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Advocates Opposing Horse Slaughter… This is a fast, easy action to take for Our Horses.
CLICK HERE to send an Automatic Letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.
The Animal Welfare Institute applauds Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack for joining AWI and the majority of Americans who feel there are better, more humane, more responsible options for horses nearing the end of their lives or their careers than being slaughtered for meat.
Secretary Vilsack, while speaking with reporters earlier this week, called on Congress to come up with other ways for this country to handle aging horses than to slaughter them for meat for human consumption. Secretary Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa, noted that in his home state horses work with inmates in prisons, and that this helps prisoners acquire job skills for when they rejoin society.
An additional factor that weighs heavily in favor of Secretary Vilsack’s call for humane alternatives is the federal government’s growing budgetary crisis. If the Department of Agriculture were to resume inspection of horse slaughter facilities—something it has not done for several years—the department would be forced to divert limited manpower and funding in order to finance the effort because Congress did not provide additional funding when it removed the annual prohibition on inspecting these facilities. The timing could not be worse, given the current congressional emphasis on shrinking, not expanding, government expenditures.
“A recent national survey found that over 80 percent of Americans support a ban on horse slaughter and Secretary Vilsack is right in representing that position,” said Heyde. “AWI urges everyone who supports an end to horse slaughter in favor of more humane and responsible alternatives to write Secretary Vilsack and urge him to work with Congress on passage of the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act.”
Please share this AWI eAlert with family, friends and coworkers, and encourage them to write too. As always, thank you for your help; your action does make a difference!
All Horses Go To Heaven 
thanks for this!
Thanks for taking Action Annie.
It’s so good to see we have a leader who takes this issue seriously and responsibly for the good of all. Now is the time to pass the SAFE Act!
Yes, Jean… This is definitely a step in the Right Direction.Thanks for taking action.
woe to Humans who have forgotten Horse. Have you forgotten that without Horse YOU would still be walking?
Please find an alternative to slaughtering these majestic sensitive creatures!
I LOVE ALL HORSES AND I HAVE COMPASSION TO ALL THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I rode horses as a young teen to help me with the challenges I faced in school, relationships, and so much more. I dreamed as I rode, and escaped and dreamed. I was an Indian, I was a Jockey, I was a princess galloping through the woods and I always escaped danger. I am a girl. Horses to girls are as dogs are. Comforting, loyal, sensitive, and life altering. Until our nation becomes more humane, we will always have issues with kindness, respect, and dignity. PLEASE do not let this happen. Our children, our grandchildren, our souls, depend upon it. Thank You.
beautifully said; thank you
PLEASE YOU MUST DO ALL YOU CAN TO SAVE THESE SO BEAUTIFUL HORSES. I WATCHED A VIDEO AND I SAW IN HORROR A MAN PUTING A GUN TO THE HEAD OF A
GORGEOUS HORSE AND FIRE….THE HORSE FELL AND KEPT WRITHING IN PAIN. I GOT
SICK AND RAN INTO THE BATHEROOM TO VOMIT.
I sent the enclosed to Secretary Vilsack. Yes, it felt good, for once, to send to a legislator who supported our horses!
personalized and done
Americans do not eat horse meat as a general rule. The horses sold for human consumption are being sold as a DELICACY only available to the wealthy in Mexico and also or export in Canada. The EU refuses US horsemeat due the that amounts of drugs our horses are routinely treated with and the lack of an FDA tpe agency to protect thier food. I am concerned that if horsemeat is processed for human consumption, that it will find its way into our food supply. The FDA admits that it has inadequate inspectors to ensure a 100 percent or even an 80 percent garuntee that people in the US would not be exposed unwillingly to horsemeat. Several food service providers including Burger King, Taco Bell, and Nestle admit to using horsemeat in thier food , in foreign countries they say, but I no longer eat food from these places because I am unable to be assured that they do not cut those corners in the US also. Our budget is unsustainable as it is without hiring additional assets to gain a modest increase in food supply safety. American taxpayers deserve one of the safest food supplies in the world. It is not acceptable that our children, unwilling citizens, and the poor be subjected to food that is potentially contaminated with drugs such as Phenylbutizone, lasix, and many different types of antibiotics because the “hamburger” is mixed with or wholey horsemeat.
Please save our horses.
The horse has helped us in so many ways. Without the horse we would not have had a lot of things done. Riding, pulling, plowing and teaching ect… We will always need their help!
Please don’t destroy them.
Christina – you are blind if you say it is being sold as a “delicacy”. Where have you been during this horsemeat scandal in Europe? The horsemeat is being sold and exported as cheap filler to supplement the Europeans demand for cheaper and cheaper beef. One package of “beef” was found to be 99% horsemeat.
In the United States where beef is plentiful and horsemeat is scarce, or in Mexico where there is beef most “hamburger” would be beef. In Europe where beef is scarce and horses are plentiful, then yes the horsemeat would be the filler. The fact of the matter is that horsemeat is not an American staple and I hope that it never is.
NO….CHRISTINA…..NO WAY A DELICACY…..SORRY BUT I SAY GREED….FILLER…SCHMILLER…GREED….YES….YES…YES…KILL HORSES…GIVE EM THEIR
MEAT…NEVER KNOW THE DIFFERENCE…HUNGRY FOR BEEF…WHY NOT HORSES..GREED …JUST CAN’T BELIEVE USA IS LETTING SUCH HORROR…ARE WE ALL
GOING TO HELL…YES YES YES WE KILL HORSES……… DON’T WE
Dont think for one minute that I approve or would ever vote in favor of, or would speak in favor of horse slaughter; most especially not for human consumption. I agree in part with your statements but mine were correct as well. In the United States the horse meat would find its way in as cheap filler. We would be pulling up to Taco Bell, Burger King for a burger and be eatting (most likely) slaughtered and ground up Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse, or Mustang meat disguised as beef or added as a “cheap filler to beef content. Buger King, Taco Bell, and Nestle are among American companies that have admitting to feeding horsemeat to thier patrons (over seas they say).
My issue is a bit different I suppose. Don’t get me wrong. Slaughter is as wrong as it can get. But Oklahomaons are only seeing dollar signs and jobs. They aren’t thinking with the head above their shoulders.
I want to know how the Governor plans on protecting all the wild horses and burros. I want to know how the Governor plans on protecting horse owners and their horses from theft? Kill buyers will send that horse to slaughter etc.
What are is she going to do about the crime rate? Domesticate violence? Toxic waste.
What is the Governor going to do when the EU shuts their doors to American horses because we are in non compliance with their laws? Who will Oklahoma sell the horses too?
You can’t sell the meat to prisons. Prisoners don’t have a choice in foods. You would be exposing them to all kinds of diseases. That horse meat isn’t even fit for dogs or cats. You can’t sell it to schools/kids. They are some of the most vulnerable to the side effects of Bute.
We saw that horrible snuff video with Tim Sappington last week. What will you as Governor do to protect innocent citizen’s from folks like Tim who will undoubtedly be working in those slaughterhouses?
Horses move! It’s what they do best, and it is why we ride , drive, train or just watch horses instead of eating them.
-Susan Harris, Horse Gaits, Balance and Movement
Ok so now the tribes are in on this again too, they have been trying to open a slaughter plant on the reservation in a town called Stanwood-look it up in Sky Valley online news 2009 article called Stanwood poised to become most prominent horse slaughter town. In it they are suggesting that Sue Wallis and a Texas Rep. put them up to this idea-however, there’s another problem-very simple, the horses eat the same plant type that the bute is made of, theses horses are consuming medicinal, herbal, and carcinogenic drugs that not only are banned from consumption in the food chain but also run the risk of having deadly interactions with persons prescription medications. WE need to speak out against this! If you are only one person you may ask what do I do?Simple, if every single person who disagrees with slaughter speaks out immediately to your Congressmen and women and tell them your position on the SAFE Act, email, phone, heck even leave an afterhours voicemail for them, they just need to hear from us! We can do a lot if we just speak out! The most they hear from anyone in theUnited States they better the chances we have to stop this! They are not concerned about our health and are avoiding the issues pertaining to the deaths of the horses and the fact many are ALIVE during the process, which is horrendous and unavoidable, even the famous Dr Grandin cannot guarantee this is a suitable method, it gets sicker-now she wants to have them attempt to halter the horses, so we have scared animals already abused through the entire process now being held into place with a halter/lead and an angry handler who just wants to get done with the horses. This is a very dangerous situation, how can a Dr. give such dangerous advice to people? No matter how many Phds. a person has unless you are a horse handler/owner full time you cant fully get enough behavior information to make calls like that one. Its simple another tragedy waiting to happen. Back to the point contact anyone we can immediately! Don’t stop fighting! We can still win this!
Americans don’t eat horses, please don’t open any horse slaughter plants her in the USA. Americans love horses always have and always will, they are to ride and enjoy not to eat. People need to stop the breeding for awhile until the economy gets back to where it once was where they can afford to feed their horses with no problem once again. The old and sick horses need to be put down humanely. Horse slaughter can never be humane even the experts say so because they are flight animals. The American people do not want their tax dollars used to support foreign predatory inhumane enterprises such as horse slaughter plants. Plus their meat is toxic with bute and all other medicines we have to give them. Please be the voices of the horses that don’t have one. The wild horses need to be free again not in pens they are supposed to be protected so why are they not?