pstrongDoes a person or horse have to be killed before Mayor Bill De Blasio and City Council members pass legislation to ban horse-drawn carriages in NYC?/strong/ppThe urgency of New York Mayor Bill de Blasiorsquo;s plan to ban carriage horses from city streets was demonstrated last night when a carriage horse named Pumpkin got free of his bridle last night around 5:45 as he stood at the hack line at 59th St. The horse, still pulling his carriage, then ran into Central Park, leaving his driver behind and eventually crashing into a taxi after a park-goer jumped into the empty carriage and took control of the horse.nbsp;/ppimg alt=”Photo Credit: NY Post” src=”/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/horsecarriagewild.jpg” style=”width: 300px; height: 200px; margin: 8px; float: right;” //ppldquo;It took a bicyclist in the park to avert what would have probably been a tragedy had the horse continued his rampage and gotten into the street beyond the park. Itrsquo;s a miracle the horse didnrsquo;t kill someone in the park as well,rdquo; said Edita Birnkrant, campaigns director for Friends of Animals./ppThe carriage industry is trying to downplay this incident, but let#39;s be very clearmdash;this was a screw-up of incredible magnitude, she added. ldquo;The carriage industry is 100 percent responsible for this latest disaster in which the driver of Pumpkin failed to stop the horse from fleeing into the park. Do you realize the potential for harm and death that a runaway horse with no driver galloping the loop in Central Park could have caused, and especially considering the horse was heading out of the park until the passerby steered him elsewhere? I literally feel sick thinking about it./ppThis incident comes on the heels of Department of Consumer Affairs yanking the license of Saverio Colarusso, who was arrested in December after cops noticed his horse was pulling a carriage despite a painful injury to its hind leg. And currently carriage driver Frank Luo is under investigation for allegedly trying to disguise a 22-year-old asthmatic horse as a much younger animal.nbsp;/ppspan style=”font-size:12px;”(Photo Credit: New York Post)/span/ppimg alt=”” src=”/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/TakeActionLittle.jpg” style=”width: 192px; height: 49px;” //ppItrsquo;s time for de Blasio to make the carriage horse ban a priority. Friends of Animals is asking its New York members to contact the mayor and their City Council members and urge them to write and pass the legislation that would get carriage horses off city streets and onto sanctuaries where they can live free instead of as prisoners to this industry./ppa href=”http://http://council.nyc.gov/html/members/members.shtml”NYC Council Members can be reached here./a/ppDe Blasio can be reached by calling 212.788.3000, sending a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio, City Hall, New York, N.Y. 10007; or a href=”http://www.nyc.gov/html/static/pages/officeofthemayor/contact.shtml”sending an online message here/a./p