A 16-year-old horse-drawn carriage horse named Deniz collapsed and died inside Central Park near West 72nd Street on Tuesday evening, the NYPD confirmed, in a sudden death that has reignited a long-running fight over the future of the carriage industry in New York City.
Police received a 911 call reporting a dead horse around 7:30 p.m., with the animal found in the vicinity of Central Park West and 72nd Street. The carriage was carrying two passengers at the time. The driver told officers the horse suffered a medical episode, and bystanders described a distressing scene as the horse went down on the roadway and stopped breathing within moments.
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A runner who witnessed the collapse said she saw the horse struggling to breathe on the ground before it stopped breathing entirely, according to ABC7 New York.Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents the city’s carriage drivers and owners, said Deniz was beloved by his caretakers and had been evaluated by an NYPD Mounted Unit veterinarian in March and found fit to work. The union said they were “heartbroken and in shock” in a statement and noted that sudden, catastrophic health events can occur in horses. A full necropsy will be performed by Cornell University to determine the exact cause of death, PIX11 reported.
The death has quickly become a political flashpoint. Animal rights advocates renewed their push for Ryder’s Law, a measure that would ban horse-drawn carriages and replace them with electric ones. A version of the bill was introduced after a horse collapsed and later died in 2022, but it was defeated by the City Council.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has previously said he supports phasing out the carriages but has acknowledged his authority to act on his own is limited.
Horse-drawn carriages have been a fixture of Central Park for generations, but the treatment of the animals has drawn intensifying scrutiny over the years. The investigation into Deniz’s death is ongoing.
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