The San Antonio City Council voted to shut down the city’s nearly 160-year-old horse-drawn carriage industry in a vote on Thursday. The council gave the industry five years to wind down operations after a motion narrowly passed to expand it from the initial three-year plan.
Horse-drawn carriages will cease to operate on Jan. 1, 2030. The operating hours for the industry’s five permitted carriage companies will shrink starting in 2027 until 2030. The city will not issue any new permits for carriage companies or licenses for new horses after Thursday.
City council was initially going to vote on a three-year phaseout plan before District 10 Councilmember Marc Whyte made a motion to give the companies five years to continue operating. That motion passed 6-5.
The final vote passed 10-0, with District 8 Councilmember and mayoral candidate Manny Peláez abstaining.
The vote came two years after a policy proposal to discuss possibly phasing out the industry was co-written by District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and District 3 Councilmember Phyllis Viagran in 2022.
The city will engage with company owners to help them work on drawing down their debt in the next several years. The city has said the companies each hold between $70,000 and $700,000 in debt, and council members and company owners have shared concerns that they will go bankrupt if not given enough time to deal with that debt.
Art Martinez de Vara is an attorney representing four of the five horse-drawn carriage companies: Yellow Rose, HRH Carriage, Lollypop Carriages, and Bluebonnet Carriage.
He said if the four companies are given five years at full operational capacity, they should be able to get out without debt. The policy council approved on Thursday tapers off their operating hours for the last three years.
For operators, the city will begin holding job fairs and connecting them with other job-seeking resources, the city’s Ready to Work (RTW) workforce development program, and LiftFund for new job and entrepreneurship opportunities.
A survey the city conducted of horse-drawn carriage operators found fewer than half were interested in RTW. That may be because the average RTW graduate makes roughly $44,000, compared to the vast majority of operators who make more than $50,000. Nearly half surveyed said they make over $70,000.
Several operators have said they would have to sell their homes, move out of the city, and would struggle to find new jobs if their business was shut down.
Operators and businesses have also cast doubt on the financial viability of electric carriages, a proposed alternative to horses. Three-quarters of operators in a city-conducted survey said they had no interest in operating electric carriages, either because they didn’t believe they could make money or because they only wanted to work with horses.
Martinez de Vara said his clients weren’t finished fighting, despite getting an outcome they had advocated for in lieu of a tighter timeline.
“We do think moving to the five-year plan gives us a little wiggle room, obviously,” he said. “We’re going to continue working with the city, we’re going to consider all of our options, including possible litigation. We do believe, as one of the councilmen spoke, that this action is preempted by state law.”
The Texas legislature passed H.B. 2127, referred to by its critics as the “Death Star” bill, in 2023. It prevents local governments from passing a range of ordinances that its proponents say prevent inconsistent regulations for businesses, including mandatory water breaks for workers.
A Travis County Judge ruled HB 2127 unconstitutional last summer after a lawsuit brought by several cities, including San Antonio, but the case is ongoing.
The San Antonio City Attorney’s Office released a statement in response to a potential lawsuit under HB 2127.
"Last year, a Texas District Judge struck down House Bill 2127 as being contrary to the Texas Constitution," the statement said. "The State appealed, and that appeal is still pending. Although the appeal technically keeps [HB] 2127 in effect, from a practical standpoint any litigation brought pursuant to [HB] 2127 would likely be stayed until the appeal is resolved."
Many animal rights activists spoke at Thursday’s council meeting and said the horse-drawn carriage industry was one built on exploitation that needed to end.
Carlos Treviño was one of them.
“Animal abuse should be abolished,” he said. “Animal slavery should be abolished. That's exactly what it is. You hear these people taking the page out of the slave master book, saying ‘[the horses] were bred for this, we've been doing this for a long time.’ That is not a justification.”
Animal rights activists said the horses were endangered by inhaling vehicle exhaust on the city’s downtown streets.
The city-contracted veterinarian, Benjamin Espy, who has also served as the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo’s head of veterinary services for the last 20 years, has said the horses are perfectly healthy and that the practice is not inhumane.
The city’s current regulations for the industry prevent the horses from working on days above 95 degrees, require operators to give horses water breaks between each ride, and require a city-contracted veterinarian — Espy — to examine them every six months.
Other opponents of the industry said the horse-drawn carriages contribute to congestion downtown, though operators said that’s a result of the city’s decision to remove horse carriage stands, which forced carriages to pile up on one or two streets.
Operators, owners, and other supporters said they were deeply attached to the horses, cared for them well, and that bankruptcy would likely lead to the horses being seized and sold at auction to unknown buyers to pay off debts.
When District 9 Councilmember John Courage rhetorically asked from the dais whether the city should also shut down the Rodeo or end horses’ participation in Fiesta events, the crowd of animal advocates shouted yes, a sign that the horse-drawn carriage industry may not be the last place where the fight over the place of animals in San Antonio culture is fought.
For now, the horse-drawn carriage industry will survive at least until Jan. 1, 2030.
