The ongoing conflict over New York City’s horse carriage trade escalated when the Transport Workers Union (TWU) sued the advocacy group NYCLASS for $1 million, accusing them of spreading falsehoods to dismantle the industry and seize valuable real estate. This legal action comes amid the proposed Ryder’s Law, which aims to largely ban horse-drawn carriages following several high-profile horse deaths, including Ryder in 2022. The TWU highlights autopsy reports showing natural illnesses caused the deaths and alleges NYCLASS’s push for e-carriages is a guise for real estate gain, citing a leaked 2009 NYCLASS draft that discussed profiting from stable sales.

NYCLASS denies the allegations, calling the lawsuit a baseless attempt to silence activism and free speech by a struggling business. The union also challenges NYCLASS’s claims of rescuing horses from slaughter, asserting that some horses featured as rescues were actually cared for by others or intended for adoption, not slaughter. This dispute underscores the deep divide between carriage workers defending their livelihoods and animal rights advocates seeking to end the historic but controversial horse carriage practice in NYC.