PETA Statement: Carriage Industry Spins Lies While Horses Keep Dying

For Immediate Release:
August 8, 2025

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA Director Ashley Byrne in response to the horse-drawn carriage industry’s news release blaming the death of the horse “Lady,” who collapsed and died on Tuesday, on a small tumor in her adrenal gland. PETA points out that symptoms of such tumors include exercise intolerance, abnormal heart rhythms, coughing, and swelling in the limbs or under the chest. Lady likely exhibited symptoms, either visibly or internally, but the horse-drawn carriage industry continues to disregard the welfare of horses it forces to pull rides up and down city streets.

This horse’s tumor didn’t develop overnight, but instead of receiving proper medical care, which could have detected the tumor and possibly prevented her death, she was forced to haul heavy carriages while breathing pollutant-filled air in a highly stressful environment that likely exacerbated her poor health. Her death is further proof that the horse-drawn carriage industry operates with little to no oversight, and PETA is calling for a ban on horse-drawn carriages before any more animals collapse and die in the street.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.