Thanks to a powerful grassroots movement of equine welfare groups and the public, America’s horses have not been slaughtered for human consumption in the U.S. since 2007. Horse slaughter plants were shuttered, and remain so, due to the annual federal budget not providing funding for horse meat inspectors.
Unfortunately, the defund does not prevent tens of thousands of innocent equines from transporting across our borders every year to meet a brutal and unnecessary ending.
The transport of horses for slaughter is inhumane, unsafe, and serious accidents have often occurred on our highways. Most of these have resulted in devastating injuries and numerous deaths of horses in the trucks. In October 2020, 14 horses were killed with another 11 badly injured when the truck flipped over on a highway in Missouri. In 2017, a truck owned by a vicious kill buyer from Louisiana was involved in a terrible crash resulting in the deaths of 19 horses.
On June 30, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Carter-Fitzpatrick Amendment to the INVEST in America Act. The amendment serves to ban the transport of equines for slaughter which would then end the slaughter of America’s horses for human consumption.
The measure has bipartisan support, with six Democrats and six Republicans co-authoring it, including Reps. Carter, Fitzpatrick, and Katko, along with Reps. Dina Titus,, Steve Cohen, Jan Schakowsky, Vern Buchanan, Paul Tonko, and Andy Barr, Buddy Carter, Donald Payne, and Guy Reschenthaler.
The Biden Administration’s INVEST in America Act is the best opportunity that equine advocates have seen in years to ban the transport of American equines to slaughter.
It will be important to contact your Senators when the bill with this amendment moves to the Senate for consideration.