Central Park’s carriage-horse drivers have said “neigh” to allowing the city to test their animals for drugs, injuries and potential abuse, prompting officials to threaten a lawsuit and suspension of operations.
A vet was hired by the mayor’s office to conduct the first-of-its-kind “independent” testing but then denied access to a sampling of more than a dozen park horses across three stables this month without any good explanation, First Deputy Nayor Randy Mastro told The Post in an interview.
The “standard full horse examinations” were set to include trotting to evaluate possible lameness and blood testing for drugs such as painkillers.
“What we have here is industry-wide collusion to prevent an independent vet from properly examining these horses,” Mastro said, calling the widespread refusal “illegal” and “gravely concerning.
“This should be routine: If there was nothing to hide, why did every owner refuse these commonly given tests?”
Mayor Adams’ administration is now exploring options to mandate the drivers to comply with testing, Mastro said.
Those options include seeking court-ordered testing, suspending individual licenses or even temporarily suspending the industry in the boroughs altogether till examinations can be completed, he said.
John Samuelsen, the president of the labor union that represents the carriage horse drivers, meanwhile argued that the group has “nothing to hide” and “would welcome a truly independent review by equine veterinarians affiliated with major universities,” alleging the vet who City Hall hired is biased against the industry.
“They should take blood from Eric Adams because Randy Mastro obviously has him doped up,” Samuelsen said in response to threatened potential legal action.
Another union rep added, “We’re not against legitimate outside experts coming in.
“We’ve got nothing to hide — we look forward to working with the next administration.”
The vet who the city hired, Dr. Kraig Kulikowski, has been described as “our veterinarian” by the anti-horse carriage nonprofit Equine Advocates, the Daily News first reported.
A City Hall representative said Kulikowski was the only person with the necessary qualifications to apply during the November application period for the $20,000 contract.
There are roughly 200 carriage horses in the five boroughs, and all of them are already evaluated by private doctors every six months, the rep added.
But Mastro — who used to legally represent NYCLASS, an anti-carriage-horse-activist group — argued independent oversight has never been done.
Kulikowski was still able to make initial observations of some of the horses that revealed disturbing findings, including scars consistent with ill-fitting equipment and “imply[ing] some signs of abuse, Mastro said.
“Just on physical examination, [the vet] concluded that one of the horses should be taken out of service – to which the owner responded immediately, providing one of those hand-picked vets’ written reports saying the horse was fine,” he said.
“[Kulikowski] concluded that every one of these horses needed to be re-examined with blood tests given and trotting done … and not a single horse owner responded.”
Samuelsen said the one horse recommended to be taken out of service was found “fit to proceed” by another vet the next day.
Regarding the scars, the union president said many of the horses come to drivers from Amish country, where they did heavy physical labor and can bump against walls in city stables.
“They are harnessed by professional stable staff,” he said of the now-city horses.
Mastro said the hiring of Kuliowski came after a series of carriage horses running wild in Central Park this summer posed a threat to public safety.
Adams took a defiant stance against the industry this summer, blasting them as vestiges of old New York that “no longer work for our city.”
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who is slated to be sworn into office Jan. 1, has previously indicated support both for a ban on the carriages as well as the formation of a panel to study the decades-old industry.
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