4/25 Status of the SAFE Act - Please Speak For Our Horses

Pennsylvanian or not, if you oppose the killing of our horses for overseas human consumption please speak up for them.  Two bills have been introduced, one in the Senate and one in the House of Representatives that will finally ban horse slaughter and the transport of our horses out of the country for slaughter.  We desperately need to get these bills passed.  As tax paying voters you need to let your two Senators and one Representative how you feel about these bills.  Below is a summary. And again, whether you are a Pennsylvanian or not there is a link at the bottom of this post that will help you find out who your legislators are and how to contact them easily.

Please speak up for the horses!

Senate Bill:

S. 541  Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2013

Sponsored by Senator Mary Landrieu [LA] 3/12/2013

6 Current Cosponsors:

Sen Richard Blumenthal [CT] 4/9/2013

Sen Susan Collins [ME] 4/9//2013

Sen Kirsten Gillibrand [NY] 4/17/2013

Sen Lindsey Graham [SC] 3/12/2013

Sen Robert Menendez [NJ] 3/21/2013

Sen Sheldon Whitehouse, [RI] 4/9/2013

Bill in the House of Representatives:

HR 1094 Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2013

Sponsored by Representative Patrick Meehan [PA] 3/12/2013

4/2/2013 Referred to the House Subcommittee on Livestock, Rural Development and Credit

78 Current Cosponsors (4 new co-sponsors as of 4/24):

Find all of them here:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-in/bdquery/D?d113:1:./temp/~bdaoDb:@@@N|/home/LegislativeData.php|

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SUMMARY AS OF: 
3/12/2013--Introduced.
Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2013 - Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to prohibit the sale or transport of equines (horses and other members of the equidae family) or their parts (including flesh, meat, and viscera), or the importing or exporting of equines or their parts into or out of the United States, by any person who knows or should have known that such equines are to be slaughtered for human consumption as food.

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The PA Reps who have co-sponsored to date are:

Rep Brady
Rep Cartwright
Rep Fitzpatrick
Rep Gerlach
Rep Marino
Rep Schwartz

We can be very proud that our own Representative Patrick Meehan sponsored this bill and got the ball rolling!

Please call both of your Senators and your Representative to thank them for suppporting the SAFE Act or to ask them to do so!

If you don't know how to go about doing that, here's a very easy website to use.  All you do is enter your zip code and it will take you to contact info for both of your senators and your representative.  Please speak up.  Our horses need you to be their voices!

http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

Are You Helping to Get The SAFE Act Passed to End Horse Slaughter in America?

I certainly hope the answer is a hearty yes!  As you are hopefully already aware the SAFE act has been introduced in both the House and the Senate:

Senate Bill:

S.541 
Latest Title: Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2013 
Sponsor: Sen Landrieu, Mary L. [LA] (introduced 3/12/2013)      Cosponsors (6) 
Latest Major Action: 3/12/2013 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

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COSPONSORS(6), ALPHABETICAL [followed by Cosponsors withdrawn]:     (Sort: by date)

Sen Blumenthal, Richard [CT] - 4/9/2013
Sen Collins, Susan M. [ME] - 4/9/2013
Sen Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [NY] - 4/17/2013
Sen Graham, Lindsey [SC] - 3/12/2013
Sen Menendez, Robert [NJ] - 3/21/2013
Sen Whitehouse, Sheldon [RI] - 4/9/2013

Bill in the House of Representatives:

H.R.1094 
Latest Title: Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2013 
Sponsor: Rep Meehan, Patrick [PA-7] (introduced 3/12/2013)      Cosponsors (74) 
Latest Major Action: 4/2/2013 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Livestock, Rural Development, and Credit.

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SUMMARY AS OF: 
3/12/2013--Introduced.
Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2013 - Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to prohibit the sale or transport of equines (horses and other members of the equidae family) or their parts (including flesh, meat, and viscera), or the importing or exporting of equines or their parts into or out of the United States, by any person who knows or should have known that such equines are to be slaughtered for human consumption as food.

This link will show you the lengthy list of co-sponsors.  We Pennsylvanians should be very proud that Representative Meehan who introduced this bill is one of ours!

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d113:1:./temp/~bdvpga:@@@P|/home/LegislativeData.php|

The PA Reps who have co-sponsored to date are:

Rep Brady
Rep Cartwright
Rep Fitzpatrick
Rep Gerlach
Rep Marino
Rep Schwartz

Please call both of your Senators and your Representative to thank them for suppporting the SAFE Act or to ask them to do so!

If you don't know how to go about doing that, here's a very easy website to use.  All you do is enter your zip code and it will take you to contact info for both of your senators and your representative.  Please speak up.  Our horses need you to be their voices!

http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

Those With Compassion for Horses Will Find a Trip to New Holland Painful

One of our Pennsylvanians asked me if I’ve attended New Holland Sales Stable and if so, what the conditions are. I’ve been there a number of times.

Within the walls of the auction house there are many head of horses between minis, ponies, donks, mules, pleasure horses, and work horses. Some are very scared, some are calling out for friends that may or may not be on the premises and some are just complacent. Sometimes mares have foals at their sides that are sold separately and you hear their anguished cries as they are taken from one another. There is a room full of used up drafts the Amish are dumping, usually thin and you know where they will end up. Usually there are a number of TBs there from off the track as well as STBs that may be ex-racers or horses the Amish are again, dumping, perhaps because they've come up lame and there's no time to wait for a new ride. They'll drive the lame one there, sell her and take home a healthier one, at least for the time being. Often you see horses with injuries. Once I attended and saw a horse with an obviously broken leg. He could not bear any weight on it, and that was heart breaking. It took hours for Dr. Holt to "get around" to putting the horse down. You also often see open wounds. Last week there was a horse with a gaping head wound that maybe people - including some local rescues - saw, but the statement I heard from a PA "rescuer" was that Dr. Holt just didn't have time to get to the horse. Yet, none of these people appear to have called the local authorities. Of course, it's said they don't respond anyway, but if I had been there I'd have screamed bloody murder. I'm done with sitting on my hands when it comes to animal abuse. The rescuers who work with the kill buyers don't want to rock the boat, so they look the other way. I don't know what everyone else’s excuse was.

Quite a few kill buyers are in attendance, as well as some just plain brokers who don’t hold contracts with slaughter plants. The primary players are Brian Moore, who has a contract in Richelieu in Canada, as well as Bruce Rotz who sells to both Canada and Mexico. Horses in bad shape go to Mexico because their standards are lower than Canada’s in terms of what is an acceptable horse to ship to slaughter. Any other of a number of horse traders may show. Phil Shirk, Nickerson, Kiehl…etc.

It is emotionally draining and heart-wrenching to attend these auctions. The picture I’ve uploaded is of a horse that was brought to auction a few weeks ago. Dr. Holt did “no-sale” the horse due to his emaciated condition. We were unable to find out what happened to him after the auction.