Central Park's iconic horse-drawn carriages may be gone by this time next year. Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio said he will ban the tourist attraction as soon as he can.
"We are going to get rid of the horse carriages. Period." de Blasio said at a press conference, NBC News reported. "We are going to quickly and aggressively move to make horse carriages no longer a part of the landscape in New York City. They are hot humane. They are not appropriate to the year 2014. It's over."
Animal rights groups have long campaigned to have the city's horse-drawn carriages outlawed, calling them archaic and barbaric.
"We believe that the use of carriage horses in 21st century New York City is unnatural, unnecessary, and an undeniable strain on the horses' quality of life," Stacy Wolf, senior vice president of the ASPCA's Anti-Cruelty Croup, told NBC News.
"Horses do not belong in a congested urban setting," the animal rights organization NYCLASS said on its website, CNN reported. "They constantly breathe exhaust while dodging dangerous traffic...confined to the shafts of their carriage and their tiny stable stalls, with no access to green pastures."
But carriage operator Stephen Malone, told NBC News that in the last 30 years there have only been three horse deaths due to traffic. Malone, who has been a carriage driver since for the last 26 years, also said he will do what he can to prevent de Blasio's ban, even if it means suing de Blasio.
"We look forward to having a long battle with him," Malone told NBC News.
de Blasio wants to replace the horse-drawn carriages with electric antique cars, CNN reported. The mayor-elect said the cars would be a more civilized alternative and at the same time attract tourists.
"People expect us to be here," one horse carriage driver, Robert told NBC News. "It's like taking away the Empire State Building. It's the same as taking the (Christmas) tree from Rock Center."
