March 1, 2026
Congress: Stop the US Horse Slaughter Pipeline
It’s hard to believe, but it’s still happening.
Every year, tens of thousands of American horses — animals who have carried us, worked beside us, and become beloved companions — are loaded onto trucks and shipped across our borders to be slaughtered in Mexico and Canada. Congress has failed to take the decisive step of banning live exports for slaughter — and horses are paying the price.
In 2025 alone, more than 26,000 American equines were trucked across our borders to Mexico and Canada, forced to endure long, punishing journeys crammed into trailers with little rest, food, or water.
They endure hours or even days of brutal transport, packed tightly, terrified, and without adequate food, water, or rest. And when they arrive, they face a violent end in slaughterhouses that were never designed for horses.
Their meat is then processed and shipped overseas to serve a narrow foreign market. This brutal pipeline exists for one reason: lawmakers have not yet closed the loophole.
This is cruelty, plain and simple — and Congress can end it.
That’s why American horses urgently need the protections of the Save Our Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act — and why lawmakers must include a horse slaughter and live export ban in the next Farm Bill.
The bipartisan SAFE Act led by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and Reps. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill would finally put an end to this shameful pipeline by permanently banning horse slaughter for human consumption and stopping the export of live horses for slaughter abroad.
This is a commonsense, bipartisan solution — and it reflects what most Americans already believe: horses are not disposable commodities. They are sentient beings who deserve protection, not terror.
But the slaughter industry is counting on silence and inaction.
We cannot let that happen.
Let’s make it impossible for lawmakers to look away.
Thank you for all that you do,
Mitch w/ Animal Commons
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