After a bitter 16-year political fight, the New York City Council is expected to outlaw horse-drawn carriages in an Oct. 22 vote. However, the union drivers say they will not go down without a fight.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin reached a deal on Oct. 13 to abolish the tourist trade. The bill, known as Ramanch’s Law, has the support of more than half of the 51 Council members.

The bill was renamed to honor Romanch Mahajan, an 18-year-old tourist from India who died June 17 after jumping from a carriage drawn by a runaway horse. Initial reports suggested the horse was spooked. Con Edison, an energy company that provides electricity in New York City, states it “observed very low levels of stray voltage on July 16 and July 23, but determined that neither instance originated from Con Edison equipment.”

Mahajan’s death appears to be the turning point of the political fight to abolish the industry.

“Horse-drawn carriages have long been part of New York City’s history, but in an increasingly busy Central Park, this tradition has become a growing public safety liability,” according to a statement from Menin’s office. “[T]he Council will take decisive action by voting on [this bill] to protect New Yorkers, visitors, and the horses themselves.”

Mamdani confirmed the deal with Menin in a social media post.

“The horse carriage industry is coming to an end in New York City,” according to the post. “Our administration will make sure workers and owners are protected and the horses are safe.”

Carriage horses within the city are protected by the most comprehensive set of laws of their kind in the country, according to the Horse and Carriage Association of New York. New York City Administrative Code Title 17, Chapter 3, Subchapter 3, mandates that the horses must be housed in stalls that are 60 square feet or larger and allow them to turn around and safely lie down within the stall. To enforce this law, the stables are subject to inspection at any time by city officials, law enforcement, veterinarians and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

In addition, city law mandates 5 weeks of vacation at a stable that allows daily access to paddock or pasture turnout. The roughly 220 licensed carriage horses are sent to farms in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and upstate New York for a minimum of 5 weeks, according to the Horse and Carriage Association of New York. Records must be maintained to prove the vacation time was received.

Carriage horses also are examined by a veterinarian two to four times a year and must be appropriately trimmed and shod.

Aaron Hoover, a Lancaster County, Pa., farrier, shoes about 40% of all the carriage horses in the city. He chuckles at the mention of allegations of abuse and cruelty by animal-rights activists.

“I think the horses get treated better than I do,” Hoover says. “There’s a law that every horse gets 5 weeks of vacation. They’re not allowed to work when the temperature is above 89 degrees or below 19 degrees. I’m lucky if I get 1 week of vacation a year.”

While the 16-year campaign to ban carriage horses has focused entirely on their welfare, Transport Workers Union International (TWUI) and its Local 100 carriage drivers say that changed June 17.

“The issue has long been a contentious one, but after the tragic death of 18-year-old tourist Ramanch Mahajan in June, the focus changed from the welfare of the animals — and mistreatment of the horses was never proven — to one centered around the public safety,” according to the Local 100. “It has been noted widely that Mahajan’s death, while untimely and heartbreaking, was the only fatality ever associated with the 168-year-old industry, while e-bike and scooter crashes regularly kill riders and pedestrians.”

By comparison, there were 28-bike fatalities and 738 injuries through late October 2026, according to The New York Times. Since 2022, 102 e-bike riders and pedestrians have died, while another 17,434 have been injured, according to AAE Law.

TWUI President John Samuelsen accuses Menin of using Mahajan’s death to “contrive a public safety crisis.”

“This is disgraceful political opportunism, and Zohran [Mamdani] should not simply go along with it, particularly when immigrant families’ livelihoods are being destroyed,” John Samuelsen, TWUI president, told AMNY. “This entire situation is reprehensible.”

The legislation would ban the industry June 1, 2028, and includes requirements and measures for carriage drivers. They include:

• Workforce transition program. A city-funded, city-required transition program to support displaced drivers and industry workers.
• Job placement and training. Provides job placement, career counseling and skills training to help workers move into new fields, such as hospitality or green transportation.
• Financial compensation. Financial support for workers and horse owners, although it isn’t specified.
• Horse retirement and placement. The bill requires the city to develop a comprehensive plan to find safe, new homes and retirement placements for the horses.
• Slaughter prohibition. It bans the disposal, sale or shipment of the horses to slaughterhouses.
• Transfer ban. The horses cannot be transferred to other commercial horse-drawn carriage operations outside of New York City.

“We have been working closely with the City Council, union partners, carriage drivers, animal welfare advocates, and community leaders to deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all,” according to a statement from a New York City Hall spokesperson.

Yet, the announcement surprised the carriage drivers, says Christina Hansen, Local 100 shop steward and carriage horse owner.

“We were just completely blindsided by it,” she told Spectrum News NY1. “We thought we had been in discussions with the speaker’s office and with the city council about what they were going to do with us.”

James Gennaro, a New York City Council member and supporter of the carriage horses, agreed with Hansen’s view.

“The speaker's staff engaged in two token meetings with carriage industry representatives on these matters — at which no proposals were made by the Council to the industry for it to consider nor were the suggestions made by the industry given any serious consideration,” he stated in a social media post. “The industry knows it is being abolished by this bill, but it knows nothing of its fate. Will their horses be humanely re-homed? Will they be given offers of gainful employment on a par with what they have now? Will the medallion owners be fairly compensated? No one knows. And that is an abomination. This is unfair. This is deception. This is abdication.”

Alexander Kemp, Local 100 administrative vice president, says the bill falls short.

“There are no protections for the workers in this bill,” Kemp says. “A job fair is not a guarantee. For Janno Lieber to come out and say he offers MTA jobs to horse owner-operators when he can’t even hire people off the street or keep the workforce in the MTA — what guarantees?”

Gennaro agrees.

“[T]he bill ... resolves none of these issues,” he states in a social media post. “There is no humane way to retire en masse the entire herd of horses. These are not saddle horses, which are much more in demand. These are draft horses, which need to pull something to get proper exercise. And it’s inhumane to turn them into backyard horses in a sanctuary. Some of the younger horses will live for decades. That’s like putting a 20-year-old in a nursing home. That is inhumane. And who is going to pay the appropriate $30,000 per year per horse to pay for shelter, food, grooming, medical care, etc. in these sanctuaries? No one.

“Regarding the union workers who work in this very specialized industry, into what jobs will they be placed? They don’t exist. It’s a joke. And regarding the medallions, it’s not just the current market value of the medallion; it’s also the projected future income that medallion would have generated. The city won’t pay that amount of money. It doesn’t have it. And if it did, city leadership wouldn’t pay that out to a bunch of immigrants who came here to build their small businesses, who pay their employees a living wage, etc.”

The carriage owners call the bill “wildly unconstitutional.”

“It seizes people’s property … without any kind of compensation,” Hansen tells Fox 5 New York. “It’s a violation of the 14th Amendment, due process and equal protection. You’ve got, basically, people who have done nothing wrong, having their business licenses, their driver’s licenses, seized and a legislative action instead of a judicial action. Everything about it is a gross abuse of governmental power.”

Atakan Atkay, a carriage owner and operator, says the issue requires greater consideration.

“If the city wants reform, let us reform,” he says. “If the city wants modernization, let us modernize. If it wants to eliminate our business, it must provide fair and meaningful compensation. We will not quietly surrender our life savings. We will fight for our families and our futures.”