Animal activists have been back on the offensive for a ban since a carriage horse recently collapsed and died in New York City. Coming to the defense of the carriage horse industry, Mayor Michael Bloomberg fired back and didn't leave any question as to how he feels about the subject

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“The horses here are supervised by the health department, the ASPCA,” he was quoted as saying in an article by The New York Times. “They’re well taken care of. And most of them wouldn’t be alive if they didn’t have a job.”

In regard to those in opposition of the carriage-horse practice, Mayor Bloomberg was quoted as saying, “I have no idea what goes through their minds,” and that he doesn't know why “anybody wants to destroy something that is part of New York’s heritage and that tourists love.”

The report also offered a quote from Horse and Carriage Association of New York Spokesman Stephen Malone, whose family has been in the business for the better part of five decades.

In regard to a recent controversy regarding the purported tight confines of the horses' stalls, which he claimed were untrue, Malone was quoted as saying that, “People want to really humanize the horse and compare it to a dog or a cat in the sense that it should be living in an apartment.”

(With files from The New York Times)