SAFE Act Reintroduced In Both Houses

04/01/2025 10:16 AM

The Save America's Forgotten Equines Act (SAFE Act) has a new lease on life after it was reintroduced in both houses on Feb. 27. The act would prohibit slaughtering horses for human consumption and would also make it against the law to ship horses out of the country for the purpose of having them slaughtered.

No horses have been slaughtered in the U.S. since 2007. U.S. slaughterhouses were forced to close down because regulations prohibited shipping the meat overseas without the oversight of inspectors from the Food and Drug Administration. The government decided it would no longer pay for the inspectors, which ended the process of horse slaughter in the U.S. Now, horses are routinely bought at auctions by “kill buyers” who ship the horses to Canada or Mexico.

The latest bill was sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), and Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).

“The slaughter of horses for human consumption is barbaric and has no place in America,” Congressman Buchanan said in a statement. “As Co-Chairman of the Animal Protection Caucus, I look forward to continuing to lead this effort with Congresswoman Schakowsky to protect these beautiful creatures.”

Efforts to pass the SAFE Act or a similar bill have been on-going for more than 20 years. The first bill was introduced during the second session of the Congress in 2002.

“While each effort has received bipartisan support, getting the bill over the finish line has been a frustrating endeavor,” said Chris Heyde,” the founder of Blue Marble Strategy, LLC, a lobbyist group “Passing any bill is hard. In the beginning, there was strong overwhelming support for banning slaughter. We had an actual roll call vote on the first defund amendment because everyone, regardless of party or state, thought this was wrong and un-American.  Sadly, the agriculture industry got involved and started to oppose it. The opposition even had lobbyists, claiming it was just the first step in going after meat consumption. That is a tired old scare tactic folks roll out for anything on even the most modest welfare issue.”

Heyde said another scare tactic used by pro-slaughter forces is to claim that if slaughter were outlawed thousands of horses would be abandoned, some left to starve.

“We have also had strong bipartisan support through the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on our annual effort to defund horse slaughter inspections.  While that stopped slaughter in the US since 2006 by the defund language, kill buyers still haul horses to Mexico and Canada for slaughter, though this year saw a record low,” he said. “That actually blows the opponents other big lie, that what will we do with all of the horses if slaughter is stopped?  In 2012 there were 166,000 horses slaughtered and now we are down to just under 20,000.  Slaughter is demand driven so horses are euthanized, die naturally or sold to new homes. There are plenty of rescues to help with horses.”

Louis Masry, a horse owner and activist, has been on the front lines of the battle to get an anti-slaughter bill passed for two decades. He said that, this time around, the strategy should be to incorporate the SAFE Act into a large omnibus bill. That was the same path the bill to authorize HISA took.

“This time, I think we will have a better opportunity to insert it into a bill,” Masry said.  “On Monday, President Trump announced that he is looking for one large bill, which is inclusive of a lot of different things. He wants a very large comprehensive bill. That tells us that there will  be a lot of different areas where we could potentially insert the bill. That has made me optimistic.”

Masry said he will also work to members of the House and Senate from Kentucky to back the bill.

“In this particular case, if we can have success getting Kentucky members of Congress on board as interested parties and get them to become more involved, that will help,” he said. “When people think of horses they think of Kentucky. Now that we've introduced the bill, if we can add the Kentucky members to the list of people supporting the bill, that would be a big push. It hasn't been fully there. We need unanimous support and that's what we'll be looking at going forward.”

Masry said he plans on meeting with Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, whose support of HISA was a key to that bill getting passed.

In a press release issued by Rep. Buchanan, the Congressman said he'd like to see language banning slaughter added to the Farm Bill.

“In 2017, Buchanan worked with the late Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) to get the Dog and Cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act signed into law as part of the 2018 Farm Bill, which made it illegal to slaughter, transport, possess, purchase, sell or donate cats and dogs for human consumption,” Buchanan said in a press release. “The SAFE Act builds upon that legislation by adding horses, donkeys and burros to the prohibition. Although the practice of slaughtering horses for human consumption is currently illegal in the United States, the ban is temporary and subject to annual congressional review and no federal law exists to prohibit the transport of horses across America's borders for slaughter in Canada or Mexico.The lawmakers hope to include the SAFE Act as part of the 2025 Farm Bill when it is considered by Congress later this year.”

Though Heyde and his colleagues have been unsuccessful getting the slaughter bill passed, Heyde is confident that it is just a matter of time.

“As I have always said, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think it is possible,” he said. “I really do think we can end this cruel practice.  The American public and even Congress has shown overwhelming support for the ban.”

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