New-York/ Accident/Cheval de calèche euthanasié

[Animal 0]

Crash renews horse-drawn carriage concerns
Horse was euthanized, driver critical

January 4, 2006

NEW YORK (AP)

A horse pulling one of Central Park's graceful carriages to a stable became spooked in traffic Monday night and galloped down a busy street until it collided with a car.

The seriously injured horse was euthanized. The carriage driver, Carmelo Vargas, was hospitalized in critical condition.

Such accidents are not frequent, but they underscore the difficulty of keeping horses in the city, animal control authorities said.

"I think it is a less than ideal environment for them," said Joseph Pentangelo, an agent with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and a former mounted police officer. "There are air horns. There are loud air brakes on trucks and buses."

Efforts to ban horses from city streets have been trumped by tradition and the delight tourists take in seeing the old-fashioned carriages circle Central Park.

Activists for years criticized the conditions at some of the stables serving Central Park. Conditions, however, have improved in recent years, ASPCA senior vice president Lisa Weisberg said.

The ASPCA brought a team of veterinarians to New York to study carriage horses last year and found them to be in "much better shape" than they were 10 years ago, she said, in part because they have been moved into more modern facilities.

Horses are banned from Manhattan streets between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. on weekdays and may work pulling carriages in Central Park or adjacent streets only until 9 p.m. After that, they can leave the park, but they must avoid zones with heavier traffic.

Carriage drivers must complete operators' courses and have liability insurance to be licensed by the city. Vargas received his license to operate a carriage in May, the Department of Consumer Affairs said.

The stable where his mount was kept has a clean record with no recent health or safety violations, city officials said. The facility was locked Tuesday afternoon.

Last year, two horses ran loose in traffic after a driver hit their coach, toppling it and setting them free. In October 2003, two hansom cabs carrying four passengers tipped over after their horses were spooked in Central Park.

Carriage horses are given blinders and tested for their temperament, Pentangelo said, but "there is only so much you can do. Asking an animal to deny every instinct they have, every day, is difficult."

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/04/carriage.crash.ap/index.html