Animal activists were outraged by a clip that went viral of a New York City carriage horse collapsing on the street in the city.
The union that represents these tourist attractions said that the horse on the video was been retired to a private farm upstate.
It was also reported by WNBC, the local NBC affiliate, that Transport Workers Union said the horse, named Ryder, has been transferred over to new owners who are caring for him. He is being treated for a neurological parasite called Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM) — an infection caused by possum droppings.
“The neurological effects of the EPM caused the horse to stumble and fall as the carriage driver is trying to change lanes and turn here on 45th street on the way home,” Christina Hansen, a spokesperson for the carriage drivers’ union, told WNBC. “And once he was down, he had difficulty getting up again from the neurological symptoms of EPM.”
Ryder is taking a course of antibiotics as the new owner is planning additional care.
The vet taking care of Ryder estimates that the horse is about 26 years old, this is counter to a report that said it was 13 to 14 years old. At that age, the horse is too old to be licensed as a carriage horse in New York City.
The video of the horse collapsing went viral, so a massive amount of people heard the driver of the carrying shouting, “Get up! Get up! Get up! C’mon, get up” and seemingly whipping the animal.
This created outrage and there were cries to ban the popular tourist attraction.
Voters For Animal Rights called the incident “horrifying,” while People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals tweeted, “Horses don’t belong in big cities where they’re put in constant danger because of cars, humans, weather, and more.”
Hansen confessed to a local station that Ryder was in “rough shape” when he came into their program after being used as a buggy horse for a Pennsylvania farmer. He had been a carriage horse for four months.
There are 130 active, licensed carriage horses in New York City.
