NYCLASS STATEMENT ON CITY MOVING CARRIAGE HORSE HACK LINE TO CENTRAL PARK

 “For years we have made the case that Central Park is a safer place for New York’s 200-plus carriage horses to work. By moving the hack line by just 100 feet, the City is making life noticeably better for its working horses, and ensuring the entire industry is more humane. Forcing horses out among traffic - on hot pavement - with cars and buses speeding by never made sense, and there’s no reason the most progressive city in the world should tolerate it for a single day longer. Moving the hack line will also help ease congestion along Central Park South and surrounding streets, as well as making it safer for pedestrians, bikers, and horses who are too often placed in danger due to oncoming traffic. Cities nationally and internationally are rethinking how they handle the carriage industry. That will continue in the coming years until this is a safer, more humane industry. Today is a major step towards that goal.”

“And so we are grateful that Mayor de Blasio and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have taken the appropriate steps to start moving all carriage horse rides into the park. There is more work to be done, like ending slaughter after retirement, creating a mandatory retirement closer to that of the NYPD mounted unit, and factoring the heat index on hot days instead of relying on pure temperature. But today represents real progress, and we thank the Mayor and everyone who played a role.”

-Steve Nislick, Wendy Neu, Edita Birnkrant, and the NYCLASS team.