Legislation Important for the Cause

July of 2008 is a new beginning for the fight to end the slaughter of American horses. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) have introduced a new bill, H.R. 6598, known as the Conyers-Burton Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2008. This new legislation will ban the slaughter of American horses for human consumption overseas, as well as ban the export of American horses to other countries for slaughter.

On Sept. 17, 2008 H.B. 6598, the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2008 that would ban slaughter and criminalize the transportation of horses for the purpose of having them slaughtered for human consumption, passed out of the Judiciary Committee.

On Oct. 3rd however, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) referred the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act to the Agriculture Committee, giving that committee until Jan. 3, 2009, to take action on the bill. Since the 110th Congress has adjourned, the bill will not pass unless it comes up during a lame duck session, which is highly unlikely.

While this most certainly is extremely disappointing, we will continue our fight to end horse slaughter.

To truly end the slaughter of our horses we must pass federal legislation. Many people believe that horse slaughter has ended because the three US horse slaughter plants have closed. This is not true. The slaughter of American horses continues: our horses are cruelly transported thousands of miles to slaughter plants in Canada and Mexico. We all must work to end horse slaughter NOW. We all must work to pass this federal legislation.

Several of our biggest opponents were defeated in November's election. The three at the top of the list are Senator Conrad Burns (who will go down in history as the Senator who killed America's Wild Horses), Rep. Pombo of California, and Rep. Bonilla who because he had the power thumbed his nose at the will of Congress during the congressional effort to defund horse slaughter inspectors, which would have closed down the slaughter plants. Sadly along the way we lost two long time supporters of our efforts: Rep. John Sweeney of New York and Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio.

Horse slaughter continues to be an issue about which many Americans know little. It is our job to educate our friends, co-workers, and family about this dirty little secret. It is hard to pass federal legislation when you are going up against big money lobbyists. We learned quite a bit about big money lobbyists during the last session of Congress when the practices of lobbyists like Abramoff were revealed to the public. We are now a better informed public, and Congress seems more concerned about ethics. However, lobbyists still have a lot of power in Washington.

Horses don't have big money lobbyists. They only have us, the people, the voting public. In order to make a difference, in order to be an effective voice for our American horses, we must shout an educated voice to our elected officials.

Believe us when we say, your single voice does make a difference. It echoes far and wide and brings more people to our cause each time you talk about the need to end horse slaughter.

As the next campaigns to end horse slaughter and to re-establish the protection for America's Wild Horses develop, we will post articles, letters and links here. Some will be for educational purposes and for sharing. Others will include a call to action.

Please join us. Help us write a respectful and humane legacy for the next generations of our country.

Commercial Transport & Horse Cruelty Issues