Council Member Robert Holden co-hosted a rally outside City Hall last week to call on the City Council to pass Ryder’s Law, which aims to phase out horse-drawn carriages in Central Park and replace them with electric alternatives.
Holden joined Manhattan Council Members Erik Bottcher and Chris Marte outside City Hall on Thursday, Aug. 14 to advocate for the legislation following the death of 15-year-old carriage horse Lady on Aug. 5.
Lady died after collapsing on a Manhattan street during sweltering summer heat, although an official cause of death has not yet been determined.
Holden remarked that Lady’s death took place almost exactly three years after the collapse of Ryder, a carriage horse who inspired the legislation after collapsing on a Manhattan street. Ryder, who was almost 30 years old at the time, was euthanized several months after the incident.
Animal rights advocates and community organizations such as the Central Park Conservancy joined Holden, Bottcher and Marte at City Hall last week to advocate in favor of Ryder’s Law. The three elected officials are co-sponsoring the legislation alongside several other council members.
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate for mayor, also attended the rally last week.
Supporters of horse-drawn carriages have previously said that the industry offers a romantic glimpse of a bygone New York while also generating significant money through tourism.
Holden, however, said the horse-drawn carriage industry can inadvertently harm New York’s image and deter tourists from returning to the city. He also said horse-drawn carriages have “no place” in 2025 and described the practice as “torture” for the horses involved.
“Those horses just they don’t have really any kind of life that a horse should have,” Holden said. “They don’t run in a corral. If there was a corral and they had ample time to spend in green grass and run around like horses should run, it wouldn’t be so bad, but there’s no life for these horses. They work nine hours a day pulling a carriage and then going back to a garage that’s either stifling hot or freezing cold. It’s a parking garage, that’s all it is.”
Holden said “anyone with a heart” should care about the issue and said it is “disgusting” that horses have been filmed walking with a limp while pulling carriages through Central Park.
He added that passing the legislation would represent a “good gesture that we care about animals.”
“Right now, New York is heartless. The symbol of New York is that we’re heartless because we put these animals through things,” Holden said.
The legislation aims to “wind down” the horse-and-carriage industry in New York City by prohibiting the issuance of new licenses used in the operation of horse-drawn cabs. The bill would eventually prohibit the operation of such cabs and mandates that the city must administer a workforce development program for drivers and other workers engaged in the field. Advocates say the program would help workers transition to other fields of employment.
Ryder’s Law would also prohibit the sale or transfer of horses for the purposes of slaughter or use in another horse-drawn cab business.
Holden said the legislation currently has support from 21 Council Members but added that he is not confident that the bill will pass because Council Speaker Adrienne Adams has not yet supported it. A spokesperson for Adams said the Council Speaker welcomes all feedback on the legislation.
“We welcome feedback from all stakeholders on this bill that continues to go through the Council’s legislative process, which is deliberative and allows for thorough public input,” a spokesperson for Adams said in a statement.
Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100, which supports the horse-drawn carriage industry, pushed back strongly and said all carriage drivers “love and cherish” their horses.
TWU, which represents 170 horse-and-carriage drivers in Central Park, said Ryder’s Law would mean that 170 drivers are out of a job, describing the industry as a “167-year-old tradition” that Central Park was designed for.
TWU held a rally outside Bottcher’s office Tuesday afternoon to protest against his support for the legislation. The union also took out a full page advertisement in the New York Post on Monday accusing Bottcher of spreading “misinformation” about how the horses are treated.
“He’s outright lying about the Central Park carriage horses, and their blue-collar drivers and owner-drives,” the advertisement stated. “NYC’s carriage horses are not mistreated.”
The advertisement further accused Bottcher of repeatedly refusing to tour the horses’ stables and meet with the drivers and vets that care for the animals.
Holden labelled the advertisement as “disgraceful.”
“I don’t know what that costs, but it’s not cheap,” Holden said. “That should be investigated by the union. Did they get the permission of the rank-and-file to spend their money – a part of their earnings – on an ad bashing a council member because he believes in animal rights?”
Holden added that it is “inevitable” that there will be similar incidents to the collapses of Ryder and Lady if the legislation is not passed by the City Council.
