Facts, Tools and Information |
Horse Slaughter in America, the Current status and the facts you need to know. Update March 2013:  |
NEW FEDERAL LEGISLATION Introduced for the 113th Congress
(2013 - 2014)
H.R.1094 -- Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2013
To prohibit the sale or transport of equines and equine parts in interstate or foreign commerce for human consumption.
S.B.541-- Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2013
A bill to prevent human health threats posed by the consumption of equines raised in the United States.
This bipartisan legislation, if passed will protect people and horses and it would end the possibility of U.S. horse slaughter once and for all.
In the absence of federal protection, over 100,000 American horses are shipped across federal borders to slaughter plants in Mexico and Canada each year. What most people don't realize is that 92% of the horses sent to slaughter are sound, young and healthy. These are among America’s finest and brightest horses; champion show horses, Thoroughbred racehorses, summer camp ponies and even wild horses taken from their native lands.
The resounding evidence of how we treat our horses inside the U.S. once they are designated as food animals is chilling. Inside the slaughter pipeline they are systematically beaten, dragged, whipped, crammed into double deck cattle trailers and hauled for days without food, water or rest, many are purposely blinded as a means to force them to succumb to defeat. Until a federal law is passed to ban the slaughter of America’s horses, they will continue to be shipped across federal borders for horsemeat which is sold as a delicacy overseas.
USDA INSPECTIONS
USDA inspections must take place on site at each U.S. slaughterhouse in order for its meat product to be legally available for interstate commerce. The ban on the spending of taxpayer dollars for USDA inspections of horse slaughter, keeps foreign special interests from slaughtering our horses inside the U.S. The inclusion of the defunding language in the farm bill is therefore vital to protecting our horses from this insidious cruelty.
The Agriculture Appropriations bill comes up every year and since 2006, has included protective language to prohibit the USDA from receiving tax payer money to inspect horse slaughter plants. The protective language was quietly stripped from the annual appropriations bill in Nov 2011, by just three people; Senators Blunt, Kohl and Congressman Kingston. Had the bill been brought to the Senate for a full vote, it would have no doubt passed.
The 2013 Agriculture Appropriations bill moved to the Senate in March of 2013, and currently does not include the defunding language.
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In truth, there is no guarantee of humane treatment for any animal 
inside America's slaughterhouses. Yet foreign investors and special interest groups want YOUR tax dollars to re-open horse slaughter in the US and they are using every type of trickery available to mislead YOU to do it.
Numerous governmental reports and undercover investigations show that USDA inspections fail to stop insidious abuses from taking place inside US slaughterhouses. Substantial documented evidence reveals egregious violations and a total lack of enforcement by the USDA in U.S. horse slaughterhouses before they were shut down in 2007. If horse slaughter plants are reopened in the U.S., horses will undoubtedly suffer torturous agony on U.S. soil again.
See the US government in action as the truth get burried
You can make a difference by urging your Representatives to support the ban of horse slaughter.
The phone number for the Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121 -- just ask to be connected to your state Representative's office.
You can also find the direct contact information for your state representative here>> http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Your state representatives need to hear from YOU, their constituents, to help insure that they stand strong representing your voice, your position against horse slaughter.
To voice your opposition to horse slaughter ask your represetatives to
1. Support the Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2013, bill numbers, SB 541 and HR 1094
2. Restore the defunding language to the 2013 Agriculture Appropriations Bill (not to fund horse slaughter inspections in the US)
