The Save America’s Forgotten Equines Act of 2023 (or the SAFE Act) has become an annual cycle of frustration for both domestic and wild horse advocates. Many newcomers to the cause are writing us to ask about the bill.

Sessions of Congress (House and Senate) change every two years. A bill that does not go to a full floor vote in that time and pass, “dies” at the end of the existing session. After the election and new members take their seats, a new session of Congress begins and, if a bill is important to a lot of people, it is usually reintroduced and gets a new number and begins again.

The simplest way to describe how a bill becomes law is still the old “Schoolhouse Rock” video:

The text of the SAFE Act is really simple:

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.

Advocates work hard each session to move the SAFE Act, Many of you have called and expressed your disdain for the brutal and unregulated practice that lands American horses and burros into the slaughter pipeline to be sold for various purposes outside of our country (human consumption, Chineses medicine, fertilizer, etc.).  The list of cosponsors rises.

This year, as with many other years, the number of cosponsors in the House represents more than would be needed to pass the bill in a full floor vote and send it to the Senate for a vote.

H.R. 3475 currently has 228 cosponsors in the House of Representatives as it sits in the House Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry. It would take 2018 votes to pass a bill in a full floor vote.

SAFE would need to pass out of subcommittee, then full Agriculture committee and then to the full floor for debate and then a vote.

The SAFE Act is stuck in the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry since June of 2023.  There is no indication this bill will move out of committee at this time.

Why do you make calls to get your representatives to cosponsor?

Once a bill reaches 25 cosponsors a bill with the same name is introduced to the Senate.

If a bill reaches 290 cosponsors, it can go to a floor vote even if a committee refuses to “report” on the bill (meaning pass the bill out of committee).

Technically, if the SAFE Act obtained 62 more cosponsors it would come out of committee and to a vote and (probably) pass the House. However, it would then need to be raced through the Senate and be signed by the President to become law.

Old mare rescued at kill lot. Horse slaughter is a seedy business.

The likelihood of SAFE getting through the House before seats change in January and the current version of the bill “dies” in committee is slim, but not impossible.

You can check to see if your rep has cosponsored the bill by clicking HERE.

If your rep has not cosponsored you can try to call their office. You can look up your House rep HERE and find contact info. 

As wild horse and burro advocates we always find Congressional double speak really frustrating.

Recently, in exchange with someone in Congress they claimed to one of our supporters that because horse slaughter is illegal in the US is the reason there is such a massive overpopulation of wild horses on the range (people are dumping them by the thousands on public lands) and he refused to support any reforms.

A supporter of WHE then had an exchange where this person refused to support the SAFE Act because keeping the option to sell their horses to slaughter alive was really important to his constituents in the midwest.

That’s politics in a nutshell.

So before you chat with your rep understanding what they believe the truth actually is has become a real challenge in our country. It seems the truth has become elusive: Is horse slaughter a threat and alive? Or is it nonexistent and responsible for things like “too many” on US public lands?

Obviously the slaughter trade is alive and well in the U.S. placing hundreds of thousands of domestic and formerly wild horses in danger.

If you want to call your representatives it certainly will not hurt anything. Will it help? It may let your rep know what is important to constituents (the people that will be casting a vote in November).

This is always a really rough time… and election cycle. This cycle there is more than a probability that a full budget won’t pass for 2025 and debates will begin for interim measures (Continuing Resolution) to keep the government running.

People are asking us about “roundup season.” The 2025 roundup schedule starts October 1, 2024, with the new government fiscal year. BLM just released a tentative schedule based on limited funding and we are working on an article.

Our teams are working hard completing investigative work, working on litigation and gearing up to be ready for the fall/winter roundup schedule. Without your support, none of our work is possible. Thank you.

There are several ways you can support WHE from gift shopping to stock donations. Learn more HERE.