NYC Girl, 10, Wins PETA Kids Award for Speaking Out Against Horse-Drawn Cruelty

For Immediate Release:
July 24, 2026

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

Most 10-year-olds spend their free time playing—but Jada Abreu is fighting for horses forced to haul tourists through Central Park. Now, PETA Kids—part of PETA’s youth division—is sending her a Hero to Animals Award for appearing in a video alongside her godfather, New York City Council Member Shaun Abreu, in which she fearlessly calls out the cruelty of the city’s carriage industry. Drawing on her own observations of horses becoming jumpy on busy streets, Jada explains why horses don’t belong in the city—where blistering summers, freezing winters, and other dangerous conditions put them at risk.

“Horses are very special to me… I love them so much, and they’re very beautiful, gentle animals,” she says in the video. “Horses belong in the fields, not Central Park… We need to start caring about the horses.”

When she gets older, Jada hopes to have her own foundation to help all animals who are forced to work for human entertainment. At home, she cares for her cat, Louie, and her dog, Lucky.

“Horses have a hero in Jada Abreu, who’s proving that even the youngest voices can speak volumes against cruelty by confronting the carriage industry head-on,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA Kids celebrates young changemakers like Jada, who is setting a shining example for young people by standing up for animals in need.”

Jada’s advocacy comes at a critical moment for horses used in New York City’s carriage industry. Just last week, City Council Speaker Julie Menin became the first sitting Council speaker to publicly support Romanch’s Law, legislation that would phase out horse-drawn carriages in Central Park. Jada also helped persuade Shaun Abreu to co-sponsor the bill.

The bill is named after 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan, who was tragically killed after falling from a runaway horse-drawn carriage in Central Park while trying to save his mother—and it was renamed in his honor after previously being called Ryder’s Law. That original name came from a horse named Ryder, whose collapse on Ninth Avenue sparked outrage after video footage showed his driver slapping, whipping, and screaming at him to get up. Just days before Romanch’s death, a 16-year-old horse named Deniz also collapsed and died while being forced to pull a carriage in Central Park.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that when it comes to the ability to feel pain, hunger, and fear, a horse is a dog is a boy. For more information about PETA Kids, please visit PETAKids.com or follow PETA Kids on Facebook or Instagram.