New York carriage horse’s collapse spurs criminal trial

New York – A carriage driver was tried on Tuesday for the collapse of a horse in a street in Manhattan, in a criminal case that summarizes years of modern conflict on an ancient tourist attraction.

The prosecutors say that Ian McKeever continued to tirelessly drive the horse, Ryder, one day of 84 degrees (29 degrees Celsius) in August 2022, despite the signs that the animal had trouble shooting the car before going down to its barn.

“The defendant has chosen to continue, business as usual and overwork of Ryder,” said prosecutor Taylor Maurer in his declaration of opening. The horse survived the fall but was euthanized a few months later due to health problems.

McKeever, 56, pleaded not guilty to an accusation of cruelty to animals of crime. His lawyer says that the horse was properly taken care of, was not overheated, and stumbled and fell.

“The fall of Ryder is heartbreaking, but the evidence in this case does not show that Ryder has fallen because Ian overdounted,” said lawyer, Raymond Loving, in his declaration of opening.

Horse cars have placed Central Park and the city streets for over 150 years. Presented in countless films and television programs, they are a picturesque attraction for many tourists and a cause of famous for the activists who wanted it for a long time.

Animal defenders say it is inhuman to have horses navigating on the traffic of Manhattan. Over the years, some horses have been surprised, have fled and collided with cars or other objects. Others in addition to Ryder collapsed at work.

Supporters of cars on horseback see the coaches as a romantic remaining of a revolving New York. They also note that cars clean up tourist dollars and have provided hundreds of jobs to drivers, no more jobs for an overabundance of farm and racing horses.

“If they did not come to New York, most of these horses would have died,” McKeever told the Associated Press in 2014. He said that some of his own carriage horses were going to go to slaughterhouses before buying them.

Perhaps in an unlikely way, cars taken from horses became a powerful political question about ten years ago, when the mayor’s candidate, Bill de Blasio, campaigned on a promise to eradicate them on his first day of mandate. The Democrat won in 2013 and obtained a decline in unions, newspaper editorials and other supporters of horseshoe. After two years, a compromise plan to limit the number and the range of cars was withdrawn from the agenda on the eve of a vote of the municipal council.

McKeever has been a horse driver for 30 years. His lawyer said Ryder belonged to the accused’s brother.

The horse was outside for more than seven hours on August 10, 2022, mainly in Central Park. A spectator, Caroline Londahl-Smidt, testified on Tuesday that the horse seemed to him to be in “major distress”, slowly walking on a hill, while McKeever was shaking the reins and seemed to try with anger to place it.

Later, the horse collapsed near Times Square during evening rush hour. The video of spectators published by the New York Post showed that McKeever slammed his reins and told him to get up.

Ryder rolled up his right side and landed on the sidewalk for almost an hour, sometimes trying to get up while the police cool it with water and ice from neighboring restaurants, according to the testimony and video of the SGT body camera. Vincent Fontana of the Montée du Service de Police unit. The police slipped a pillow under the horse’s head to protect his right eye from the sidewalk.

In the end, the horse rose, entered a trailer and was brought back to its stable.

Fontana said McKeever told him that the animal was 13 years old, but prosecutors say he was considerably older.

By questioning, Loving pointed out that the horse’s temperature was normal and that her breathing was not much faster than normal when Fontana took her vital signs. He did it after the police started to water the animal.

McKeever should testify later in the trial. If it is convicted, he could face a year in prison, although the accusation also authorizes alternatives such as fines or community services.