-->A Follow-up to My Recent Post,

Pilfered National Treasures

We as individuals

Can make a difference

In our modern society

We must not stop trying

To bring compassion back

To the Home of the Brave

And the Land of the Free

We must also never stop trying

To save our national treasures

And we must keep reminding

Our very forgetful elected officials

That they do serve at our pleasure

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in the National Call-In on Wednesday, September 6th, and to everyone who has signed the countless petitions over the last five years, to urge our elected representatives to once again protect America’s horses.

In a vote of 263-146, the U.S. House of Representatives finally passed H.R. 503, The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, originally introduced way back in 2001.

The Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, if signed into law, will permanently ban the future slaughter of both wild and domestic American horses for foreign human consumption.

Despite the introduction of two amendments to this act during the floor debate that would have gutted H.R. 503, members of the House overwhelmingly defeated them and finally spoke out in opposition to horse slaughter, a reflection of the once again growing American public's distaste of this ongoing barbaric practice.

Representative Ed Whitfield (R-Ky), one of the bills co-sponsors and its most vocal champion on the House floor stated, "This whole slaughtering process is an illicit, concealed, inhumane process as it relates to horses.”

The three horse slaughterhouses in the United States - one in Illinois and two in Texas - are foreign-owned businesses and export most of their meat to Europe and Japan. Approximately 100,000 American horses were slaughtered in just the last year.

In a culture where the consumption of horse meat is generally considered taboo, Americans by and large support measures to once again ban the slaughter of our horses for foreign consumption. For many Americans, both our wild and our domestic horses still represent the true spirit of this country, and the majority of Americans still want to preserve and protect them.  But it took five bloody years to convince our politicians of this.

H.R. 503 now goes to the Senate, which must vote on the bill before it can be sent to the President for enactment into law.

Click here to see how your representative voted on this bill. If your legislator voted “Aye,” and you are opposed to horse slaughter, please call and thank him or her for finally supporting this much needed legislation.

If your representative voted “Noe,” please call and let him or her know how disappointed you are that he or she is still willing to help pilfer our once revered national treasures, and that he or she is still not willing to listen to the majority public opinion.

Additionally, if you have not already done so, please contact your U.S. Senators and urge them to support the Senate version of this bill - S. 1915.

Click here to take action on S. 1915.

We Can, and Must, Continue to remind our politicians who they work for.  And we Can, and Must, Once Again Start Protecting Our National Treasures.

And if you are passionate about any issue before us

Keep signing petitions and keep letting our politicians know

The Horse Slaughter Prevention Act is a small step forward

But today in America we truly have a very long way to go