Photo Courtesy of Skyler Ewing- Pexels
While horse-drawn carriages used to be a common mode of transportation, they will begin to be phased out, marking the end of a historical era. This phase-out also represents an era of being kinder to animals.
Since the beginning of horse-drawn carriages in New York City, it has been alleged that horses have been overworked and not properly cared for. According to The Guardian, this is why Mayor Zohran Mamdani has “agreed to back a bill supported by Julie Menin, the speaker of the New York city council, that would make it illegal to operate horse-drawn carriages beginning in June 2028.”
According to the New York Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS), “[t]he first horse-drawn omnibus in the nation operated along Broadway in Manhattan from Prince to 14th Street beginning in 1832.” In the 1860s, firehouses would use horses to help fight fires by pulling machinery. Passengers of horse-drawn carriages would continue to ride them until 1918.
DORIS reports that New York City’s reliance on horse-drawn carriages prior to the twentieth century led to horses being harmed by their handlers, and “[t]here are disturbing numbers of arraignments in the Police and Magistrate’s Court docket books for offenses related to animal abuse.”
Over the decades, the use of horse-drawn carriages has decreased significantly. Still, as noted by the Animal Welfare Institute, horse-drawn carriages remain in many cities as tourist attractions which “evok[e] nostalgic images of days gone by.” According to the Animal Welfare Institute, problems regarding treatment of the horses persist; one problem with horse-drawn carriages is how they acquire the horses that pull them. As stated by the website, “horses most often come from farms, where they have already put in many years of labor and are being sold because they are no longer capable of working on the farm.” They go on to explain that after these horses are sold to carriage companies, the time they have left to live decreases significantly.
The Animal Welfare Institute also asserts that to keep a horse happy and healthy, their hooves need to be properly taken care of. Many carriage companies did not take into consideration that when horses walk on pavement or rocks for a long time, it can lead to damage to their hooves, which causes pain to the horse. To avoid this happening, many horse owners will keep their horses in a pasture where they can get relief from the pain that they get from walking on rocks or pavement. However, according to the Animal Welfare Institute, this is “not enough to adequately maintain hoof health.”
Another issue these horses face, according to the Animal Welfare Institute, is pollution. They state that “particularly in heavily congested urban settings, [horses] spend much of their day breathing exhaust fumes from cars directly in front of them.” These fumes negatively impact the horses’ health.
According to PETA, the reason this abuse was allowed to occur is that horses are not protected animals under the Federal Animal Welfare Act. This act “regulates the treatment of animals in research, teaching, testing, exhibition, transport, and by dealers.” As explained by PETA, since horses are not protected under this act, the responsibility of making sure these animals are taken care of falls on Animal Control. However, PETA argues that the responsibility of making sure that horses are being properly cared for should not fall on Animal Control, because “many humane agencies just don’t have the resources or the time to monitor horse-drawn carriages on a regular basis.”
According to ABC News, New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced that “[t]he City Council [would] vote on the long-gestating bill on Oct. 22, which would prohibit the issuance of new licenses used in the operation of horse-drawn cabs and phase out the carriages by June 1, 2028.” ABC News explains that the bill was named Romanch’s Law after a tourist from India who passed away after the horse-drawn carriage he was in with his family crashed into another carriage. According to ABC News, while Menin acknowledged that horse-drawn carriages are part of New York City’s history, she maintains that they have become a safety concern for the general public.
ABC News explains that “[u]nder the bill, the horses would be prohibited from being sold to slaughterhouses. The bill also sets up a ‘workforce transition program’ for the horse-drawn carriage drivers, who are unionized, that includes job placement, training, career counseling and financial compensation, according to the bill language.” ABC News reports that “[i]n the summer, Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters that he supported ‘the spirit of the bill,’ but stressed that he wanted it to include strong worker protections.” The mayor’s office was reportedly “working on a detailed transition plan for the carriage workers.”
The bill was passed on Oct. 22 with a 40 to seven “veto-proof margin,” according to The New York Times. According to the ASPCA, other states have banned horse-drawn carriages, including Florida, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Utah, and some European countries.