Opinion: It’s time to say ‘neigh’ to a dangerous anachronism

New York City finally has a mayor who is ready to put city money where his mouth is. Zohran Mamdani has repeatedly said he’s ready to buy out the horse carriage industry – which has been under fierce assault the past month for causing the tragic death of a teenager as well as yet another horse fatality.

With the City Council’s help, Mamdani can finally succeed in fulfilling what a vast majority of New Yorkers have wanted for decades, but the mayor’s two feckless predecessors – Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams – failed to accomplish despite their promises: a ban on Central Park’s carriage horses.

The tragic death of 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan last month highlighted that this is no longer just an animal rights issue – which in itself should be enough to ban horse carriages – but actually a public safety issue. 

Mahajan was visiting New York with his family from India, and like so many other unwitting tourists, they decided to tour Central Park in the back seat of a carriage being pulled by a 1500-pound, scared and skittish horse. The driver made the tragic mistake of leaving his carriage unattended – which seems to happen on a regular basis – while he took a photo. When the horse bolted, Romanch attempted to protect his mother from injury, fell from the carriage and suffered a fatal injury to his head. 

Since then, Gaurav Mahajan, Romanch’s uncle, has forcefully and effectively led a campaign to ban this dangerous industry, as any of us would do if a member of our family was needlessly killed. He posted on X on 6/29: “Our family is shattered … our pleas go unanswered … you still haven’t publicly backed Romanch’s Law. Why? #JusticeForRomanch.” 

Romanch’s parents have also been pushing for the passage of “Romanch’s Law” – formerly known as “Ryder’s Law,” in honor of a horse that tragically died on the job last year – to ban the horse carriages. These pleas have been directed at City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who has since agreed to have a hearing on the proposed bill on July 15, where Romanch’s parents plan to testify.

In a positive development for the bill’s supporters, Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu made a video earlier this week with his goddaughter calling for a ban on horse carriages. Abreu is Menin’s deputy and one of her closest allies. There’s no way he releases that video without her consent. Will she also go all-in before the July 15 hearing and call for the carriage horse industry to be phased out? 

I won’t go into the litany of incidents the past two years but suffice to say there have been more than a dozen instances of horse fatalities or near misses where runaway horses either caused injury to others or came close. 

Carriage horses were meant for the quaint era of New York City in the 19th century when our streets had no cars, buses or motorbikes and scant pedestrian traffic. Using horses was a safe and effective way of transporting New Yorkers.

But our city, and our world, have dramatically changed since then. Each day, these poor animals are spooked by traffic, forced to work in 90 plus-degree heat like last week and made to live in tight spaces that are inhumane. If you ever encounter these majestic animals, they look absolutely miserable as they trudge along our hot paved streets and suffer from the cacophony of noise that is the soundtrack of any urban metropolis. 

Many cities around the world – including Philadelphia, Chicago, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Montreal, Toronto, Paris, London, Beijing, Mumbai and Melbourne – have already banned this dangerous practice. How can New York be considered a progressive city when it’s behind Beijing and Salt Lake City in both public safety and animal rights? That is downright shameful and should make our elected leaders want to rush to correct this societal wrong immediately.

TWU Local 100, which represents carriage horse owners and drivers, would have you believe this is just an issue of animal rights vs. workers’ rights. It’s not. It’s an issue of right vs. wrong. And I’m sure if we had a secret ballot of City Council members, the vote would be close to unanimous in favor of a ban on carriage horses. But to date, only 16 of the council’s 51 members have signed on as sponsors of Romanch’s Law. Since it takes 26 members to approve this, City Council member sponsor Chris Marte has to find at least 10 more votes to get this passed.

Why is it so hard to do this, even though almost all council members know it’s the right thing for their constituents and all New Yorkers? Why are they prioritizing 200 independent contractor jobs over ensuring the safety of 8.5 million New Yorkers?

It’s very simple. The TWU union protecting the carriage horse industry is incredibly aggressive and has spent lots of money in the past to attack elected leaders that cross them. Lately, it’s been targeting Gov. Kathy Hochul, who found herself on the receiving end of their belligerence after the MTA refused to accede to their every demand. I’m sure there are quite a few council members who are now cowering in the face of this powerful union. But they should realize they were elected to protect the many against the narrow financial interests of the few. 

That is why Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s approach appears to be a winner. He understands that you can’t just eliminate 200 carriage driver jobs without reskilling and recruiting these displaced workers into new and better jobs. And then there are the carriage horse owners who must be compensated for losing their livelihood if a ban passes. The city has ample funds to fairly renumerate them over time without blowing a hole in the city budget.

The legendary leader and humanist Mahatma Gandhi once said that you can judge the moral worth of a society by how they treat their animals. It’s time New York began focusing on raising its moral value by finally phasing out an anachronistic, dangerous and inhumane industry, while at the same time taking care of its workers and owners. Any City Council member would lose sleep if they spent an hour walking side-by-side with one of these poor horses and peered into its depressed and beleaguered face along the way.

All eyes will be on the City Council when they vote on Romanch’s Law later this month. Anyone who votes against the bill will have blood on their hands the next time a tourist or a New Yorker or a horse gets killed in yet another violent and preventable accident. 

It is finally time to get on the right side of history.