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As a voter and animal advocate, I want to thank Rep. Chellie Pingree for co-sponsoring the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act, ( H.R. 3355), to ban the slaughter of American horses at home and abroad. Each year, tens of thousands of American horses are cruelly shipped cross-country to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. This industry relies on a vicious, inhumane end for horses, degrades the environment, and poses deadly danger to consumers with its reliance on drug-tainted horsemeat. Horse slaughter is opposed by over 80 percent of Americans, and yet rescue organizations are forced to use valuable and limited resources saving horses from this gruesome industry.
We know that our horses should be given dignified, humane retirements, not cruel ends in a dark and dirty slaughterhouse. What’s more, research in 2017 found that there are 2.3 million adults (1.2 million households) in the U.S. with both the desire and resources to adopt a horse, meaning there is no justification for horses to go to slaughter. Thank you again to Pingree for co-sponsoring the vital SAFE Act and for protecting the companion animals who are an icon of our great nation.
Kim Schwickrath
Old Orchard Beach