Horses in New York City’s horse-drawn carriage industry are being forced to draw carriages for hours in scorching heat or freezing cold, on harsh pavement, in crowded streets, in bust traffic, blaring horns, and wailing sirens terrify these easily-startled animals, while exhaust fumes damage their lungs. Many horses are also suffering painful leg and joint injuries from hauling heavy loads on hard surfaces.

Finally, after more than 165 years that horses are being forced to draw carriages through Manhattan’s Central Park, it seems as, hopefully, at least this form of animal exploitation is about to end. Hopefully, because campaigns against this harsh exploitation had been held for decades now and with no success.
The most depressing thing about the failure to end even this tiny exploitative industry so far, is not that the animal activists failed to convince the relevant legislators to act on behalf of the poor horses, but that the relevant legislators, despite their firm opposition, failed to end this exploitative industry.

Supposedly, there is room for hope as all four leading candidates running for mayor have all spoken out against it. One of them is current mayor Eric Adams who opposes this and tries to act against the cruel carriage ride industry, yet it continues. Not only that, former Mayor Bill de Blasio, campaigned in 2013 with the promise to ban horse-drawn carriages, and failed. So even mayoral administration that vowed to ban this horrible tourist activity couldn’t end this one small exploitative industry.
This is what de Blasio said during his campaign at the end of 2013: “We are going to quickly and aggressively move to make horse carriages no longer a part of the landscape in New York City. They’re not humane. They’re not appropriate to the year 2014. It’s over. So just watch us do it now.”
6 years before that, at the end of 2007, after a horse called Smoothie died, former council member Tony Avella introduced the first ever bill to ban the industry. 
Even the influential Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages the park, announced that it also was backing calls for a ban.
And yet…

The only achievement in this regard was that in 2019 (only in 2019!) The Carriage Horse Heat Relief Bill passed and enacted into law that at least forbids forcing the horses to draw carriages in extreme humid heatwaves.

If the animal rights movement cannot end an exploitive industry of such a small scale (there are currently 68 licensed carriage owners with a total of about 200 horses) despite having such a strong support from legislators, celebrities, influencers, and the general public, what are the chances that it will ever end enormous ones such as the chickens and fishes industries?

If the animal rights movement can’t even ban an exploitative industry such as the horse-drawn carriages, in New-York City, despite strong support from legislators, celebrities, influencers, and the general public, then activists should seek other ways to end all the suffering.