Photo taken at RTF’s sanctuary by Tony Stromberg.
The sponsor of legislation to ban horse slaughter, Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., announced his retirement today.
Return to Freedom commends Rep. Buchanan for his many years as a legislative leader in the effort to end horse slaughter. He has acted as lead sponsor or cosponsor on slaughter ban bills five times, depending on which party was in the majority.
A longtime Democratic leader on the horse slaughter issue, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., previously announced plans to retire at the end of her current term.
We urge the Reps. Buchanan and Schakowsky and their colleagues to use their remaining time in office to pass the current iteration of the bill, the Save America’s Forgotten Equine (SAFE) Act, to cap their time in public office.
The SAFE Act (H.R. 1661) would place a lasting ban on horse slaughter in the United States and bar the export of American horses for slaughter.
Buchanan began supporting horse slaughter ban bills immediately upon arriving in the House of Representatives in 2007. He has also chaired the bipartisan Animal Protection Caucus.
This SAFE Act has 223 bipartisan cosponsors and the support of animal welfare and horse industry organizations alike, but we must keep working hard if the bill is to be brought up for a vote.
Buchanan and a number of Republican colleagues have also joined in an effort supported by RTF to add the same horse slaughter ban language to the Farm Bill.
The last American horse slaughterhouse closed in 2007. RTF and others work to ensure that Congress includes language in annual funding bills that prohibits the U.S. Department of Agriculture from using tax dollars to hire horsemeat inspectors.
That has created a year-to-year ban on horse slaughter — but only within U.S. borders.
At least 24,100 American equines were shipped Mexican or Canadian slaughterhouses in 2025, an increase of at least 21% from the previous year. Final statistics are not yet available.