AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The Central Park horse-drawn carriage ride is an iconic American image - right? - featured in movies like "Home Alone" and TV shows like "Sex And The City."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SEX AND THE CITY")
SARAH JESSICA PARKER: (As Carrie Bradshaw) New York - aren't you going to miss it?
CHANG: But tourists may soon miss these carriage rides as New York's city council looks to ban them. Walter Wuthmann has this story.
(SOUNDBITE OF HOOVES CLOPPING)
WALTER WUTHMANN, BYLINE: The sky is blue and the leaves are just starting to turn as a young couple steps out of a carriage pulled by a chestnut-brown horse. Dale and Jo Saggers are visiting from London and caught a carriage ride on a whim.
DALE SAGGERS: So there's just something a bit magical, for lack of a better word...
JO SAGGERS: Yeah.
D SAGGERS: ...About it, isn't there? A bit fairy tale.
WUTHMANN: Nearby, a driver named Leo Adja brushes down his horse, Lily. She nuzzles his face, looking for treats as he tries to answer questions.
LEO ADJA: Lily, I'm doing an interview (laughter).
WUTHMANN: Adja says he's been following the effort to ban horse-drawn carriages. He says he fears losing his job.
ADJA: Yeah, if I lost this one, I don't know what I'm going to do. With my age - I'm old man already.
WUTHMANN: Supporters of a New York City proposed ordinance called Ryder's Law think it's time for these jobs to go. The ordinance is named for a horse named Ryder who collapsed on a hot summer day in 2022 and was later euthanized. This summer, another horse dropped dead in the middle of a Manhattan street. Edita Birnkrant is the executive director of New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets - or NYCLASS. She argues the horses were worked to death.
EDITA BIRNKRANT: If you're placing them in midtown Manhattan in dangerous traffic and stabling them in inhumane conditions, denying them pasture - things that are necessary for a horse - then that's wrong.
WUTHMANN: Birnkrant says Ryder's Law would ban carriage rides starting next summer. Carriage operators would be prohibited from selling their retired horses for slaughter. Similar legislation has passed in cities like Brussels and Mumbai. Birnkrant says more and more people see the carriages as dangerous.
BIRNKRANT: They don't want to get on a horse carriage that could take off and throw them onto the pavement at any moment, that could collapse, that could drop dead.
WUTHMANN: Union leaders representing the city's carriage drivers deny allegations of abuse. John Samuelsen is the president of the Transportation (ph) Workers Union.
JOHN SAMUELSEN: It's ridiculous to believe that a small business owner whose horses are an integral part of him earning a living - him or her earning a living - is going to mistreat the horses. It's senseless. It's stupid. It doesn't make sense.
WUTHMANN: Samuelsen says the two horses who died recently had underlying medical conditions. Samuelsen points out that the animal rights group NYCLASS was founded and funded by real estate executives. He alleges they want to close horse stables along Central Park and develop them into housing.
SAMUELSEN: So it's an unholy alliance of what I want to call pathetic freaking social progressives and big business - real estate developers, moneyed interests in Manhattan. That combination of them two is a really poisonous concoction for working people.
WUTHMANN: NYCLASS denies these claims. Mayor Eric Adams and every mayoral candidate support a ban on carriage horses. Nearly half the city council has signed on to the proposal and are pushing for a hearing. And there are signs the carriage industry is already in decline. City data showed there were roughly 300 licensed drivers 20 years ago. That's down to about 170 now. My own survey around Central Park found most tourists were against taking a ride in a horse-drawn carriage. Take Bill Kincaid of San Antonio, Texas, visiting New York with his four grandkids.
BILL KINCAID: It's nostalgia, and it's a tourist trap. It's so that, you know, some tourists can say, oh, we rode a horse. But it's meaningless. That's not what Central Park's about.
WUTHMANN: San Antonio just banned carriage rides around the Alamo, citing concerns for animal welfare. If Ryder's Law moves forward, these Central Park carriages could be next. For NPR News, I'm Walter Wuthmann in New York City.
(SOUNDBITE OF FRANK SINATRA SONG, "NEW YORK") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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