Please Tell Congress to Pass the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act to End the Slaughter of American Horses

***TAKE ACTION!***


Animal Welfare Insititute


What You Can Do:
Please email, call or write your US representative and both US senators today and urge them to cosponsor H.R. 1942/S. 1214, the SAFE Act. Send an email via the form below or find your legislators' contact information here. For more information on horse slaughter and how you can help, visit AWI's website.

Share on facebookShare on twitterMore Sharing Services425


Dear Humanitarian,

The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act has been reintroduced in the Senate by Sens. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and in the House of Representatives by Reps. Frank Guinta (R-NH), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Vern Buchanan (R-FL), and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM). This bill would ban horse slaughter in the United States, while ensuring American horses are not exported out of the US for the same purpose.

AWI has long exposed the rampant cruelty and dishonesty of this industry—from what goes on inside the slaughterhouse to the backroom dealings of killer buyers misleading horse owners. Undercover footage from former US horse slaughter plants revealed horrific suffering: employees whipping horses in the face, horses who flipped over backward and were injured due to rough and abusive handling, and horses remaining conscious while shackled and hoisted by a rear leg to have their throats cut. Documents and photos from these slaughterhouses show horses with broken bones protruding from their bodies, eyeballs hanging by a thread of skin, and open wounds.

In addition to the terrible abuses, there is another side to this industry that is gaining attention. Horses are not raised for human consumption in the United States and are regularly administered drugs that are expressly prohibited by federal regulations for use in food animals. A June 2014 New York Timesarticle highlighted the plethora of drugs used on race horses—including cobra venom and cocaine—and the resulting food safety threats. In fact, as of January 15, 2015, the European Union (EU) banned imports of horse meat from Mexico to the EU after an audit of EU-certified Mexican horse slaughter plants found widespread animal welfare and food safety problems. The report noted that 87 percent of the horses slaughtered for human consumption in Mexico for export to the EU come from the United States.

Please be sure to share our "Dear Humanitarian" eAlert with family, friends and co-workers, and encourage them to send a message also. As always, thank you very much for your help!

Sincerely,

Chris Heyde
Deputy Director
Government and Legal Affairs

P.S. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates on the action above and other important animal protection news.
Click HERE to TAKE ACTION!