Hours after Deniz, a beautiful brown and white horse, fell to his death in Central Park on June 9, activists stormed.
Edita Birnkrant, executive director of the anti-car group NYCLASS, posted a video of Deniz in her final moments, lying in the car of the car.
“They are abusers,” said a male narrator.
“He doesn’t care,” said an onlooker about the truck driver.
The video ends with a loud political headline: “Pass Ryder’s Law Before Another Horse Is Killed.”
That’s a City Council bill, long pushed by NYCLASS, that would ban ride-hailing in New York City — and force many migrant workers out of work.
Birnkrant, along with activist groups like PETA and City Council members Christopher Marte, Frank Morano and others, quickly used Deniz’s sudden death to push a narrative that portrays truck drivers as cold-hearted animal abusers.
Their rush-to-judgment propaganda sparked a barrage of hate directed at New York’s truck drivers, 95% of whom came to the US from countries around the world: Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, Tajikistan, Italy, Ireland, Poland and many others.
“Kill that immigrant,” read one vitriolic post.
“Who owns this horse and cart business? Gypsies? Immigrants?” another went.
In the park, the charioteers are cursed and in danger.
One activist spat at a group of carriage-riding tourists from India, scattering one of them.
Even elected officials who voted against Ryder’s Law last year were targeted.
Manhattan Councilwoman, Carmen De La Rosa, received a series of terrifying messages: “I hope you suffocate and die slowly”; So either pass a ban or ask God to burn down their houses.
Dr. Gabriel Cook, a respected veterinarian who cares for many horses, insisted on sending Deniz’s body to Cornell University for a necropsy by its pathologists.
That’s standard in our industry — maintaining a high standard of care requires studying the cause of sudden and unexplained death to avoid putting animals at risk.
And we learned more: The Central Park Conservancy planted poisonous plants along the park’s perimeter drives.
A gross necropsy found a large amount of what appeared to be Japanese yew branches in Deniz’s mouth and stomach.
Yews, and Japanese yews in particular, are “highly toxic to horses” – and the amount found was “interpreted to be dangerous,” according to the pathologist’s report.
So Deniz did not die because of mistreatment.
He was not abused.
He was not overworked.
He was not “killed” as NYCLASS and others claim or forcefully claim.
He poked the plant while his driver stopped to let the passengers take pictures.
Others, including the Conservancy, want to blame the driver, arguing that horses are not allowed to eat the park’s vegetation.
That’s a sensible rule, but it’s in place to prevent damage to foliage – not to protect lives.
The Conservancy didn’t warn wagon drivers about these highly toxic plants that could kill a horse — or a dog or a child, too.
That is administrative negligence that reaches to the top of the Conservancy.
Central Park is specially designed for carriage horses.
When Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux designed it in the 1880s, they meant it to be enjoyed in part by taking a leisurely carriage ride through the landscape.
The horses have been there since day one.
Today, NYPD mounted police horses, Parks Department horses and recreational horses also use the drives.
It’s time to ditch the hateful propaganda, and turn away from the advocates for their political opinions that are not supported by science or medical analysis.
It doesn’t hurt the 1,600-pound horses — bred for centuries to work hard — if they give a few carriage rides a day in Central Park.
Instead of banning this important piece of New York City history, council members and the public should instead support Intro 937, the horse welfare and job protection legislation introduced last week by Councilman Jim Gennaro.
The bill would implement commonsense reforms — such as installing poles to protect horses from straying, stricter vetting of cart applicants, improving the city’s temperature-check system so cart service can be stopped quickly on hot days, and more.
As in any industry, accidents happen – like on Wednesday, when a passenger in a trailer was seriously injured.
But security changes like those in Intro 937 can address such incidents and help prevent them from happening again.
We, as a city, can work together to improve the welfare of our horses, while protecting the jobs that sustain immigrant families who came here to pursue their American dream.
John Samuelsen is the president of the Transport Workers Union of America.
