Mayor warns of slaughterhouse future if horse-drawn carriage ban passes

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the future for the steeds in Central Park won't be pretty if horse-drawn carriages are banned.

Both Bill de Blasio and Joe Lhota have said they support a City Council bill that would ban the popular rides. Bloomberg, who has long been an opponent of the bill, said he has no doubt that the 200 horses currently being used would be killed if the industry is shut down.

"You do that, I assume all the horses will go to slaughter, and if they don't, they'll go to other places where horses that would have been taken up will go to slaughter. So that's just obviously what's going to happen," he said at an unrelated news conference Tuesday.

The industry has been under fire for several years by animal activists who say the animals are overworked and treated poorly.

Bloomberg, who said he has ridden in carriages twice, said New Yorkers and visitors enjoy the Central Park horses and none of them see anything wrong with it.

"They seem to enjoy it and I don't think the horses are abused," he said.