In New York, the debate over the ban on tourist cars revives. On Wednesday, August 10, in a temperature of 30 degrees, a 14-year-old horse named Ryder collapsed on the streets of the American megalopolis. The scene, filmed and widely disseminated on social networks, shocked many Americans and Internet users.
It all begins when the horse, tied to a carriage, collapses on the road in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. The driver of the vehicle gets out and tries to straighten the animal. He shakes the reins hard and yells “Get up! Get up!”. But due to the inconvenience of Ryder, who cannot recover, the driver is forced to leave him on the road.
Ice cubes and a splash of water to cool you down
The NYPD is contacted. Arrived at the scene, the police began to water the horse with the help of a hose, and also gave him ice, thinking that his discomfort was due to the scorching temperatures. A large crowd gathers around the place, and some neighbors do not hide their amazement at the presence of this animal in the middle of a city as noisy and hectic as New York.
Almost an hour after his fall, Ryder finally got up, to applause from the spectators. He will eventually be moved to a private stable and examined by a veterinarian. He announced that the animal likely suffered from equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, a neurological infection that can cause animals to lose their balance.
“It wasn’t the heat, it wasn’t fatigue, it wasn’t work overload,” he defended in the columns of Underground Pete Donohue, spokesman for the union representing New York horse-drawn carriage carriers.
“Horses have no place in big cities”
For him, by becoming a horse carriage in New York, Ryder would have agreed to even better living conditions. He used to work on an Amish farm, where he was required to walk 50 km a day.
“If I wasn’t in the carriage business, I might be dead by now,” said Pete Donohue.
Explanations that have not convinced supporters of a ban on this tourist practice on the streets of New York, already scalded by several similar incidents. On NBC New York, Edita Birnkrant, deputy director of NYCLASS, an organization that campaigns for an end to horse-drawn carriages, said, “We’re asking the City Council, the mayor, to ban this disgusting animal abuse.”
PETA, an animal rights organization, for its part estimated on Twitter that “horses have no place in big cities where they are constantly in danger from cars, men or even the weather.”
Source: BFM TV
