Contact: Gail Vacca, National Horse Protection Coalition, 815-761-4937

Horse Slaughter Ban at Risk

Immediate action is needed to help maintain the ban on the slaughter of horses in the United States for human consumption abroad. With the help of the American people, we convinced Congress to pass an amendment to the 2006 Agriculture Appropriations Bill that prohibits the use of tax dollars from being used to fund the federally mandated inspection of horses to be slaughtered for human consumption, thereby protecting America’s horses from slaughter.

The measure was overwhelmingly approved in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and it was made official on Nov. 10, 2005 when the President signed the 2006 Agriculture Appropriations Bill into law. However, the horse slaughter industry refuses to give up—and as a result, the ban on horse slaughter is at risk.

We recently learned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering a petition surreptitiously submitted by the three foreign-owned horse slaughterhouses in the United States which would enable the horse slaughter industry to fund the inspections of horses for slaughter.

If the petition is granted, the horse slaughter industry’s crooked plot would allow the slaughter of tens of thousands of horses for human consumption in 2006. This would circumvent Congressional intent and fly in the face of the will of the American people.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please contact the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns as soon as possible and urge him to deny the petition for horse slaughter.

Secretary Mike Johanns
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20250
Phone: 202-720-3631
E-mail: Mike.Johanns@usda.gov

Please tell family, friends and co-workers, and encourage them to contact Secretary Johanns, too. Thank you very much for your help!

For additional information on what you can do to stop this inhumane practice, log onto http://www.horse-protection.org.