Poll: 71% of New Yorkers want horse carriages banned following Ryder’s collapse

THE NEW YORK POST (09.01.22) reports:

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It’s time to put New York City’s horse carriage industry out to pasture, a new poll finds.

The survey, released Thursday and conducted for animal rights groups, finds that 71% of Big Apple voters support a ban on horse carriages after a shocking video showed Ryder, an ailing horse, being whipped by its driver after the creature’s horrifying collapse on a busy Manhattan Street on Aug. 10.

The incident is being reviewed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

The online poll of 501 city voters, conducted by John Zogby Strategies for Voters for Animal Rights and the Animal Legal Defense Fund, asked:

“In the past decade, there have been calls by some of the city’s elected leaders to ban horse and carriage rides because of numerous charges of abuse of the horses. Would you support or oppose such a ban?”

A total of 71.3% of voters said they supported a city law to ban horse carriages (43.7% strongly support, 27.6% somewhat support), while only 13.7% of respondents were opposed to such legislation and 15% were undecided.

Queens Councilman Robert Holden introduced legislation in July that would end the licensing of the horse-drawn carriage industry in the city and replace it with electric carriage options. About a dozen other council members have signed onto the bill.

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NYers Take Action

Okay New Yorkers — who have waited and fought so hard to free carriage horses from this unrelentingly cruel business — the moment you have long waited for has arrived.

Please contact your City Council Members at your earliest opportunity, and tell them you support the bill banning the horse drawn carriage business now pending before them ask them to do all they can ti make sure it becomes law.

We wish they would call it The Ryder Law.

About Ryder

A carriage horse named Ryder fell to his knees in rush-hour traffic around 5 p.m. Aug. 10 on Ninth Avenue near the intersection of West 45th Street, and was flogged by his driver to get back up.

“An initial diagnosis determined that the horse was 28 to 30 years old rather than the aforementioned 13 years old, that he was malnourished, underweight and suffers from the equine neurological disorder EPM (Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis),” according to an NYPD report.

Thank you for taking action New Yorkers!

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Tuesday’s Horse

Official Blog of The Fund for Horses