Photo taken at RTF’s Lompoc headquarters sanctuary by Lori Sortino.
Seventeen members of Congress sent a letter to the Trump administration on Wednesday urging the president to sign an executive order permanently banning horse slaughter.
Live horse exports to Mexico have been suspended due to the discovery of new world screwworm in Texas.
Since the last domestic horse slaughterhouse was shut down in 2007, RTF and other advocates have successfully lobbied Congress to include what is effectively a year-to-year ban on slaughter in annual spending bills.
American equines are still shipped to Mexican and Canadian slaughterhouses, however, including 25,050 last year.
The new letter was led by Rep. Vern Buchanan, who is also the author of the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act, a bill that would ban horse slaughter and the export of horses for slaughter. It has 230 bipartisan cosponsors.
Language with the same goal as the SAFE Act has also been inserted into the surface transportation reauthorization bill.
We appreciate this new effort by Rep. Buchanan and his colleagues, as it sends yet another strong message about the importance of ending horse slaughter.
Because executive orders are often undone when a new administration is sworn in, our focus remains on the SAFE Act and the transportation bill.
You can help
- Call (202) 224-3121. Urge your representative to oppose any effort to remove the horse slaughter ban amendment when the surface transportation reauthorization bill comes up for a vote on the House floor.
- Send a message to all of your members of Congress asking for them to cosponsor the SAFE Act and support the inclusion of anti-slaughter language in the surface transportation reauthorization bill.
- Donate to our Wild Horse Defense Fund, which fuels our Capitol Hill lobbying, grassroots advocacy and selective litigation.