City Council plans to vote next week on legislation that would ban all horse-drawn carriage use in Philadelphia.
Philly’s last operating carriage company ceased operations in 2023, but advocates have been pushing for a law that would make sure the practice never comes back.
Council members were scheduled to vote on the bill, introduced by Councilmember Mark Squilla, Thursday. But animal rights advocates pushed for an amendment that would broaden the legislation to ban both commercial and non-commercial horse-drawn carriages before voting.
Council unanimously approved the amendment. Council members are slated to vote on the amended legislation at council’s final session before summer recess next week.
Advocates said horse-drawn carriages were cruel and dangerous to the animals, and hazardous for busy city streets.
“Horse-drawn carriage rides are not a harmless tourist attraction. They are an outdated industry that forces horses to work in dangerous, stressful, and unnatural conditions. These horses are made to pound pavement for hours at a time, surrounded by loud traffic, construction, extreme weather, and unpredictable city environments,” Tiffany Stair, co-founder of the animal rights group Revolution Philadelphia, told at City Council in support of the legislation.
Before the amendment, the legislation would have only banned horse-drawn carriages for commercial use. But Janet White, founder of the advocacy group Carriage Horse Freedom, said there were some recent instances where people had offered seemingly noncommercial carriage rides to others on South Street and in Center City, which would have not been covered by the original legislation.
“We want to make sure they have protections as well,” White said about those horses.
Even before 76 Carriage Company cleared out its stables in 2023, the practice appeared to be death rattling in Philly. In 2017, a court injunction shut down Philadelphia Carriage Co. — then one of just two horse-drawn carriage companies still operating in the city — because of building code violations and claims of animal abuse.
Horse carriages were largely absent from Philadelphia for decades following the introduction of the automobile, but were reintroduced during the 1976 bicentennial celebration by 76 Carriage Company’s founder.
» READ MORE: It’s long past time to ban horse-drawn carriages in Philadelphia | Opinion
White and other advocates have pushed the city to implement electric horseless carriages as a more humane way for tourists to get their Philly fix, but they have yet to catch on.