To stop horse slaughter and abuses, support these two measures

On Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will highlight two key measures to stamp out terrible abuses in the horse world, and better protect our iconic American equines.

The Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act and Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act are both measures that have consistently been introduced in every Congress for the better part of a decade.

SAFE would ban the slaughter of equines and the transport of equines across state and federal lines for slaughter. While horse slaughter in the U.S. no longer takes place, some 23,000 American horses were exported and slaughtered in Canada and Mexico last year to be served up on foreign dinner plates. Every American equine is at risk of falling into this predatory industry just as the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner, Ferdinand, when he was sold for slaughter in Japan.

The PAST Act addresses the issue of soring — the intentional infliction of pain to Tennessee Walking Horses’ front limbs by means of applying caustic chemicals such as kerosene, mustard oil, and other chemicals to the skin or inserting sharp objects into horses’ hooves in order to produce an artificial high step known as the “Big Lick,” that’s prized at events like the Kentucky Celebration in Harrodsburg each September.

PAST would amend the Horse Protection Act (HPA) to give the law more teeth by banning the use of large-stacked shoes and ankle chains used in the showring to exacerbate the pain; providing felony level penalties for those convicted of violating the HPA, and eliminating the current industry self-policing scheme, replacing it with federally licensed USDA inspectors.

But despite the bill first being introduced in 2012 by retired U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-hopkinsville, and passing the House in 2019, the bill still faces opposition from every single major group in the walking horse world which continues to prevent the measure from clearing the Senate. It’s a political science lesson on what happens when key stakeholders aren’t given the opportunity to have input in legislation that affects them. Despite our view that PAST would help the breed flourish, many stakeholders and a few key senators believe that PAST as written would destroy the walking horse show circuit.

Make no mistake, we continue to support PAST, but the last decade has demonstrated that enactment over the objections of a powerful sectional group of senators is unlikely. In light of that circumstance, we worked with leaders in the walking horse breed in 2020 to make revisions to the bill that would achieve buy-in from the breed organizations. The revisions would still eliminate the ankle chains and provide felony penalties as PAST does, but allow a smaller, removable shoe used by other breeds like the American Saddlebred to remain. The revisions would give USDA enforcement authority and set up a supporting enforcement program that would leave the walking horse breed with a voice and minority stake in these supplementary enforcement programs.

The compromise we negotiated in 2020 went even further than PAST by ending the use of treacherous devices known as tail braces that hold the horse’s tail in a U-shaped position after the ligaments in the tail have been severed — all for a certain prized “look.” The PAST revisions effectively marry the bill with alternative legislation introduced by senators from Tennessee and U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch Mcconnell in the Upper Chamber, and others from Tennessee in the House, the Protecting Horses from Soring Act.

Some animal groups opposed revisions to PAST and are pushing a failed 2017-era USDA regulation that faces a very long pathway, certain legal challenges, and potential reversal in any new administration. Rather than banking on that uncertainty, Congress can and should deliver comprehensive reform with compromise legislation.

Banging our heads against the wall does nothing to stop horse slaughter or soring. We need Congress to pass meaningful, durable, enforceable reforms to protect the horses we all care so deeply about.