Photo by Lori Sortino
From January through April, 5,211 American horses and other equines were exported to Mexico or Canada for slaughter — up 3.95% from the same period last year.
That includes domestic horses as well as an unknown number of once free-roaming wild horses and burros, which the government does not track after title is passed to a new owner following adoption or sale.
American horses will continue to be shipped to their deaths day after day until Congress acts.
Right now, the slow-moving gears on Capitol Hill have all but halted, likely leaving efforts to ban horse slaughter up in the air until after Election Day.
But we must keep pushing!
—We strongly support a stand-alone bill, the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act, which has amassed 224 bipartisan cosponsors in the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, there’s been little movement toward a vote.
The SAFE Act would make permanent the ban on horse slaughter in the United States as well as banning the export of American horses for slaughter.
—We are also lobbying for the same language to be included in the Farm Bill.
Renewed about every five years, the trillion-dollar ag funding bill presents another possible route to passing a horse slaughter ban. That legislation is also likely stalled until after the election at the earliest.
It’s critically important that we continue contacting members of Congress, however.