Assemblymember Rosenthal testifies in support of ban
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal testifies about her decade-long efforts to ban carriages, lists names of dead horses, cites over 100 documented injury incidents, and urges passage of Romanch's Law.
Great, great.
Speaker Menon, Chair Schulman, Councilmember Marte, esteemed members of the Health Committee, good afternoon.
I'm Assemblymember Linda B.
Rosenthal.
I'm chair of the Assembly Housing Committee, and I proudly represent the Upper West Side and parts of Hell's Kitchen, as well as parts of Central Park.
Where tragically, Roman Shmahajan, an 18-year-old tourist from India, died after being thrown from a horse carriage on June 17, 2026.
I'm also an ardent animal rights champion who has passed many laws protecting the rights and lives of New York's
most defenseless creatures, yet despite our collective progress, we still have much to accomplish when it comes to protecting the city's carriage horses from injury and abuse.
And the way to safeguard these majestic creatures is to finally phase out the industry by passing Romach's law.
In 2011, to combat the rising scourge of deaths and injuries of horses on our streets, I introduced state legislation to ban the use of horse carriages.
My intention was to spur the city to take action, but up until today, despite promises and agreements,
Traffic collisions and dead horses, no bill has passed.
But no one gave up.
Charlie, Tickler, Billy, Blackjack, Lady, Denise, Spotty, Juliet, Smoothie, Clancy, Tommy, Aisha, Misty, and Ryder.
Those are the names of some of the horses that have died in New York City as a result of their forced employment.
There have been more than 100 documented incidences of other horses being badly injured on the job.
Some have been hit by cars, motorcycles, and buses.
Others have been badly spooked, endangering the lives of riders, carriage drivers, pedestrians, and of course the horses themselves.
We can't wait for more horses or people to die on the streets in order to act.
Cities across the globe have far fewer tourist distractions, have shown us we don't have to tolerate animal abuse to churn a profit.
I will wind up by saying the New York City Council and the administration can put an end to this cruelty once and for all.
It's amazing what a change in administration and leadership can do.
I applaud Councilmember Marte, all the co-sponsors, and of course the Speaker for putting forth this bill that will not only ban this archaic practice, it will also help to transition current carriage drivers into new jobs.
One last thing, today would not be possible without the unyielding support and dedication to this issue.
By all the advocates and to the many horses who have
lost their lives.
Thank you for honoring the life of Ramach Mahajan.
We will ensure that his death will not be in vain.
It's high time we join other countries and cities in refusing to accept abuse as the cost of doing business.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, Assemblymember.
No clapping, folks.
You can go like this, but no clapping, all right?
Okay.
Okay, now I'm going to call up the next panel, which is Ashley...
Byron?
Byrne.
Byrne.
Ashley Byrne.
Ashley Byrne here.
Edie Falco.
Bob Holden.
Adita.
Burncrant?
Oh, and then this is going to be a hybrid panel, folks.
We also have somebody, Dr.
Craig Kulikowski, is going to be joining us remotely.
Yeah, sure.
Who's going first?
Adita?
Yeah, go ahead.