On Wednesday, July 15 at 10 a.m., the New York City Council Health Committee will hold the official public hearing on Intro 943, legislation reintroduced last month by Council Member Christopher Marte, which would phase out the city’s longstanding and controversial horse carriage industry altogether by June 1, 2028, stopping new licenses from being issued immediately. 

The bill would require the humane disposition of carriage horses, prohibiting their sale and transfer for the purposes of slaughter or use in another horse drawn cab business. It would also require the department of consumer and worker protection to administer a workforce development program for drivers and workers engaged in the horse drawn cab industry to facilitate their transition to other fields of employment.

Please come stand with us at 9 a.m. on the steps of NY City Hall for a rally prior to the public hearing. We will provide posters. Arrive by 8:45 AM (Broadway security entrance, City Hall, Manhattan). You can also sign up to testify here: https://council.nyc.gov/testify
NOTE: In the Select a Hearing Field, you have to select the Committee on Health hearing on July 15 at 10:00 AM.

You can testify in person (most impactful), by Zoom, or by submitting written testimony. Be sure to specify you support Intro 943, (Romanch’s Law, formerly Ryder’s Law) to ban horse carriages.

In June, the NYC carriage trade claimed two lives in a week. City Council can stop it.

On June 17, an 18-year-old boy, Romanch Mahajan, died in a fall from a horse carriage in Central Park, just seven days after a 16-year-old carriage horse named Deniz fell to the ground while still harnessed to a carriage carrying two passengers, and died near 72nd Street. A necropsy revealed that Deniz died from eating a Japanese yew — a highly toxic plant for horses. Deniz ingested the plant along the carriage drive near East 90th St.

Thankfully, New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who was voted in in January, and Council Member Lynn Schulman, chair of the Committee on Health, immediately issued a statement saying: 

“It is now time to act. Today’s tragic death of a teenager following an incident involving a horse carriage in Central Park is horrific and heartbreaking. Our thoughts are with the victim’s loved ones and everyone affected by this devastating loss. The Council recently introduced Ryder’s Law to address longstanding concerns surrounding the horse carriage industry. We look forward to hearing from all stakeholders and reviewing measures to address horse welfare and public safety concerns as we work toward a thoughtful solution to this urgent issue,” said Menin and Schulman.

The carriage horse trade in NYC needs to be abolished, not regulated, to protect horses and humans. Friends of Animals has been advocating to ban the industry for more than four decades. We are looking forward to the opportunity to speak at the public hearing in July to help get Intro 943 signed into law. Intro 943, also known as Ryder’s Law, was named after a horse who collapsed in Hell’s Kitchen in the summer of 2022.

Speaker Menin and City Council have the power to save NYC’s horses from exploitation, misery, and death and get them to accredited sanctuaries, and protect public safety.

There have now been several horse-related incidents in Central Park over the past 12 months, documented by Central Park Conservancy, which has renewed its call for a carriage horse trade ban. 

• May 19, 2026—A horse is spooked near Seventh Avenue and 59th Street and hit another carriage, causing it to tip over. One driver was taken to a local hospital in a neck brace. 
• January 8, 2026—A horse named Destiny ran into oncoming traffic through the four-way intersection of Sixth Avenue and West 59th Street. Police said four to five cars were hit; the carriage struck a cab with enough force to tear its bumper off, and a Parks Department vehicle suffered damage. 
• September 4, 2025—Two visiting tourists were forced to jump from a speeding horse-drawn carriage after the animal bolted from its two drivers along the East Drive, careening across a landscape and taking out a metal sign before finally coming to rest near Bethesda Terrace. 
• May 26, 2025—Two horse-drawn carriages bolt through Central Park near the 60th Street & East Drive. Both carriage operators sustained injuries while attempting to regain control of the horses. The second driver broke his wrist catching his horse and needed surgery. 
• May 18, 2025—A driver was hurt after two horse-drawn carriages collided in Central Park at the 7th Avenue hack line, causing the carriage to overturn and briefly trapping the driver, who was taken to a hospital by ambulance. 

Following Ryder’s incident in 2022, 71 percent of New Yorkers supported a ban on horse carriage rides. If you are a New Yorker, it’s time to join us and let the New York City Council Health Committee vote YES to Intro 943 so it can move forward and get signed into law.