Rules would ban buggy smoking

NEW YORK, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The New York City Health Department is proposing new rules governing horses in Central Park, including a ban on smoking in buggies.

Department officials said the rules, which could be enforced as early as March, would ban buggy drivers from making their horses work after 3 a.m. and force them to give the horses five vacation days per year, the New York Post reported Wednesday.

The regulations, which are scheduled to be the subject of a Feb. 3 public hearing, would also create the city's first outdoor smoking ban by barring buggy drivers and their passengers from lighting up.

"Just like cabdrivers, they shouldn't be smoking," said Daniel Kass, the Health Department's acting assistant commissioner for environmental health.