Congress must pass SAFE and PAST acts to protect horses

I applaud Rep. Paul Tonko for his leadership to protect American horses by helping advance the Save America’s Forgotten Equines Act and the Prevent All Soring Tactics Act through the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Congress has consistently blocked funding for inspecting horse meat in the United States, keeping plants here shuttered. Unfortunately, these efforts do not prevent horses from being shipped across our borders to be slaughtered for human consumption. During transportation, horses are crammed tightly in overcrowded trucks for more than 24 without food, water or rest, and the methods used to slaughter them are typically fraught with fear and pain. The SAFE Act will ensure that horse slaughter plants do not reopen within the United States while also ending the export of American horses to Canada

and Mexico to be slaughtered for human consumption.

More than 50 years ago, the Horse Protection Act was passed in an effort to rein in the cruel practice of “soring,” in which unscrupulous trainers deliberately inflict pain on the hooves and legs of Tennessee Walking Horses and related breeds using caustic chemicals, chains, weighted shoes, hard objects, cutting and other gruesome techniques to produce an artificially high-stepping gait and gain unfair competitive advantage at horse shows. Unfortunately, this abuse still occurs, but the PAST Act would finally bring an end to the cruel practice by ending the failed system of industry self-policing, banning the use of devices integral to soring, and strengthening penalties against sorers.

American horses do not deserve to endure such pain, and I wholeheartedly thank Tonko for his stand to protect our beautiful equines from this fate.

Don Ferlazzo Halfmoon