“Look back on our struggles for freedom,
Trace our present day's strength to its source;
And you'll find that man's pathway to glory,
Is always accompanied, by that of a horse.”

Anonymous

It took many thousands of us Americans, far too long

But American horse lovers finally have a tiny bit of joy

We’ve finally managed to get the slaughter houses closed

All three, foreign owned – two in Texas, and one in Illinois

Prior to the closure of these three horse flesh plants

Over 100,000 American horses were brutally killed

And their flesh was shipped off to Europe and to Asia

To give human diners in foreign restaurants culinary thrills

And yet, with all three of these barbaric, foreign, plants now shuttered

Our American horses are now being trucked off to Canada and to Mexico

Our U.S. horses, including our once protected and treasured wild mustangs,

Enduring days of horror in trucks with no food or water, to their butchers go

We Americans Once Treasured Our Horses,

As Our Noble Companions and Our Friends;

Please Help Give Horses Their Dignity Back,

And Finally Put This Gross Slaughter To An End.

And It’s High Time for Each and Every One of Us Americans,

To Stand Up and Protect America’s Remaining Glorious Treasures;

Today, Far Too Many Politicians and Extremely Greedy Corporations,

Prefer We Remain Callously Ignorant, Which Increases Profit Pleasure

The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503/S. 311)

Introduced in the U.S. House by Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), John Spratt (D-SC), Ed Whitfield (R-KY), and Nick Rahall (D-WV); and in the U.S. Senate by Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and John Ensign (R-NV), will finally close this horrendous border crossing loophole, and finally prevent the exportation of American horses to slaughter plants in foreign countries.  It also ensures that horse slaughter is permanently banned in the United States.

In addition, during the 2004 federal budget process, former Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) cleverly inserted a rider to strip away over 30 years of protection from America’s wild horses and burros.

And since 2004, thousands of our once previously protected wild horses have also been slaughtered and exported for foreign dinner tables.

H.R. 249, introduced by Representatives Rahall (D-WV) and Whitfield (R-KY), will finally restore federal protection for America’s wild horses and burros.

Our current Congress needs to hear from everyone – right now – if we hope to finally end this barbaric U.S. horse slaughter for foreign human consumption - forever.

Senator Burns, who acted as the major impediment to any and all horse protection bills during his time in office, was finally defeated for re-election.  With him out of the way, and with all three horse slaughter plants in the U.S. finally closed, our chances are finally good to end their suffering forever – but we need far more support.

We must all urge our Senators to ‘support H.R. 249 to protect our wild horses from further slaughter, and to cosponsor S. 311 to stop the sale and transport of all American horses for foreign consumption..’

We must also urge our Representatives to ‘cosponsor H.R. 503 to stop the sale and transport of all American horses to slaughter in Mexico and Canada.’

Please circulate this to all your horse loving friends, and ask them to write their legislators on behalf of these bills, or to call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for their U.S. Senators' and Representative's offices.

America’s horses, especially our once treasured and protected wild mustangs, deserve that much from us all.  And if we all don’t start once again protecting and preserving this nation’s remaining treasures, our children and grandchildren will one day hate us for it.