It’s Happening: Horse Slaughter Vote

You’ve got to act now because on Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the agriculture appropriations bill for fiscal year 2013, meaning that it will have to decide whether to continue to use taxpayer dollars to fund equine slaughter inspections. Last year, horse slaughter once again became a possibility in the U.S. after the government approved federal funds for inspections for the first time since 2006. But this year, Rep. Jim Moran from Virginia introduced an amendment—which the House House Appropriations Committee approved—prohibiting funds from being spent on horse slaughter inspections. Now Congress must decide whether to allow horses to be shot in the head and strung up by one leg before having their throats slit so that people can profit from the sale of their flesh.

Moran’s amendment would get us one step closer to ending horse slaughter, but there is still a huge loophole. Horse-flesh dealers could still send horses to Canada or Mexico to be slaughtered, as they did during the years when no equine slaughterhouses were operating in the U.S. In addition to a painful and terrifying death, a PETA investigation revealed that horses were crammed into transport trucks and sent on grueling journeys of more than 1,000 miles in subfreezing conditions during which time they were never given food or water or a chance to get out and stretch their legs.

The Moran amendment echoes the feelings of the 80 percent of Americans who do not believe that horses should be slaughtered for their flesh, but in order to close the loophole, Congress must also pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011, which states that horses may not be shipped to slaughter outside the country. Please contact your members of Congress today to urge them to support this crucial legislation.