The New York City Council passed a bill on Wednesday that would prohibit horses from working on days that are too hot and humid.
The city’s century-old tradition of horse carriage tours has been scrutinized over the years by animal rights activists. Three decades ago, horses were prohibited from working in 90-degree weather. Under the new bill, the equine heat index would be used to determine whether horses can work.
If the index reaches 150—which is the sum of the temperature and relative humidity—horses cannot work, as long as the air temperature is 80 degrees or higher. This means that horses cannot work, at a minimum, in 80-degree weather with 70 percent humidity.
“It’s gonna hurt big-time,” horse-carriage driver Atakan Aktay told NTD News. “We will not be able to provide for our horses—we have expenses.”
New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets (NYCLASS) pushed for the bill and accuses horse-carriage drivers of working their horses during city-wide heat advisories.
“This happens over and over again, every summer,” said NYCLASS Executive Director Edita Birnkrant. “We are not going to allow horses to have to plow several hundred pounds in our most brutal heatwaves, when our own city agencies are warning people to stay indoors, to keep their pets indoors.”
During a heat advisory last August, PIX11 reported that a number of horse-carriage drivers and their horses were out working. Birnkrant told the broadcaster that the “horses are languishing in this heat.”
A verified veterinarian was not present to diagnose the horses, but PIX11 said that after the temperature hit 90 degrees, the horse-carriage drivers returned the animals to their stables.
Romeo Hernandez, a horse-carriage driver, denies NYCLASS’s claims of animal abuse. He said he expects longer work days to make up for time he may lose if the bill is signed into law.
