For The Love Of Horses
Please support our work to promote a kinder world for America’s horses.
American Equine Awareness
is a nonprofit organization.
Greetings
Saving America's Horses
As a horse owner and a supporter of the equine protection community, I am asking for you to help protect America's horses, their owners, and the rescue communities that work to keep horses safe.
The S.A.F.E. Act
Did you know that 80% of Americans surveyed oppose slaughtering horses? However, in spite of the overwhelming support of the public on this issue, Congress has yet to pass Federal legislation that is currently pending to protect horses. This pending bill is called The Safeguard American Food Exports Act, The SAFE Act, and would help end horse slaughter for human consumption.
Please use the links below to read additional information about the bill.
2019 Update
The 116th Congress has reintroduced the S.A.F.E. Act as H.R. 961. Please use this link to send a request to your a Representative asking him/her to cosponsor the legislation.
Congress.gov
SAFE Act
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/113/cosponsors
Introduced in House (01/03/2017)
Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2017
This bill amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to deem equine (horses and other members of the equidae family) parts to be an unsafe food additive.
The bill prohibits the knowing sale or transport of equines or equine parts for human consumption.
Animal Welfare Institute
SAFE Act
https://awionline.org/content/safeguard-american-food-exports-safe-act
HSUS
SAFE Act
https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=7360
ASPCA
SAFE Act
https://secure.aspca.org/action/SAFE-Act-2017
HORSES and the 2019 FEDERAL BUDGET
On May 16th, 2018, the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee voted to fund horse slaughter as part of its Fiscal Year 2019 Agriculture Appropriations Budget. This was done by rejecting the "horse slaughter defunding amendment" that would have barred the U.S. Department of Agriculture from using federal tax money to fund horse meat inspections. By rejecting this defund amendment wording allowing the U.S. government to perform these inspections remains in the House version of the 2019 budget and will be voted on soon.
Please support horse owners in our efforts to stop horses from ending up in the hands of equine kill buyers. You can do this by contacting your U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative by phone at 202-225-3121 and asking them to
1) Withhold support of any 2019 budget wording that funds horse slaughter inspections,
and
2) Ask your lawmakers to cosponsor the bipartisian SAFE Act (HR 113/ S 1706) to ban horse slaughter and the transportation of American horses for slaughter for human consumption.
The SAFE Act now has 218 cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives. This means that this legislation now enjoys the support of over half of the House’s 435 members. While this is good news, we cannot rest until every representative and senator supports this lifesaving legislation. (ASPCA)
Thank you for helping in this effort and for supporting your state's equine protection community.
Saving Horses. Protecting Owners.
Every day counts for the slaughter bound horse.
Did you know that horse owners in the USA do not have the ability to safely rehome their horses? If life circumstances arise that create a need to find a new home for the family horse, it is possible the horse could fall into the hands of a kill buyer and then be transported to a slaughter facility. Most horse owners seek a safe home for the horse but until pending legislation is passed to prevent this from happening it is said “every American horse is always one sale away from ending up in the hands of a kill buyer”.
The following quote is from the investigators Animals’ Angels...
“Any horse can readily become a kill horse. A killer buyer, anxious to fill his quota and get his price per pound, buys a 4 year old, broke-to-ride horse. A horse whose owner unknowingly drops him off at the sale barn without required Coggins papers, is immediately put in the ‘kill pen.’ Horses stolen the night before are sold from the ‘kill pen’ and headed for export within hours of being taken. The family selling their daughter’s horse as she heads for college, ‘so someone else can enjoy him,’ realizes too late that the buyer is someone that auction goers refer to as ‘the meat man.’
Please take a bit of your time to read the information on our page and help owners, advocates and rescues bring this cruel practice to an end. Thank you for your help.
Pass The S.A.F.E. Act
Safeguard American Food Exports Act
house.gov
senate.gov
The term “horse slaughter” refers exclusively to the killing and processing of horses for human consumption. Horse slaughter is NOT humane euthanasia. While “euthanasia” is defined as a gentle, painless death provided in order to prevent suffering, slaughter is a brutal and terrifying end for horses.
https://www.aspca.org/animal-cruelty/horse-slaughter
Horse slaughter has never been considered by veterinary professionals to be a form of euthanasia. Congress and the general public must hear from veterinarians that horse slaughter is not and should not be equated with humane euthanasia. Rather, the slaughtering of horses is a brutal and predatory business that promotes cruelty and neglect and which claimed the lives of more than 100,000 American horses in 2007.
http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/features/horseslaughter-134.shtml#axzz5EP8Ebw8m
FACTS ABOUT HORSE SLAUGHTER
https://awionline.org/content/horse-slaughter-facts-faqs
Stay informed!
Review some of the evidence used both to raise consumer awareness and to provide the EU Commission with the facts behind this cruel and predatory business in our campaign to end the demand for horsemeat in Europe.
http://www.animalsangels.org/issues/horse-slaughter
Any horse can readily become a kill horse. A killer buyer, anxious to fill his quota and get his price per pound, buys a 4 year old, broke-to-ride horse. A horse whose owner unknowingly drops him off at the sale barn without required Coggins papers, is immediately put in the ‘kill pen.’ Horses stolen
the night before are sold from the ‘kill pen’ and headed for export within hours of being taken. The family selling their daughter’s horse as she heads for college, ‘so someone else can enjoy him,’ realizes too late that the buyer is someone auction- goers refer to as ‘the meat man.’ As this report is prepared for release, 3 horses stolen while tied at an event are lucky, they are found in the ‘kill pen’ before the auction.
Nation's Largest Horse Slaughter Operation Exposed
https://www.thedodo.com/nations-largest-slaughter-horse-operation-exposed-1700826409.html
Kill buyers still making a killing selling horses to be killed for their meat
The Secret Empire of Kill Buyer Mike McBarron – An Animals’ Angels Investigation
Every year, kill buyers funnel more than 100,000 American horses – working, racing, and companion horses, and even children’s ponies – into the horse meat trade, going from auction to auction and gathering up young and healthy horses for slaughter for human consumption, often misrepresenting their intentions in the process.
Most horse owners who take an animal to an auction are unaware that their horse could die in a day or two with a sharp-throat-cutting exercise or a shot to the head. But at auctions all around the country, kill buyers bid against legitimate horse owners and horse rescuers, just so they can make a fast buck.
https://blog.humanesociety.org/2015/01/kill-buyers-horse-slaughter.html
The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act would protect them from the horrors of slaughter.
You can help horses by following these steps.
Get the facts
- Learn the truth about horse slaughter.
- Learn how the SAFE Act would help.
- Read about the toxicity of horse meat.
Tell your legislators
Call, email, and visit your legislators. Urge them to cosponsor the SAFE Act to end horse slaughter.
https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/you-can-help-fight-horse-slaughter
THE SLAUGHTER PROCESS
http://horsefund.org/horse-slaughter-images.php
From The Horse Fund site
Legislative Timelines
Laws banning horse slaughter and export for slaughter have been proposed as early as 1998, and are still being pursued. Trace the history of horse slaughter legislation from the beginning.
http://horsefund.org/horse-slaughter-resources.php
HSUS
The facts about horse slaughter.
Separate fact from fiction on the issue of slaughtering U.S. horses for food.
https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/facts-about-horse-slaughter
What Are Equine Kill-Buyers?
Brokers and Kill-Buyers
Kill Buyers and Brokers, Are They The Same Thing?
By Buckit-List
"In the United States, horses are not allowed to be used for human consumption nor for pet food, however, Mexico and Canada both allow the slaughter of horses for animal and human consumption. At auction, horses are assigned a “hip number” — a number that is physically glued to them by which they are inventoried and referred to.
A kill buyer is someone who buys horses either with the intent to sell them to a slaughterhouse, or that act as a middle man for slaughter houses. Kill buyers (who are often simply referred to by the acronym “KB”) are typically contracted by a meat company, slaughterhouse, or other business that deals with horses for the purpose of slaughtering them for their meat. Sometimes horse owners knowingly relinquish their horses directly to a kill buyer knowing exactly what fate awaits their horses.
Kill buyers look for horses at auctions, feed lots, horse brokers, and may even scour horse ad sites. An alarming number of “free” or “cheap” horses “to loving home” are posted on sites such as Craig List — a new marketplace crawling with kill buyers who respond to ads promising a good home to someones’ companion horse then send them off to slaughter. Kill buyers are often suspected (and sometimes caught) dealing with stolen horses — horses they either stole themselves, or horses that were illegally brought to auctions to be sold. Some kill buyers have been found guilty of taking wild horse from public lands or from the BLM to hold them, but then later sold them to slaughter.
What Is A Horse Broker?
A broker is someone who buys and sells horses for a living. A kill buyer also buys and sells horses for a living. The main difference between the two is to whom and for what purposes purchased horses are resold.
Brokers often purchase horses with the intent to sell any horse they cannot resell to an individual, at auction, or to rescue organizations to slaughter.
Unfortunately, there are many websites that prey upon kindhearted horse lovers advertising horses as being “owned by a kill buyer” urging donors to come forth to “rescue” the horse by a fast approaching date. Sometimes these sites are cleverly created by brokers themselves looking to resell horses and if they cannot be sold the horse will revert to KB status and then be sent to slaughter directly or sold to another kill buyer.
Some kill buyers and brokers will work with rescue organizations by allowing rescues to buy horses (usually at a price higher than what the KB/broker paid) and save them from slaughter. However, other brokers and kill buyers refuse to work with organizations based on the fear of being harassed and facing public scrutiny."
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