What is SAFE?

Safeguard America’s Forgotten Equines  (S.A.F.E.) Act is a bill that would make horse slaughter illegal in the US. This is essentially a domestic animal bill. Once title transfers (after adoption or sale) a wild horse or burro is a domestic under law and loses any protection afforded by the 1971 Act.

H.R.3355 – To amend the Horse Protection Act to prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption, and for other purposes.

S. 2732: This bill prohibits the knowing sale or transport of horses for purposes of human consumption. Specifically, the bill makes it unlawful to knowingly possess, ship, transport, purchase, sell, deliver, or receive a horse for it to be slaughtered for human consumption.It also makes it unlawful to knowingly possess, ship, transport, purchase, sell, deliver, or receive horse flesh, carcass, or part of a carcass for it to be used for human consumption. Violators are subject to criminal penalties.

In the House, HR3355 has 223 cosponsors. 

The Senate bill, S2732, only has 6. 

Status: This bill will die, again, in committee this session if it is not pushed out of the House and to the floor for a vote and then make it out of Committee in the Senate (where it only has 6 cosponsors) and to a full vote.

The most likely scenario is that SAFE will need to be reintroduced, again, in the 118th Congress that will begin in January.

ALL bills die at the end of session (a two-year time frame) and will need to be reintroduced, rewritten, or forgotten, in the next session that begins in January.

Why?

Over the last 2 years Congress has been occupied with the politics of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and a dozen other highly polarized issues.On top of that, big animal lobby has had multiple agendas and, frankly, has been fractured on the backside often working against bills a competitor may have gotten introduced.

The “us vs them” exists where it is obvious to the public (pro-horse slaughter vs anti-horse slaughter) and then fragments further. Playing “my team over the issues” is a real problem… everywhere.

What can you do now?

Call your reps in House and Senate. You can still urge them to get SAFE through this session (the 117th Congress). You can also start urging them to get this important bill back on the list for next session. However, we can already see that a certain VERY pro-slaughter, former head of the Department of Interior, is probably going to win his race in Montana: Ryan Zinke. Yes, the same Zinke that resigned as Secretary of Interior under massive ethics violation investigations. Trying to get environmental or animal welfare bills passed in the next two years (the 118th Congress) could prove challenging. Bills introduced in January and February 2023 will have 2 years to try to make it through.

You can find your Senator and Congressional House Rep HERE.

Tell them: Get SAFE out of committee and to a vote. Americans don’t eat horses and we should not be shipping them off so foreigners can eat our horses. Our horses and burros are not raised as food and present a health risk. AND if they can’t get SAFE out of committee, will they commit to working on it next session (if they still have their seat after January).

Learn more about how “title transfer” opens the door for our wild horses to enter the horse-meat slaughter trade and our wild burros to enter the illegal global trade in donkey hides (Ejaio). Click Text. 

Post mid-term election it is not unusual to see a shift in sitting Cabinet members. We are watching to see if Debra Haaland keeps her chair at the helm of the Department of Interior or if there is a shift. Often, we see changes in agenda and instruction memorandum post mid-term. We are working to make actual management planning a priority for wild horses and burros at multiple levels. We will update when we have more information.

Help keep us in the fight.