A group of animal-rights activists, including local politicians and advocates, rallied outside City Hall on Thursday, demanding that the City Council arrange a hearing and pass Ryder’s Law to end the carriage horse industry for good.
Photo by Gerard Lennon
A group of animal-rights activists, including local politicians and advocates, rallied outside City Hall on Thursday, demanding that the City Council arrange a hearing and pass Ryder’s Law to end the carriage horse industry for good.
Dozens gathered near the Lower Manhattan building before the City Council’s monthly meeting to support Intro. 0967 — also known as Ryder’s Law — to eliminate the horse-drawn carriage industry in NYC. The rally comes more than a week after the death of Lady, a carriage horse who collapsed and died in Hell’s Kitchen on Aug. 5.
Queens NYC Council Member Robert Holden, who sponsored the bill, was at the event with fellow City Council Members Frank Morano of Staten Island and Chris Marte of Manhattan. Together with activists from NYCLASS, they pushed for an end to the “antiquated” industry, which has been operating in Central Park since the late 1800s.
“This has to end,” Marte said. “It’s 2025 and this is still happening in Manhattan.”
Carriage horses should not be on the street: pols
Queens NYC Council Member Robert Holden, who sponsored the bill, was at the event with fellow City Council Members Frank Morano of Staten Island and Chris Marte of Manhattan. Together with activists from NYCLASS, they pushed for an end to the “antiquated” industry, which has been operating in Central Park since the late 1800s.Photo by Gerard Lennon
Holden said animals “are suffering” as the council lags on the bill by not holding a hearing.
“We have animals that are suffering,” he said. “We have to have the courage as a council to have a hearing on bill.”
New to the council this year, but not new to the issue, Morano echoed these sentiments.
“The streets are no place for horses, he said. “We need to do something now.”
The rally comes just days after the Central Park Conservancy broke its neutrality on the issue by supporting Ryder’s Law’s passage.
Edita Birnkrant said the nonprofit’s support is significant in the ongoing effort to stop the horse-drawn carriage industry in NYC.
“When the very caretakers of Central Park want this cruelty gone, and the majority of polled New Yorkers agree, the council and mayor have no excuse left,” she said. “We cannot wait for more inevitable tragedies of more horses collapsing or dropping dead, crashing into vehicles, sending people to the hospital, or even causing fatalities. The time to act is right now, and the council must get this done before the year ends.”
The carriage horse industry has been fighting the effort to eliminate it for years, led largely by Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100, which represents the drivers. The union argues that ending the industry would not only spark job loss, but it would also hurt the local economy. They also maintain that the horses used in carriage riders are better cared for despite the claims of animal rights activists.
“This is about the 7,000th NYCLASS rally with the same two dozen animal rights extremists who repeat the same lies about carriage horses, no matter the latest development,” Christina Hansen, shop steward at TWU, said. “They have made the same spurious claims about horse health and safety that they have made since 2008.”
Ryder’s Law is named in honor of the late carriage horse Ryder, whose collapse while on the job in 2022 was caught on camera and went viral. Ryder was retired to a barn upstate, but died of cancer later that year.