An exhausted carriage horse collapsed during Manhattan's evening rush hour on Wednesday. He lay on the asphalt while the driver beat him repeatedly and ordered him to "get up."
Video footage of the driver jerking the reins and slapping the horse as he tried to get the horse to stand on his Ninth and West 45th Streets in Hells kitchen shows the animal's knees bent. increase.
“Get up.
Onlookers were disturbed by flogging.
"What if I slap you, brother?" asked one of the participants.
"Stop slapping him," another woman was heard pleading.
"I'm trying to wake him up, all right," said the coachman as he whipped the horse twice with the reins.
The depressed horse laid down and put its head on the street.
According to video and witnesses, a group of police officers arrived, doused the horse with water, and took more than an hour to get it to stand.
NYPD mounted troops then transported the animals to an unknown location for treatment, according to police.
The incident horrified witnesses and advocates, and came after a brutal extended fever wave finally broke out on Wednesday.
"I saw the horse fall over. He was clearly malnourished, dehydrated and hungry. ," Uber Eats driver Kelvin Gonzalez, 25, told The Post. I told him It's a horse, not a machine.''
``I'm so sad, man. The horse was hungry and thirsty.You can see the horse collapsed from thirst."
Before the police could "shoot adrenaline in the buttocks," the horse "I tried to get up about 10 times, but I kept falling," Gonzalez said.
"He was confused, so he knocked the water down. He was out of it. He was thirsty, so he licked the water on the floor. [Driving] Hand] didn't care, he didn't care, he just wanted the horse back to make more money," the witness claimed.
Another witness said the horse was bleeding from its knee and tourists at the scene believed the horse was suffering from heat exhaustion. "I told them not to try to force the horses," says Cathy Garfield, 75, who grew up with horses.
{59"He took the bridle off the horse. He didn't know anything about horses," she said of the driver. "It tried to drink water, but it still had a bite in its mouth." I was able to convince the driver to take the bit off the reins.I was trying to drink water.It's hard to have a big piece of metal in your mouth," she said. Told.
Advocates said the animal did not receive veterinary care and she was unconscious on Ninth Avenue for over an hour.
"How many more incidents like this do we need? This is clearly animal cruelty and must be stopped," said the New Yorkers for Clean, Liveable, and Safe Streets executive her Director Edita Birnkrant said in a statement.
His 52-year-old Nathan Semmel, an advocate for animal rights voters, agreed with his NYCLASS opinion that city councilors should replace horse-drawn carriages with electric vehicles,Proposition is currently under consideration by the City Council.
"It's time to replace horses with modern technology," he told the Post. "The city can do better for horses and drivers. These horses have suffered for years. Seeing horses lying on the ground fighting for their lives is not romantic." Not."
Horse falls and Fight against commercial carriages in Central Park and Midtown after footage crashes into car has accelerated in recent years and months. } I got a virus.
If passed, the new bill would give horse drivers priority for electric carriage licenses and require them to pay union wages. 104} The powerful transport union did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday's The Post's horror show Hell's Kitchen.
TWU-supported Mayor Eric Adams said he does not support a vehicle ban but was open to discussing the issue.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio was an outspoken critic of the industry, but during his two terms in office his multiple attempts to ban draft horses were made citywide. Attempts were stopped by political opponents interested in protecting the industry
. 200 jobs.His predecessor, Mike Bloomberg, was a shameless fan of tourist-friendly businesses, fending off neighbors who claimed the industry was abusive.
Proponents of the Handsome Cab claim that the horses are healthy and well-groomed.
"New York City can and should lead. The world is watching," Billkrant said.