(NEW YORK) -- The death of a Central Park carriage horse that collapsed last week while on a ride with two passengers was caused by a foreign toxic plant, according to a necropsy publicized on Tuesday by the union representing carriage drivers.
The Transport Workers Union of America said the horse, Deniz, was giving a ride near East 90th Street in Manhattan on June 9 when it paused to eat a shrub along the curb.
A short time later, the 16-year-old horse collapsed and died, according to the necropsy performed by Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine, the union said.
Two passengers were in the carriage when the incident happened, police said.
The plant was a Japanese yew, an ornamental that is toxic and deadly to horses, according to the report.
The union cited the necropsy report to counter growing calls from activists and the Central Park Conservancy to ban carriage horses due to how they're treated.
"Deniz's tragic death was not caused by neglect or abuse or the fact he was a carriage horse -- as some animal rights activists and elected officials claimed," Alexander Kemp, TWU's administrative vice president, said in a statement.
"Poor Deniz died because the people running the Park Conservancy never warned anyone that there were deadly yew plants in the park. This is negligence at the highest level of the conservancy," he added.
The Central Park Conservancy pushed back Tuesday against the TWU's accusations and argued in a statement that the union's "negligence" resulted in the horse's death.
The conservancy noted that horses are prohibited by city law from eating any vegetation anywhere in the Central Park.
"The same rule requires carriage drivers and operators to attend to their horses at all times in order to keep them safe and healthy. Perhaps if they had, Deniz would not have suffered as he did, and died," the Central Park Conservancy said in a statement.
There have been seven carriage horse related incidents in the last 13 months within the park's vicinity, including one in January where a horse dashed into traffic and crashed into cars, according to the Central Park Conservancy.
Some animal activist groups, like PETA, have long protested horse-drawn carriage rides in the park, arguing that the animals are put in danger because of nearby car traffic and forced to work in poor conditions, especially in extreme weather.
Deniz had passed a physical exam conducted by the NYPD's Mounted Unit veterinarian in March, according to the TWU.
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