A bill proposed by Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu could protect retired racehorses from export or slaughter. Thousands upon thousands of perfectly healthy horses are exported out of the USA every year to be turned into meat. If passed, the new law could be the first real protection racehorses have against this fate. The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act intends to ban the export of horses for slaughter.
In 2013, more than 150,000 horses were shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. Roughly 10,000 of which were Thoroughbreds. Horses that can no longer race are taken to auctions where they often sell for as little as $10 and are packed into trucks and taken to Mexico and Canada, then slaughtered for their meat and sold to European markets where the horse meat demand is high. Horse meat for human consumption is banned in the USA.
It is unethical to treat horses, intelligent creatures, as commodities to be discarded on a whim once they no longer “produce”.The racing industry needs to re-examine how they deal with retired horses in a more ethical way, and make business adjustments to accommodate these changes.
The SAFE Act could be the only opportunity for these horses when they are no longer able to race. Please sign the petition and demand that it be passed into law.
