Last week, New York City’s Council voted to ban horse-drawn carriages from city streets and Central Park beginning in June 2028, ending a historic tourist attraction and long-standing industry.
As Reuters reports, out of the city’s 51 lawmakers, 40 supported the bill, which was backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who earlier this month said the horse-drawn carriage industry needed to come to an end. Only seven council members voted against the measure and two abstained.
The Controversial Horse Carriage Industry
New York City politicians have wrestled for decades with the controversial horse carriage industry, trying to balance the protests of animal rights activists claiming the practice is abusive with the defense of local unions in support of carriage operators’ livelihoods. The topic even emerged as a key issue in the 2013 and 2025 mayoral elections.
Outrage has boiled over in the past few years as multiple horses have died in Midtown since 2020, and increased exponentially in 2022, when a 14-year-old carriage horse named Ryder collapsed in Hell’s Kitchen and was later euthanized due to cancer, renewing calls to abolish the industry from animal rights activists. In 2024, Council Member Bob Holden introduced Ryder’s Law, which aimed to wind down the industry by stopping the issuance of new operation licenses. Then in 2025, the Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit in charge of managing the park, released a statement after years of neutrality, calling for a ban on horse-drawn carriages.
But although increasing horse casualties failed to move the needle, support for the ban grew after the death this summer of Romanch Mahajan, an 18-year-old tourist from India. Mahajan was thrown from a carriage and died on June 17, when the horse bolted after the driver stepped away to take a picture of Mahajan’s family.
President Donald Trump, who has both attacked Mamdani and held cordial meetings with him, expressed skepticism about the ban. “When there is a car accident in the area, of which there are many, they don’t stop cars from entering the Park. So why would they stop the Carriages? It was a Great Tradition. Another piece of History that’s gone. It will be missed!” Trump, whose business empire is headquartered in Trump Tower, minutes from Central Park, posted on his Truth Social.
Includes a Transition and Compensation Plan for the Workforce
The bill requires the city to develop a transition plan for the workforce by April and to consider a program to compensate carriage operators for their businesses and help with the disposition of their horses. Under the proposal, the horses could not be slaughtered.
Despite the generous provisions, a day before the vote, the Transport Workers Union, which represents carriage business owners and drivers, said that if the bill is enacted, it will seek a temporary restraining order from a court “the minute the ink dries,” according to a letter sent to New York City Corporation Counsel Steve Banks.
“This may be the first time in City history that a previously licensed profession was banned,” the letter signed by principal attorney Arthur Schwartz said. “The proposed bill deprives the owner of all economically beneficial or productive use of their property.”
—
Photo Credit: Natallia582 / Shutterstock.com
