The City Council’s Health Committee recently held a packed and tense hearing on Ryder’s Law, a bill proposed by Queens Council Member Robert Holden to ban horse-drawn carriages in Central Park after a seventeen-year debate. Holden criticized the council for delaying action and invoked Mahatma Gandhi’s quote on animal treatment to emphasize the bill’s moral urgency. The hearing drew a diverse crowd including carriage drivers, union members, animal rights activists, and press.

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani had earlier pledged to form an independent medical panel to evaluate the horses’ health, but Holden used a rarely employed council rule called “Sponsor’s Privilege” to force a hearing before his term ends in January. The bill reflects ongoing tensions between animal welfare concerns and the carriage industry’s interests in New York City.