians Kiirstin Marilyn and Kirk Miller performed Sia’s I’m in Here as dozens of animal rights activists placed flowers on the ground where she collapsed.

The animal rights community in New York has been advocating for a ban on New York’s horse-drawn carriage trade since 2006, when a horse named Spotty spooked on Ninth Ave and crashed into a car, killing the horse and sending the carriage driver to the hospital with serious injuries.

Spotty died after spooking and crashing into a car, sending 3 people to the hospital.

In 2012, Bill de Blasio pledged to quickly ban the industry if he was elected Mayor, but his failure to act quickly after his victory gave the carriage operators, media, the Teamsters Union and actor Liam Neeson, an industry spokesperson, several months to build public support for the industry. NYCLASS, however, isn’t giving up. After the series of tragic incidents in 2020, the organization renewed its demand for horse-drawn carriages to be banned in New York City.

“This industry is out of control and must be shut down,” said Birnkrant. “We have been documenting the carriage operators breaking the law for months — from picking up passengers in Times Square to overloading the carriages.”

As carriage horses pounded the pavement in NYC’s sweltering heat, over 50 animal rights activists staged a protest at the Department of Health (DOH) to demand that the city enforce what few laws exist to protect the beasts of burden.

NYCLASS and PETA targeted the DOH, which is responsible for protecting the horses on the streets and in the buildings where they are kept at night, because the city agency has refused to take action following several incidents in which carriage horses collided with motor vehicles; ran untethered through the streets midtown Manhattan; or were photographed living in squalid conditions.

Animal rights activists with NYCLASS and PETA demand that the NYC Department of Health enforce laws to protect carriage horses

While running for Mayor of NYC in 2013, Bill de Blasio publicly pledged on at least a dozen occasions to “end carriage rides” in midtown Manhattan. “Watch me do it!” he said. Advocates speculate that he has walked away from his promise because betraying the animal rights community, which was instrumental in getting him elected, is more politically expedient than angering the media and unions, which staunchly support the horse-drawn carriage trade.

Join the fight to ban inhumane and unsafe horse-drawn carriages from NYC.

To learn more about NYC’s epic horse-drawn carriage controversy, watch the documentary film BLINDERS: The Truth Behind The Tradition.

Just days after an untethered carriage horse ran wildly through the streets of midtown Manhattan and a whistleblower released a photo to the media of another horse living in squalor, animal rights activists held a press conference at one of the stables demanding an investigation from city officials and justice for the horses.

In reaction to the photo (below), which was taken surreptitiously by a city employee, NYCLASS Campaigns Director Jill Carnegie told reporters, “If horses are living in their own excrement, then the Department of Health, which is supposed to regulate this industry, is asleep at the wheel.”  Edita Birnkrant, NYCLASS’ Executive Director, added, “The stall in this photograph is so small that the horse doesn’t have enough space to spread out or turn around. What’s worse is that these horses, who are herd animals, can’t graze, roam freely or interact with other horses because NYC has no pasture.”

A city employee employee took this photo of a horse living in squalor at the West Side Livery, a carriage horse stable in Manhattan

Since 2007, animal rights activists in NYC have been campaigning to ban horse-drawn carriages from NYC, arguing that nervous prey animals who have a tendency to spook should not be forced to pull carriages in the congested streets of midtown Manhattan.

Animal rights activists argue that animals who spook and bolt should not be working in city streets.

This 2006 accident in which a spooked horse named Spotty died after bolting and crashing sparked the movement to ban horse-drawn carriages from Manhattan (photo: Catherine Nance)

In 2013, NYC Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio ran for office on a campaign promise to ban horse-drawn carriages if elected. To the dismay of the activists who helped him get elected, his “Watch me do it!” pledge has since been replaced with, “Take it up with the City Council.”

Please join NYCLASS in it effort to compel the Mayor and City Council to take horse-drawn carriages off the streets of NYC.

In response to a lawsuit filed by the horse-drawn carriage industry to silence the opposition in NYC, animal rights activists staged a protest wearing symbolic tape over their mouths to demonstrate that, even if silenced, they can convince tourists to abstain from taking “cruel and dangerous” horse-drawn carriage rides in midtown Manhattan.

Animal rights activists in NYC stage a symbolic silent protest after being sued by the horse-drawn carriage industry

NYC’s horse-drawn carriage industry and animal rights activists in legal battle over protests

Please join NYCLASS in it effort to compel the Mayor and City Council to take horse-drawn carriages off the streets of NYC.