{"id":483843,"date":"2026-01-01T03:29:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/483843\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T03:29:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:29:28","slug":"exclusive-nycs-horse-carriages-must-get-city-vet-inspection-or-have-license-revoked-11th-hour-adams-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/483843\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | NYC’s horse carriages must get city vet inspection or have license revoked: 11th-hour Adams order"},"content":{"rendered":"

The city won\u2019t be taking \u201cneigh\u201d for an answer.<\/p>\n

Gotham\u2019s fleet of horse-carriage drivers will be mandated to have their animals undergo a city-hired veterinarian inspection \u2013 probing for drugs, injuries and potential abuse \u2013 or risk losing their coveted licenses, according to an executive order signed by Mayor Eric Adams hours before successor Zohran Mamdani took the reins of the city<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move comes weeks after city-hired veterinarian Dr. Kraig Kulikowski attempted to conduct \u201cindependent\u201d testing on a sampling of a dozen carriage horses across three stables but was thwarted.<\/p>\n

Big Apple horse-carriage drivers will now have to allow their animals to be tested or risk losing their licenses. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

At first glance, he made disturbing observations including scars consistent with ill-fitting equipment and \u201cimply[ing] some signs of abuse\u201d on the equines, outgoing First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro told The Post at the time.<\/p>\n

All 12 horses\u2019 carriage owners refused \u201cstandard\u201d follow-up tests such as trotting to evaluate possible lameness and blood testing for drugs such as painkillers, The Post previously reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a right to do examinations, and now the horse carriage owners will be on full notice of the consequences of their actions that they continue this stonewalling,\u201d Mastro told The Post on Wednesday, referring to Adams\u2019 executive order.<\/p>\n

The industry has been under fire for alleged animal abuses. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

Tourists still love the business. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

John Samuelsen, the president of the labor union that represents the carriage horse drivers, previously argued that the group has \u201cnothing to hide\u201d and \u201cwould welcome a truly independent review by equine veterinarians affiliated with major universities,\u201d alleging the vet who City Hall hired is biased against the industry.<\/p>\n

Kulikowski has been described as \u201cour veterinarian\u201d by Equine Advocates, a horse sanctuary nonprofit that has advocated against the practice of horse carriage rides.<\/p>\n

Mayor Eric Adams signed the executive order hours before a new mayor took the reins. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

A City Hall rep has told The Post Kulikowski was the only person with the necessary qualifications to apply for the $20,000 contract in November.<\/p>\n

The city Health Department will be issuing notices to the owners of each of the city\u2019s 200-plus carriage horses by Jan. 6 to coordinate exams.<\/p>\n

Exams are slated to begin in February. Those who refuse exams risk license suspension or removal by the Health Department, the executive order reads.<\/p>\n

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It will ultimately be up to the incoming Mamdani administration\u2019s Health Department to enforce the new mandate, Mastro said, as new mayors reserve the right to continue to end executive orders.<\/p>\n

At a news conference Tuesday, the mayor-elected appeared to change his tune regarding the horse carriage industry.<\/p>\n

While 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<\/a>, he told reporters Tuesday that he will \u201csupport removing horse\u00a0carriages from Central Park.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI plan to deliver on that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city won\u2019t be taking \u201cneigh\u201d for an answer. Gotham\u2019s fleet of horse-carriage drivers will be mandated to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":483844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,42339,3425,18061,75723,29625,5248,405,403,7619,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-483843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-animal-rights","10":"tag-animals","11":"tag-central-park","12":"tag-horse-carriages","13":"tag-horses","14":"tag-metro","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-new-york-city-life","18":"tag-newyork","19":"tag-newyorkcity","20":"tag-ny","21":"tag-nyc","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-us-news","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115817727079282712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}