The sudden death of a carriage horse on a Midtown street is no reason to ban hansom cabs, Mayor Bloomberg said today.

Days after a carriage horse collapsed and died in Midtown, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Wednesday dismissed calls for a ban on the carriage industry, saying he could not imagine why “anybody wants to destroy something that is part of New York’s heritage and that tourists love.”

As we await the necropsy results of a carriage horse who mysteriously dropped dead in Midtown on Sunday morning, Mayor Bloomberg has a message for those opposed to the city's horse carriage industry: it's better than being glue.

Early Sunday morning, on his way to Central Park to begin a day of carting tourists around, the white carriage horse keeled over and died in the street, according to the New York Daily News. Unsurprisingly, the horse's death, which took place at West 54th Street near Eighth Avenue, has incensed animal rights activist groups, including the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages.

Congratulations, tourists.

A carriage horse keeled over and died in midtown Sunday morning - and animal rights activists have saddled up for another fight against the buggy business.

This carriage horse collapsed and died suddenly on West 54th Street yesterday, after a life of dragging tourists on cheesily romantic rides through Central Park.

NYCLASS is is a not-for-profit organization on a mission to replace the Big Apple's venerable (though some say inhumane) carriage-horse industry with clean, electric-drive "show cars".

Your romantic ride through Central Park on a horse-drawn carriage could soon be replaced with a romantic drive.

In the right weather and with the right person, riding in a horse-drawn carriage around Central Park can be romantic... if a little corny.