NYC Council and Mayor Agree on Legislation to Phase Out Horse-Drawn Carriages

Yesterday, news broke that New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Mayor Zohran Mamdani have agreed to shepherd through to passage legislation that would phase out horse carriages in the city in 2028. That vote is set for October 22.

The finish line is in sight after a decades-long campaign to protect the horses from the perils of pulling carriages in America’s most congested city, where the blaring horns, sirens, car backfires, car crashes, delivery trucks, and all sorts of other jarring or deafening sounds can trigger the flight response in the beleaguered horses.

We are grateful to have joined our friends at NYCLASS on this landmark initiative, and we’re privileged to stand with them. A majority of New York City Council members are cosponsors of Intro. 943, the bill to phase out the horse-drawn carriages. The details have largely been buttoned up, and final action looms.

In June, Romanch Mahajan, an Indian national celebrating his acceptance to college with a trip to New York, was killed after the horse hitched to the carriage where he and three other family members were seated bolted through Central Park. As the carriage heaved left and right, the 18-year-old young man tried to prevent his mother from being tossed to the ground, and in the process, he tumbled out at high speed and suffered a fatal head injury.

Just days earlier, Deniz collapsed and died after the driver allowed the 16-year-old carriage horse to graze on the poisonous leaves of a Japanese yew tree, even though city regulations forbid consumption of the plant life in Central Park.

Their deaths had very different causes, but both are tied to an industry with a long history of recklessness that no longer deserves a free run in and around the jam-packed environs of Central Park and the streets surrounding it.

At a pivotal hearing this summer on the carriage-horse ban legislation, the proponents of the bill outnumbered the carriage drivers and their union leaders by more than five to one.

Over four decades, city legislators and administrative officials have responded by proposing half-measures, meagerly tightening unenforceable animal care standards after one downed horse after another became a casualty of this obsolete business.

NYC Will Join Chicago and Philadelphia on Carriage Ride Policy

Carriage drivers have for decades contemptuously disobeyed rules and regulations — as they did in breaking rules that led to the demise of 18-year-old Romanch and 16-year-old Deniz.

The drivers are hacks when it comes to horse care. No responsible horse person would put horses in such a minefield for them, just like no parent would let their children play in traffic.

Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy will assist with the placement of the horses if the drivers relinquish them to humane organizations. As the former CEO of a major national organization with the two largest horse sanctuaries in the nation, I can attest that the animal welfare community will have no problem placing the horses.

The network of hundreds of horse sanctuaries and rescue organizations will welcome these beleaguered animals, just as so many shelters and rescue groups were eager to help us place 2,000 beagles after we negotiated their release from laboratory-animal-supplier Ridglan Farms.

If freed from their yokes and harnesses, the horses will be able to breathe fresh air, stand on grass and soft earth, and no longer be forced to dodge cars, trucks, pedestrians, and pedicabs. And they’ll never have to work another day in their lives.

Chicago banned horse-drawn carriages in 2020, and Philadelphia did so just recently. Those major metropolitan jurisdictions recognized that this enterprise is a relic with risks for horses and people.

But let’s not let up until we cross the finish line. New Yorkers should take action and urge city leaders to end horse-drawn carriage rides in the city.

Over the course of my adult lifetime, I’ve watched our society reject practices once defended as major features of the American experience. Dogfighting and cockfighting have retreated to the margins because citizens demanded stronger laws and better enforcement. Circus elephants have largely disappeared because the public no longer accepts entertainment purchased through suffering. Increasingly, the use of dogs, cats, primates, and other animals in laboratory experiments is giving way to superior, animal-free, and cruelty-free technologies. Kangaroo-skin shoes are now passé in the world of professional soccer.

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