House Passes Anti Horse Slaughter Bill
by a vote of 263 to 146!

The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act finally made it onto the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote on September 7, 2006. In spite of last ditch efforts to gut the bill by attaching amendments that would weaken it, the bill passed intact on a vote of 264 to 146.

The bill will prohibit the transportation and sale of horses for slaughter for human consumption. It will not prohibit the rendering of horses into commercial products (e.g., glue or gelatin,) for slaughter for exotic (zoo)animals, or prevent private individuals from raising horses for meat for their personal use.

The bill will move on to the Senate where it will be taken up as S.1915, a bill introduced by Senator Ensign of Nevada. As of this date S.1915 has 22 Cosponsors.

In the Senate, special interest loyalists such as Conrad Burns have threatened to "Throw it out!" Concerned citizens need to express their opinions to their state's Senators and urge action on this bill.

• To locate contact information for members of the United States Senate, please visit the United States Senate web site. A "Find your Senators" lookup box can be found in the upper right corner of the page, indexed by state.

Posted July 5, 2006.
Updated July 21, 2006 and August 24, 2006.

On September 7, 2006, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on H.R. 503, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. Currently 203 House members have cosponsored the bill to end the inhumane practice of horse slaughter. It will take a simple majority to pass in the 435 member House.

Passage by a strong majority in the House will likely encourage the Senate to pass its version of the bill.

HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• Please call and email your Representative on or before September 6th and ask him/her to support H.R. 503. Representatives can be located by zip code at www.house.gov.

• Ask your Representative to keep you informed as to his/her vote

• Please send us a copy of any Representative's letter who votes against H.R. 503.

• (Click here to see if your Representative is a cosponsor of H.R. 503.)

We thank you for your support!

FACTS ABOUT HORSE SLAUGHTER:

1. There are currently three "foreign" owned slaughter plants in the U.S. (two in Texas and one in Illinois.)

2. Only 1% of our horses are slaughtered in the U.S. (approximately 60 - 90,000 horses)

3. Ending the slaughter of 1% of our horses will not increase cases of neglect or abuse but will end forever the inhumane death that they must suffer.

4. More than 90% of the horses arriving at slaughter plants are in "good" condition (meaning that the sick and lame are less than 10%.) Diners don't want to eat sick and wasted horses.

5. In 1998, a ballot initiative in the state of California passed with 60% of the vote outlawing horse slaughter within the state. Subsequently, horse related crimes went down.

To read the actual bill, please go to H.R.503.

For a complete explanation as to the necessity for such a bill and a history of recent Congressional activities on the subject of horse slaughter, please view the AOWHA series, America's Efforts to End Horse Slaughter.