Wild horses at RTF’s Lompoc sanctuary. Photo by Meg Frederick.
Fantastic news! – New York Gov. Kathy Hochul today signed a law banning the slaughter of equines for human or animal consumption.
She also signed a bill increasing penalties for facilities that attempt to sell injured or ill equines, according to the Albany Times Union.
It’s especially fitting that Hochul signed the bills on Dec. 13, the National Day of the Horse!
Thank you to the governor, New York lawmakers
and
all of those who worked to make this happen.
In 2021, New York also passed a law banning the slaughter of thoroughbred and Standardbred race horses.
A federal law is still needed to ban the export of American horses to Mexico, Canada
or
elsewhere for slaughter, but the people of New York have made a clear statement that they will not accept horse slaughter.
The last horse slaughterhouse in the United States was shuttered in 2007, but horses continue to be shipped to other countries for slaughter — including 19,989 last year, according to government statistics.
That’s why Return to Freedom continues to lobby Congress hard to pass the SAFE Act, which would permanently ban horse slaughter in the United States as well as the export of American horses for slaughter.
RTF is also part of an unprecedented coalition of equine industry and animal welfare groups, the Final Stretch Alliance to End Horse Slaughter.