06/12/2026
Why, when a pet cat passes away it's, "I'm sorry for your loss." When the family dog passes away, it's "That's terrible, but there's nothing else you could do." When the horse in the country barn passes away, it's "These things happen." But when a New York City carriage horse passes away it's immediately assumed, "It must have been the driver's fault for mistreating him and we should eliminate all carriage horses."
Deniz was a fit, healthy, beautiful 16 year old horse who had just passed his veterinary exam a couple months earlier in March, by the same vet who treats the NYPD Mounted Unit horses. Deniz had enjoyed his job working in the NYC horse carriage industry for the past 10 years, where he was loved by his owner, different drivers, and the people who took rides with him.
June 9th wasn't a very hot or humid day. There was a bit of a breeze, the high was around 81 degrees in Central Park and it was about 75 degrees when Deniz started his last carriage ride, before he was expected to return to the stable. It wasn't a particularly busy Tuesday and he had had plenty of food and water throughout the day. He hadn’t been acting out of character and was being driven by his owner who knew him best.
Around 7pm, as Deniz rounded the back of Strawberry Fields on flat ground with two customers in his carriage, he suddenly passed away. His driver and owner, Nurettin was in shock despite having decades of experience in the carriage industry. Passerby helped him unharness his horse from the carriage while he made all the necessary phone calls to handle the situation. He told news stations he felt like he had just lost a member of his family and it had happened so unexpectedly and suddenly.
Within minutes bicyclists, joggers, and passerby became outraged at Nurettin, blaming him for his tragic loss. Nurettin professionally ignored the commotion and remained on the scene until the proper authorities arrived to remove Deniz's body.
Animal rights extremists and the real estate funded NYCLASS's executive director, Edita Birnkrant arrived to the scene, chastising Nurettin and calling for an outright ban of all 200+ carriage horses from the industry. Calls to punish the other 150+ carriage horse owners and drivers grew. Verbal attacks began to get hurled at other horse carriage drivers and they returned to the stables for the safety of their horses and themselves.
The carriage industry decided to close the stables the following day to mourn Deniz and for the protection of their horses and drivers. (The following few days work would be very limited for the rest of the horses with the heat and humidity expected to rise and prompt a suspension of operations throughout much of that period.)
Per TWU Local 100, Deniz will undergo a full necropsy by the pathology department at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine to determine what transpired. Until the results return, the cause of his death remains unknown, though the police stated there was no evidence to suggest wrong doing. Unfortunately no one gets to choose when and where a death will occur and this is something that could happen to any domesticated animal at any time, anywhere. Many even noted Deniz appeared strong, was a healthy weight and not even very sweaty. Some theorized it was some type of heart attack, but until the necropsy is completed, no one can say for sure.
No signs of Deniz's passing are pointing to something preventable, overwork, dehydration, or any relation to Deniz's job or home in NYC, but that didn't stop thousands of keyboard warriors from taking to the internet to point fingers, denounce the horse carriage industry, and even make death threats towards carriage drivers, as well as city council members. They cruelly shared videos of Deniz’s last moments all over social media without an ounce of compassion for his owner in his time of mourning.
The timing couldn't have been worse for the industry. The next afternoon NYCLASS was already expected to hold a rally with PETA at City Hall to support reintroducing the horse carriage ban bill that the NYC Health Committee's council members voted to kill this past November. Council members Harvey Epstein, Carl Wilson, Frank Morano, and Gale Brewer stood with a few dozen NYCLASS and PETA lobbyists outside City Hall to announce Councilman Chris Marte's re-introduction of the carriage ban bill that had been defeated countless times already. Deniz's passing would be exploited by them in propaganda to fuel support of the bill.
Today the carriage ban bill will be re-introduced along with Councilman Jim Gennaro's counter bill to improve the horse carriage industry after years of slanderous damage and over regulation was enacted to drive it out of business. The question remains if common sense will prevail or we live in a society who punishes people and horses for their inability to make NYC carriage horses immortal. We are hopeful that in the year of the horse, common sense will prevail for the horses and all who love them. Stay tuned for action items as our political fight for the NYC horse carriage industry continues once again.
(Due to the disgusting amount of negative, uninformed comments about NYC carriage horses already circulating the internet, any like that will be deleted from this post out of respect for Deniz.)
