Horse-drawn carriages rides are no longer allowed in Philadelphia after City Council formally banned the once-common tourism attraction Thursday.<\/p>\n
The ban applies to commercial and noncommercial carriages, sleds, wagons and sleighs. Violators face daily fines of up to $1,000. <\/p>\n
MORE: City Council approves 2027 budget without Mayor Parker’s proposed rideshare and Airbnb taxes<\/a><\/p>\n Horse-drawn carriage rides had been used for historical tours in Old City<\/a> for decades, but Philadelphia’s last carriage company shuttered<\/a> in 2023, and developers planned to turn its stable into apartments. That came after its only competitor ceased operations in 2017 over unsafe stable conditions. <\/p>\n However, noncommercial carriages have been spotted in the city recently, prompting City Council to amend the legislation to include noncommercial operators.<\/p>\n The bill was introduced by Councilmember Mark Squilla<\/a> (D-1), who represents Old City. Councilmember Nic O’Rourke (Working Families Party-At-Large), cast the sole vote against the legislation, but he said during Thursday’s council meeting that his opposition was “benign.” <\/p>\n O’Rourke did not immediately return a request for comment, but he told the Inquirer<\/a> that he thought the legislation could make it difficult for movie companies to use the carriages for filming in the city. <\/p>\n The bill allows for exceptions, but in those cases horse must be licensed by the Department of Licenses and Inspections, and regulated by animal control. <\/p>\n The bill was largely supported by animal rights activists, who said carriage rides unnecessarily strain horses. They noted a horse pulling a carriage collapsed and died<\/a> in New York City’s Central Park on Tuesday. <\/p>\n Janet White, the founder and CEO of advocacy organization Carriage Horse Freedom, said horse-drawn carriages were originally brought back to Philadelphia as an attraction for the bicentennial in 1976. Now, she feels its time for a change. <\/p>\n “Now, for America 250, horse-drawn carriages can finally be removed from the streets,” White said during Thursday’s meeting. “This ordinance is more than a policy change, it is a moral and civic milestone, one that reflects who we are today: the humane, forward-looking city we aspire to be.” <\/p>\n The bill awaits the signature of Mayor Cherelle Parker<\/a>, but it is veto-proof. <\/p>\n The bill was approved during the final City Council meeting before summer recess. Animal rights was a popular topic this council session, with government leaders approving a ban on unlicensed dog breeding<\/a> in February and Councilmember Cindy Bass<\/a> proposing a bill to prohibit the sale of foie gras<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Horse-drawn carriages rides are no longer allowed in Philadelphia after City Council formally banned the once-common tourism attraction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[56560,744,61823,13272,69,71,70,7803],"class_list":["post-218023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-animal-rights","tag-government","tag-horses","tag-old-city","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}