That's just silly. It's a part of what makes NY, NY. Besides, all the horses spend four months each year at a farm and are eventually retired to farms. That;s hardly maltreatment.

A little more info. In less than two years, two horses have died in traffic accidents.

What a silly thing to worry about. If you shut them down, you'll have a couple hundred more people out of work and a couple hundred horses off to the glue factory. People really need to get a life.

Are they sure they want to get rid of a Big Applie icon? It doesn't seem like a couple hundred horses should be this big a deal. Heck, with the way global warming is going, maybe they should be looking at increasing their use and decreasing the number of cars.

Most of this industry is made up of Irish and Italian working families who have made their generation working in the the horse carriage industry for generations. I can hardly see how it would be in their interests to undouly put their horses in harm's way.

Bummer. I think that NYC will lose a big part of its heritage if this goes through. A better choice would probably be rerouting traffic.

I hope that they don't do this. Horse-drawn carriages are such an integral part of New York's heritage. It would sort of be like getting rid of subway tokens...No wait, they did that already, didn't they?

I've never gotten to take a carriage ride around Central Park. I guess I'd better get a move on.

I did a little bit of digging and I found out that in September, an audit by the city's comptroller found that the horses work in an area without enough water spigots, shade or drains for their waste. Guess they need to put on a better dog and pony show.

In response to Cass:Let me guess: Their stalls are messy and small, too. Fix stuff up, but don't go overboard.

In response to Cass:The people at PETA have waaaaaay too much time on their hands. They are horses, for Christ's sake.

In response to mike:I couldn't have said it better myself. Take care of the horses. Keep them happy. But don't go crazy.

In response to mike:That's for sure. The fact that the business has been around so long, makes me suspect that there aren't very many cases of horrific neglect.

Here's a youtube video that shows the uglier side of the issue:

In response to mike:I just don't know how common those kinds of accidents are. From what was written in the original post, it just doesn't seem to happen that often.