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

Let’s start with what can be done right now. 

SAFE Act: New Bill Numbers, Farm Bill Strategy, and Real‑World Impact

We noted the new action item in our newsletter. In case you haven’t read it or taken the action item yet, you can take action here. 

EDITED: The House Agriculture Committee postponed Monday’s planned markup of the Republicans’ latest farm bill proposal because of winter weather. The new date is March 3! Still time to make that call!

We know there is a lot going on in the world right now and calling your lawmakers that are busy with other matters may not be convenient. But please, make the call.

Please flood the U.S. Capitol switchboard with polite but firm calls. Ask your two Senators and your Representative to support including the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE, H.R. 1661 / S. 775) in the Farm Bill and to tell Agriculture Committee leadership they want SAFE in the bill. The number is 202‑224‑3121.

Because wild horses and burros become “domestic” once title transfers, shutting down the slaughter pipeline requires a federal domestic horse law, not “wild horse” reforms. The Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act is that law. It has been reintroduced as H.R. 1661 in the House and S. 775 in the Senate.

The SAFE Act could amend the 2018 Agriculture Improvement Act (the Farm Bill) by expanding the existing Dog and Cat Meat Prohibition Act to cover equines. In plain language, it would:

• Permanently ban the slaughter of horses, donkeys, and mules for human consumption in the United States.

• Prohibit shipping, transporting, purchasing, selling, or donating equines for slaughter for human consumption, including export to Mexican and Canadian slaughterhouses.

Right now, horse slaughter in the U.S. is blocked only by annual appropriations riders that defund USDA inspection of horse slaughter plants, and there is no federal law stopping kill buyers from trucking horses across our borders to be killed abroad. That means any shift in a single spending bill can reopen domestic plants and the export pipeline stays wide open. SAFE would convert that fragile, year‑to‑year budget fix into standing law and explicitly close the border pipeline for slaughter.

Why Advocates Are Pushing SAFE Into the Farm Bill

Key sponsors and national organizations have made it clear they want SAFE attached to the next Farm Bill (and we agree) rather than left to drift as a standalone bill as it does year-after-year blocked usually by one or two committee members regardless of the number of cosponsors. That strategy matters:

• The Farm Bill is a massive “must‑pass” package that already carries the dog‑and‑cat meat ban SAFE would amend, so adding equines plugs directly into existing language and enforcement structures.

• Inclusion in the Farm Bill avoids the all‑or‑nothing fight of moving a separate bill through multiple committees and floor votes; instead, SAFE becomes part of a larger negotiation where animal provisions have successfully passed before.

If SAFE is successfully folded into the Farm Bill and that Farm Bill becomes law with the SAFE language intact, three big things happen in the real world:

1. The legal slaughter market collapses: No USDA‑inspected horse slaughter plants, and no legal export of American equines for slaughter in Mexico or Canada.

2. The kill‑buyer business model changes: Without legal plants to sell to or export to, the predictable “kill price” at auctions disappears, weakening the financial incentive to bulk‑buy cheap horses—including BLM‑branded mustangs coming out of adoption and sale programs.

3. Every equine, wild or domestic, gains a baseline protection: Once a wild horse loses federal status through sale or adoption, SAFE is the back‑stop that would make it illegal to send that animal into the human‑consumption slaughter pipeline.

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Wyoming: Adobe Town temporary holding 2025. The next phase to remove around 2000 from the rest of the areas like Salt Wells and Great Divide Basin is not only under a legal challenge but on hold due to space in holding and is expected to be on the roundup schedule by early fall.

SAFE does not fix BLM’s broken on‑range management, repeal the Burns Amendment, or stop BLM from shipping horses directly from roundups into closed, off‑range facilities and pushing them through the Sale Program without real oversight.

What it does is close the final legal door: even if BLM and its buyers treat wild horses as disposable once title passes, SAFE in the Farm Bill would make it illegal to profit by turning those animals into meat for human consumption anywhere in North America.

The Sale Program has been accelerating to “clear the pens” to make room for more removals. Many, if not most of these horses and burros are sliding into the slaughter pipeline right now.

The Carter/Buckhorn/Coppersmith removal plan is also facing a lawsuit. However a lack of space in holding has created a window where we have time to fight to save them before capture and the push out of holding where they will face the threat of the slaughter pipeline.

Why are some advocates trying to block SAFE until it is rewritten and the word “human” removed? There is a desire for a perfect law that would also stop slaughter for consumption by zoo animals and perhaps a fear of a pet food trade uptick. However…

The existing dog/cat ban in “Farm bill language” already makes it a federal crime to slaughter, ship, transport, sell, or donate dogs or cats “for human consumption” and to trade their parts for that purpose. SAFE simply adds equines into that same framework; it’s plugging horses into an existing prohibition that advocates already fought hard to pass for dogs and cats.

Could someone, somewhere, feed horse meat to zoo animals or carnivores? Yes—and they already can if they source it abroad or from non‑human‑food channels as a food source closer to natural prey for captive big cats than beef. SAFE doesn’t create that possibility; it cuts off the big engine that drives mass killing: the legal human‑consumption export trade.

Most of the U.S. horse‑slaughter trade is driven by meat for people, not animals: in 2024 alone, at least 17,637 American horses were shipped to Mexico or Canada for slaughter for human consumption. While some advocates would like to see the word “human” removed, blocking or weakening SAFE over wording risks sinking the one bill that directly targets that core market and could make the export trade so unprofitable that it effectively ends.

Wild horses of all ages can hit the slaughter pipeline through capture or being born to Sale Authority mares where they fuel outrage and a lucrative market for killbuyers.

Some things to think about if you are on the fence about supporting the push to get SAFE, as written, into the Farm Bill.

When SAFE started and how long it’s been stand‑alone

• The Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act name first appears in Congress in 2021, when Reps. Schakowsky and Buchanan introduced the SAFE Act of 2021 to permanently ban horse slaughter and export for slaughter.

• Similar anti‑horse‑slaughter bills (with different names, like the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act) have been introduced in multiple Congresses going back to at least the mid‑2000s, and have been “stand‑alone” for roughly 15+ years—they get lots of cosponsors and support but never make it to final passage.

• SAFE itself has now appeared as a stand‑alone bill in several Congresses (2021, 2023, 2025), each time with strong bipartisan support and endorsements, but it still has not cleared both chambers.

So in practical terms, advocates have been chasing the same goal—ban slaughter and export—for well over a decade, almost always through stand‑alone bills that stall in committee or die at the end of a session.

Does the Farm Bill route improve its chances?

Yes. Embedding SAFE in the Farm Bill is widely seen, not just by us, as its best shot:

• SAFE is drafted as a simple amendment to an existing Farm Bill provision—the dog and cat meat ban in the 2018 Agriculture Improvement Act—by adding equines to that same framework.

•   The Farm Bill is a massive, cyclical, “must‑pass” package; many animal provisions that would never move alone have passed when included in farm bills or appropriations vehicles.

In other words: as a stand‑alone, SAFE keeps getting introduced and then blocked. In a Farm Bill, it rides with a bill Congress is under real pressure to pass. That doesn’t guarantee success, but it materially improves the odds compared to yet another cycle of a symbolic stand‑alone bill that dies at the end of the two‑year session.

Burros all went “sale” at a BLM event and most landed at auctions with killbuyers bidding within weeks.

Is there still time to get SAFE into the farm Bill?

Yes, there is still time, but we are in “the pressure window”—not a “someday later” situation.

The House Agriculture Committee just released its Farm Bill text (the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026) and is scheduled to start markup tomorrow, February 23, which is when amendments like adding SAFE can still be pushed and negotiated. After committee markup, it gets much harder to add new provisions, and once the bill hits the House floor and then conference with the Senate, the path narrows even more.

There is still time to get SAFE into the Farm Bill—but only if people are calling right now to their own members of Congress and to Agriculture Committee offices, asking specifically for SAFE (H.R. 1661 / S. 775) language to be included before or during markup.

Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard: 202‑224‑3121. Give the operator your ZIP code and ask to be connected to each of your two Senators and your Representative. You will need to make more than one call. 

Sample Script:

Hi, my name is ___ and I live in (city, state), ZIP code ___. I’m calling to ask the Senator/Representative to support including the SAFE Act (H.R. 1661 / S. 775) in the Farm Bill.

Every year, tens of thousands of American horses are still shipped to Mexico and Canada to be slaughtered for human consumption. The SAFE Act would finally ban this and close the export pipeline.

Please let the Senator/Representative know that I strongly want the SAFE Act language in the Farm Bill and that I will be watching how they vote. Thank you.

If you cannot make a call  you can take action here. 

This won’t fix every problem wild horses and burros face, but it could have a major impact on the slaughter pipeline and save countless lives.

Please flood the U.S. Capitol switchboard with polite but firm calls. Ask your two Senators and your Representative to support including the SAFE Act (H.R. 1661 / S. 775) in the Farm Bill and to tell Agriculture Committee leadership you want SAFE in the bill. The number is 202‑224‑3121.

Thank you!

Every mile we travel to cover roundups or assess a herd, every court case we bring, every win, every action we take is only possible because of your support.