Save America’s Forgotten Equines Act of 2023 or the SAFE Act of 2023 was introduced May 18, 2023, in the 118th Congress. 

Note: This article is intended to provide an update on the SAFE Act requested by many of our readers.

The bill:

To amend the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 to prohibit the slaughter of equines for human consumption.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON SLAUGHTER OF EQUINES FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION.

H.R. 3475 currently has 220 cosponsors in the House of Representatives as it sits in the House Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry.

S. 2037 currently has 11 cosponsors in the Senate as it sits in the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee.

Cosponsorship is generally seen as a measure of the popularity of a bill and an indication of who will vote to pass it. A bill can have a single cosponsor and go for a full floor vote in an attempt to become law.

Wild horses that got caught in the slaughter pipeline

The timeframe for a bill to make it into law corresponds to the term of Congress. A term of Congress is two years long and begins on January 3 of each odd-numbered year. The 118th Congress will end on January 3, 2025. All bills associated with the 118th Congress will “die.” A bill can begin the process again in the next term.

Repeatedly, for more than a decade, even though cosponsorship represents enough votes to pass it,  we have seen S.A.F.E. die and then be reintroduced and die again.

If H.R. 3475 were released by the committee today for a floor vote and only the cosponsors voted “yes,” the bill would pass out of the House and would then need a Senate vote.

S. 2037 would then need to come out of committee in the Senate and pass with a simple majority (51 of 100) in a floor vote.

If both bills match in text, they would be “consolidated” and go to the President.

Loaded on semi

For SAFE to move forward this term, first it would need to be released from the House subcommittee (HERE) and then be released from the full Committee (HERE).

Only after the bill comes out of Committee can there be a full floor vote to then see the bill sent for Senate action.

If you support the SAFE Act to become federal law, a call to your House members to urge SAFE H.R. 3475) come out of committee and get to a floor vote (your request is that simple). You can find your representatives HERE.

As of 2024, there is no federal ban on the private slaughtering of horses for human consumption. It is also legal in all but a handful of individual states. The states that have made horse slaughter illegal are California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Texas.

Since 1949, Texas law has prohibited the sale, possession and transportation of horse meat for human consumption. Yet, Texas has remained a hub for shipping horses for purposes of slaughter for human consumption. 

Language for horse meat inspection has been continually defunded through Appropriations. This stop-gap measure is a debate each year to keep horse slaughter plants off U.S. soil.

Is SAFE perfect, no. But a federal law would go a long way towards addressing this issue at U.S. borders, stop horse slaughter plants in the U.S., and allow funding for oversight. 

Note: This article is intended to provide an update on the SAFE Act requested by many of our readers.

Once title is transferred through adoption or sale, our wild horses and burros are considered domestic horses under law. (more on title transfer HERE).

Additional Reading:

2025 Appropriations (spending) debate)

How do we gain an enforceable welfare policy for wild horses and burros?

We need your help to continue to document, expose, work toward reform with lawmakers and litigate. Our wild ones deserve to live free on the range and free from abuse.

Thank you for keeping WHE on the frontline in the fight to protect and preserve our treasured wild ones.