NEW YORK (AP) – A carriage horse’s death in New York’s Central Park is renewing animal-rights activists’ concerns about the animals.

Several protesters gathered near the park after a startled horse bolted, injured itself and died yesterday afternoon. The hubbub spooked another horse that darted into traffic and collided with a car. As one protester put it, “Horses shouldn’t be in traffic.”

A spokeswoman for the Horse & Carriage Association of New York calls the episode “a freak accident.” She says it’s a blow to an industry that cares deeply about its animals.

She says the horse that died, a 13-year-old mare named Smoothie, had been a carriage horse for only a year. Witnesses say the horse may have been startled by a street performer.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)