Across centuries, horses have played one of the most important roles when it comes to the bond between humans and animals. We have made horses help us in such a profound way that it is difficult to imagine what our history would look like without these special animals. In return for traversing large distances and carrying people on their backs, horses have been provided with safety, comfort, and food – or at least that is how the fair exchange was always meant to look. Today, horses are still used for work, unfortunately sometimes in horrible conditions. Even though they have always been our companions, some industries keep failing horses by blatantly exploiting them. Sadly, not everyone seems to recognize and appreciate the value of those animals. Some people – including a couple of U.S. Representatives – do not even believe horses should be granted the right to live in safety, but instead can and should be sold and killed for their meat.

The organization Animal Wellness Action has launched a Care2 petition to draw attention to Representatives Steve King’s (R-Iowa) and Marsha Blackburn’s (R-Tennessee) baffling support for the practice of slaughtering horses and enabling so-called “kill buyers” to ship horse meat abroad, for example to Europe and China. Kill buyers purchase young and healthy American horses and arrange for them to be transported to Canada or Mexico where the animals are killed in slaughterhouses. Every year, 100,000 American horses are butchered for their meat and sold to other countries.


Steve King and Marsha Blackburn not only support the killing of horses bred in America but even want to reverse the ban on slaughtering American horses in the U.S. The consequences of the horse meat trade being supported by lawmakers and thriving any further would be terrifying and should never become reality.

“Horses belong in the stable, not on the table,” Animal Wellness Action writes. Click here to sign the petition voicing your opposition to the betrayal of the bond between humans and horses and to the senseless slaughter of horses for meat.

Image source: Alexas_Fotos/Pixabay

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