NYRA backs bill to end horse slaughter

Federal legislation would halt pipeline to foreign facilities

In an open letter to congressional leaders, a bipartisan group of animal welfare advocates and horse racing stakeholders have urged the federal government to pass a languishing bill which would permanently ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption in the U.S.

While no slaughterhouses on U.S. soil are authorized to kill equines for sale as human food, horses are being shipped annually by the tens of thousands to Canada and Mexico for that purpose, including through New York — in spite of a more limited statewide ban against selling or transporting slaughterbound thoroughbred and standardbred racehorses in or through the state.

The letter was sent days before Saturday’s scheduled Preakness Stakes in Maryland, the second event in horse racing’s Triple Crown. It was sent by a coalition calling itself the “Final Stretch Alliance to End Horse Slaughter” — which counts the New York Racing Association and the Jockey Club among its members. The group called for swift action from top U.S. Reps. Nancy Pelosi, D-calif., and Kevin Mccarthy, R-calif., and Sens. Charles E. Schumer, DN.Y. and Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY.

The group’s letter to lawmakers argues that the ongoing practice of funneling American horses to slaughterhouses abroad “is causing significant harm to the equine industry, adoption and rescue organizations, horse owners and enthusiasts, and the horses themselves.”

It cites a national poll released in February, commissioned by the ASPCA and conducted by Lake Research Partners, which concluded that more than 4 of out 5 Americans oppose the slaughter of U.S. horses for human consumption. The ASPCA is also one of the coalition’s members.

Nancy Perry, a senior vice president of the group, thinks equine welfare organizations’ efforts to support horses in need of a home will not fully succeed as long as a “slaughter pipeline” remains open. With time running out in this legislative session, “lawmakers must act swiftly to finally end this shameful practice by passing the SAFE Act,” Perry said, referring to the Save America’s Forgotten Equines Act.

The bill was introduced in 2013, the same year a European scandal made global headlines when food being sold as beef was found to contain horse meat. It has since been reintroduced repeatedly over the last decade, but has consistently faced opposition from livestock industry groups, including the Farm Bureau and the Animal Welfare Council.

Slaughterhouses in the U.S. had already been effectively precluded from processing horse meat for human consumption since 2007, due to a combination of court cases and a congressional move to defund inspections of those facilities. But the media spotlight raised domestic concerns over performance enhancing and therapeutic drugs in the animals’ flesh and their effects on humans when consumed, as well as public outcry over the cruelty of shipping and slaughtering horses raised to be racers or companion animals.

The new coalition’s uncommon collaboration between animal welfare advocates and the racing industry creates a unique alignment of interests, as racing leaders have increasingly focused on the public’s perception of their “social license” to operate.

“We appreciate the leadership and collaboration of key stakeholders in the racing industry to shutter the slaughter pipeline once and for all,” said Cathy Liss, president of the Animal Welfare Institute and another coalition member.

If enacted, the SAFE Act would prohibit the “shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption.”

Several of the groups behind the coalition also participated in New York’s successful efforts to pass a bill banning some racehorse slaughter in New York last year, which took effect in January. But the law, which was also backed and touted by the state’s key racing industry stakeholders, including NYRA, is limited to thoroughbred and standardbred race horses and breeding stock.

New York lawmakers’ bill to ban the slaughter of all horses, similar to the SAFE Act, has been reintroduced each session for over a decade without passing. However, leaders of the state’s racing and wagering committees said this spring that they are considering pushing to extend anti-slaughter protections to all equines.