Jarring billboard of dead Central Park carriage horse put up above NYC street

A jarring billboard of the Central Park horse that collapsed and instantly died on a Manhattan street was swiftly put up this week in animal activists’ latest bid to get carriage rides banned.

The graphic image paid for by PETA was placed above 51st Street and 11th Street in Hell’s Kitchen near where the horse, Lady, keeled over on Aug. 5.

“Another horse dead. Please don’t ride,” the sign implores.

“How many overworked horses need to suffer and drop dead on the streets of New York before this shameful cruelty is banned?” PETA spokesperson Ashley Byrne said in a statement.

The horse’s death has spurred renewed debate over whether the City Council should pass Ryder’s Law, legislation named after a horse that died in 2022 which would ban carriage horses in Central Park.

Even the park’s stewards are weighing in after remaining neutral on the issue for years.

The Central Park Conservancy urged lawmakers Tuesday to do away with the practice, citing public safety, damage to park roads and carriage drivers not cleaning up after their horses’ waste.

“As the stewards of Central Park, we are committed to preserving this iconic public space for the enjoyment of all New Yorkers and visitors,” the conservancy said.

The union representing carriage drivers has argued that the animals are not subjected to cruel conditions as suggested by animal rights advocates, and that the death of Lady could not be prevented whether she was on a Big Apple street or grassy field. Preliminary results from the animal’s necropsy indicates it died from an aortic rupture spurred by a tumor.

“The Conservancy has sold out its own mission to preserve the historic landscape of Central Park,” said Christina Hansen, a spokesperson for Big Apple horse carriage drivers.

“The park was designed to be seen from the back of a horse carriage, and the horses moving on the carriage drives were intended to ‘animate the landscape.’”

In fact, the Central Park Conservancy’s website recounts that the winding drives, which were built in the mid-1800s, were designed “to facilitate a scenic tour of the Park in horse-drawn carriages — the primary mode of transportation at the time — and discourage speeding.”

Lady had just started giving rides after arriving in June from Pennsylvania, where she was sold at an auction. She underwent a city-mandated physical and didn’t raise any issues before she collapsed and died.