UPDATE: Tuesday, June 16 at 3:30 p.m.: Deniz, the 16-year-old carriage horse that collapsed and died in Central Park last week, did so after ingesting a toxic shrub within the park called Japanese yew, according to a necropsy report conducted by Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and shared by TWU Local 100, the union that represents carriage horse drivers.
The horse ate the Japanese yew on East Drive within the park near East 90th Street, before collapsing hours later near the West 72nd Street entrance to the park, according to the union.
The autopsy found “abundant plant needles” in the horses stomach, mouth, and digestive track.
“Deniz’s tragic death was not caused by neglect or abuse or the fact he was a carriage horse — as some animal rights activists and elected officials claimed,” Alexander Kemp, TWU’s administrative vice president, said in a statement pushing back on the calls to ban carriage horses from the city after the incident took place.
TWU also criticized the Central Park Conservancy for not giving more warning about the specific shrub.
The Central Park Conservancy still pointed its finger at the union.
“TWU has now demonstrated how their own negligence has resulted in this unfortunate incident, since NYC Parks rules plainly forbid horses from eating vegetation anywhere across our 843 acres,” a spokesperson for the Conservancy wrote in a news release, which also mentioned that Japanese yew is a common planting in parks across the country.
By West Side Rag
A carriage horse collapsed and died while giving a ride in Central Park on Tuesday evening.
Deniz, the 16-year-old horse, collapsed around 7:30 p.m. within the park near West 72nd Street and Central Park West, according to police and multiple reports.
After a few minutes of lying on the ground following the collapse, the horse stopped breathing, an eyewitness told West Side Rag.
Deniz had worked in the city for 10 years and had been given a clean bill of health during his most recent examination in March, the New York Times reported.
“I really feel like I lost someone in the family,” carriage driver Nurettin Kirbiyik told CBS News.
TWU Local 100, which represents carriage horse drivers, said the incident was a “sudden, catastrophic medical emergency.” No official cause of death has been provided.
A witness to the incident, Danielle Leeann Chin, said to CBS – “I’m shaking now just talking about it. This is the second time that I’ve seen a horse carriage incident in 10 months.”
Deniz’s death came the same week that New York City Councilmember Christopher Marte announced that he would reintroduce a bill on Thursday to ban horse carriage rides. The bill, called Ryder’s Law, which is named after a horse that died in Manhattan in 2022, did not pass the City Council’s Committee on Health in November 2025. Mayor Zohran Mamdani reiterated on Wednesday that he supports the passage of the bill.
“The Central Park Conservancy has long believed that horse carriages pose a public safety risk in the increasingly crowded Park,” a spokesperson for the conservancy wrote in an email to West Side Rag. “In the past year, New Yorkers have witnessed at least seven separate incidents in which horses became spooked and either broke free—posing danger to passengers, park-goers, and others—or caused injury to their drivers, or, now, collapsed and died on Central Park’s Drives.”
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A tragic loss whatever you may think about carriage horse rides. RIP Deniz.
Time to stop the animal cruelty for a few meager horse drivers who could easily find another job that doesn’t include torturing animals. NYC residents are sick and tired of witnessing this animal abuse in our park and on our streets, that also poses safety issues to people and vehicles that we’ve seen for years. Time for City Council to act!!
Isn’t it enough? Just shows you how much political (and monetary) influence unions have over the politicians in this City. Very sad.
Enough is enough already.
That poor horse. Can we please just stop this?
Didn’t Bloomberg talk about this ending? And didn’t everyone push back and say that all he cared about was real estate?
Real bottom line: The horses don’t deserve this.
If memory serves, De Blasio ran on this issue. This has been dragged out for decades for what? so a few tourists can get a photo op?
I agree with the others who said enough is enough. This should have been discontinued long ago.
I unexpectedly saw a live video of this incident posted on the Citizens App while it was happening. The poor animal shouldn’t have had to suffer like that, just horrific!!!
This has been a problem for a long time! I don’t understand why anyone is allowed to force a horse to carry a carriage full of people around a hot park on hot concrete. Horses are incredible animals that absolutely deserve better treatment. I am so disappointed in NYC for allowing animal abuse to continue like this year after year.
The new legislation should be referred to as the Deniz Bill or Deniz’s Law. Rest easy Deniz. 🙏
He died doing what he loved. He was a working horse bred for that job. You ever watch a retriever chase a ball?
This is a sickening comment. Humans are evolutionarily built for endurance running. Would you like to be chained to a treadmill and made to run until you collapse?
Re: “He died doing what he loved.” What a sickening response to this animal’s suffering! And that two more people gave it a thumbs up!
Limit the hrs that horses can work daily or 1 day on 1 day off …..even farm horse’s only plow daily for maybe 4 weeks out of the year….other times they do light duty wagon work
No. Carriage horses have to go. Farm animals may have a purpose. A horse pulling a 2000lb carriage with tourists around Central Park serves NO purpose.
This is a heartbreaking incident, and my thoughts are with anyone affected.
That said, the statement that “The Central Park Conservancy has long believed that horse carriages pose a public safety risk in the increasingly crowded Park” feels overstated without context. Central Park faces a variety of public safety challenges, and in my own experience, I have witnessed far more dangerous interactions involving cyclists ignoring traffic signals, pedestrians, and other park users than I have involving horse carriages.
Reasonable people can disagree about the future of carriage rides in the park, but any discussion of public safety should be grounded in actual comparative risk rather than assumptions. If public safety is the concern, then all significant sources of risk in the park deserve the same level of scrutiny.
The issue is animal cruelty, not the “variety of public safety challenges” in Central Park.
I’m pretty sure the risk to the horses is far greater than the risk to other park users, especially on these very hot days. As a step towards eliminating them completely , perhaps the city could restrict carriage rides to days when the temperature is between 50˚ and 75˚, or whatever temperatures are most safe and comfortable for the horses.
85 or whatever is not hot for a healthy horse….Horses survive in extreme temperatures and conditions NY’s uneducated cannot fathom
Oh hot blacktop, which magnifies the heat? Not buying it.
I voted for de Blasio solely because he promised to get the horses out of the park. You see were that campaign promise went.
Me too! Mamdani needs to get this done already. No New Yorkers want this. Only the tourists. They can walk around Central Park, it’s not that hard, people.
Those are not farm work horses. They’re exhibition parade horses. They’re not meant to be carrying the typical American passengers with their overweight bodies.
The weight of these carriages is inconsequential for a healthy horse. The heat is not extreme. Other factors are at play here.
Would they allow dog fighting at Madison Square Garden. Forcing horses to pull carriages through busy crowded noisy Central Park is as cruel as it is gross. (even worse–and more depressing–when you see it in person) Demand NYC politicians ban horse carriages!
Comparing dog fighting to horses pulling a carriage is the proverbial apples to oranges. Outside of both being fruits, there is little else. A horse pulling a carriage has been a recognized form of transportation for millennia throughout the world. Dog fights are literally conducted to harm and even kill the other animal. One can be against the carriage rides, but one must use a legitimate argument.
End horse rides in the park. It’s galling how many offensive practices are defended with statements like, “What about the workers whose livelihood this is?” or “It’s a NYC tradition.”
P.S. Enjoy having manure where thousands run, walk, and bicycle?
It was an autumn day in 1958, age 4 when, across from Tavern on the Green at the foot of the 67th St. lower playground I witnessed a horse throwing its rider and galloping fervently uptown on the then active bridle path.. The youthful man, perhaps in his mid-30’s, lay motionless and unconscious while bystanders called an ambulance on a nearby police phone which transported him to Roosevelt Hospitall on 57th – (now Mt. Sinai). The group of CP Moms present were never to learn of his condition. 69 years hence, may he RIP.. Tragedies like this leave a lasting imprint. Yes, horses do not beliong in Central Park.
I have had two cats die suddenly of aneurysms. Should I not be allowed to own cats? A dear friend died of an aneurysm. Is his wife to blame? This is ludicrous. Those of us who love horses need to be fighting the race horse industry – talk about a horror! But nobody does. They go after these little guys who love their horses and take good care of them. Easy targets.
Anyone who truly cares about horses should support the carriage horse industry. Pulling carriages in Central Park is a second career for many, and perhaps most, of these horses. Without that, they’d all go to an early grave.
Not true…once again, there are family farms and horse sanctuaries all over the country. 🙄
One by one cities around the world are banning horse drawn carriages. It is a question of very important animal welfare and the only kind option available.
NYC is supposedly a sophisticated city yet this barbaric practice goes on and on—poor horse gasping for breath with a bit in its mouth entangled in the harness—at least it won’t have to be bumped by cars and bake in the sun while breathing exhaust anymore—when I think of how horses were meant to live and what humans have done to them—they are truly animal slaves—we need a real awakening on the misery we have rained down on animals of all types on factory farms, racetracks etc
Philly just banned them—there are cutesy horseless carriages that can take care of tourists
How can a City, who prides itself on fighting for human rights and claims to protect the abused, continue to allow blatant inhumane treatment of these carriage horses. This debate has been going on for years and horses keep dying. Horses don’t belong on city streets. Period!!
What city agency is so hellbent on continuing horse drawn carriages? Abusing animals is against the law. Who, in this city, is so powerful, that these barbaric joy rides continue with these beautiful creatures paying the price year after year. I don’t know how, whoever is championing this abuse, can sleep at night.
Time to work the phones & write to the city council. Post on social media. Act up, already! The Mayor is behind getting rid of this shameful & cruel business practice. Let’s go!
Is there any doubt horses don’t belong in NYC? Countless horses have suffered and died in the cruel carriage trade. They haul heavy loads in sweltering or frigid conditions and when not working they are stored like equipment in multi-story warehouses. No sun, no grass, no pasture. No one with a conscience will support this egregious cruelty.
Horses are simply not necessary as a form of transportation. They are a relic from the past. Soon that will be the case with taxi drivers.
I’m disturbed by the tone of most of these comments. When I look into the subject, it’s a lot more complex. I offer this link as an opposing viewpoint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnNgAKQEN7U
How long will this cruelty continue ? All the politicians spouting the same promises to actually care, yr after yr.
That is an appropriate age for a horse, seems to me, to die of a heart attack, it is no big deal and no cause for outlawing them.
Yes, it was a middle age horse, and it’s tragic all life does end at some point.
“I really feel like I lost someone in the family,” carriage driver Nurettin Kirbiyik.
Let us have the compassion to not strap any of our family members to a carriage and haul 4 tourists and the proprietor up the ramp at W72nd or any other hill anywhere.
I would never subject my horses to wear all that gear in hot weather much less any weather especially in a city environment with a bunch of craziness for human entertainment. I see that as being very cruel and inhumane to force a horse to do that.😭RIP Deniz😇🫶🙏
When is the exploitation of these poor creatures going to stop. It’s a shame that tourists and their handlers abuse the horses on hot days. How about setting up carriages so that tourists can pull them and experience the stress the horses go through. Carriages should be banned from May until October and a street path without cars should be set up so that horses can travel to and from stables and the park. Another alternative would be to set up horse rides on the Bridle Path during the summer.