While the criminal trial for Ian McKeever, the horse handler who allegedly abused his carriage horse Ryder in Aug. 2022, was supposed to start on Feb. 24 at Manhattan Criminal Court but was postponed again until Mar. 18, animal rights activists with NYCLASS, New York City Council Member Robert Holden (D-Queens), and Republican Mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa held a rally outside the courthouse, renewed their demands the City Council and speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) finally bring Intro #967, also known as Ryder’s Law, to a vote.
The bill would ban horse-drawn carriages and replace them with electric carriages.
In Aug. 2022, carriage horse Ryder collapsed on a New York City street amidst a heatwave after working 10 hours. A viral video showed its handler, Ian McKeever, jerking the reins and whipping the malnourished horse that was in obvious distress. Ryder died in Oct. 2022, and in Nov. 2023, prosecutors charged McKeever with one misdemeanor count of overdriving, torturing and injuring animals, and failure to provide proper sustenance – a Class A misdemeanor -saying in their complaint that McKeever’s actions “unjustifiably injured, maimed, mutilated, and killed an animal” and deprived Ryder of necessary sustenance.
Ryder’s death renewed the calls for a horse-carriage ban and support of Intro#967, introduced by Council Member Holden in July 2022. Over 70 percent of New Yorkers support the bill, which also has bipartisan support from fifteen city council members.
However, proponents say that City Council speaker Adrienne Adams and City Council members refuse to support the bill because they are beholden to the powerful Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100, representing the horse-carriage drivers, including McKeever.
Edita Birnkrant, executive director for NYCLASS, appealed to New Yorkers to contact their respective council members, urging them to support Ryder’s Law.
“We have a city council that refuses to hold a hearing that is not majority supporting the bill because they’re afraid of blowback by the union that’s backing up the animal abusers like Ian McKeever,” said Birnkrant, pointing out that many U.S. and international cities have banned horse-drawn carriages.
“We can’t even keep up with all the cities around the world that are banning horse carriages, replacing them with electric carriages. And New York is stuck in the dark ages because of this union and political corruption,” Birnkrant said.
Holden explained that if the city council speaker didn’t support a bill, it “wasn’t going anywhere.”
“The TWU controls this bill because they won’t support any council member that backs this bill, and that’s what the council members are afraid of. It’s as simple as that,” Holden said. “The voters of New York should pay attention to this because it happens every day in [the] New York City Council. Special interests control everything.”
Sliwa shared that he talked to some TWU members, and they were surprised to learn that their union also represented horse carriage drivers.
“One of my Guardian Angels [members] is a trustee in the union. They never discussed this,” Sliwa stated.
The Guardian Angel founder echoed Birnkrant’s sentiment that horse-drawn carriages didn’t have a place in modern time New York City.
“New York City always prides itself [as a leader], and yet, we are the ones who are most arcane, most primitive, most barbaric, towards these beautiful animals, these horses, who need to be able to frolic [and] fraternize with one another. They need space to roam,” Sliwa said. “They’re horses. Heads are down on the asphalt. They’re suffering. They’re depressed. If we saw a human being like that, ‘We would say, what’s the problem?'”
According to Birnkrant and Holden, many current city council members had promised to support Intro#967 while running for city council but withdrew their support once elected.
“We have on paper enough support to pass this bill. But because of the [TWU] lobbying so hard against the council members who want to do the right thing but are afraid that they will be blacklisted by the incredible power union holds, they are not signing on, and they’re not speaking,” Birnkrant said.
Horse expert and trainer Michael Petrelli, who runs the YouTube channel “Harness Horses Uncovered,” has observed and reported dozens of Central Park carriage horses requiring veterinary care. Injuries range from damaged and split hoofs to lame legs and exhaustion, to name a few. The horses must be cleared for work by a Department of Health vet, or they end up in a slaughterhouse.
“[The City’s] terminology for letting horses work in the park is “serviceably sound,” Petrelli explained. “So there’s an acceptable amount of pain that’s allowed that we see as cruel and criminal.”
The former harness trainer shared that a trainer would be suspended if he raced an injured horse in harness racing.
“There are ramifications for [the trainer’s] actions. There are none here in the city,” Petrelli said.
amNewYork Metro has reached out to Speaker Adrienne Adams and TWU Local 100 for comment.
