In a big win for animals, the U.S government has reinstated rules that will stop the mass purchase of wild horses and burros, protecting them from money-hungry kill buyers who want to ship them off to slaughter for profit.
Hundreds of thousands of readers have signed LFT petitions to stop the slaughter of America’s wild horses, and countless activists and organizations across the country are working to stop the killing. This new decision shows that our voices are being heard, and takes us one major step closer to stopping the slaughter for good.
In 2014, the Bureau of Land Management restricted mass purchases of wild horses after a kill buyer reportedly bought 1,800 animals and sent them across the Mexico border to slaughter. But the government stripped these provisions last year, risking the lives of the close to 75,000 horses who live on public lands.
It’s forbidden to kill horses on American soil, but still legal to ship the animals to foreign slaughterhouses, then sell their flesh to Europe and Asia, where there is a high demand for horsemeat.
With the protections now reinstated, individuals and organizations can only buy four wild horses within a 6-month period, blocking buyers from sending large numbers of animals to slaughter for a hefty profit.
However, the fight for wild horses and burros is not over, and we will not rest until the slaughter of these majestic animals is banned completely.
There is hope: a bipartisan bill recently reintroduced to Congress, called the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, H.R. 961, would completely halt the transport of wild and domestic American horses and burros overseas.
Please sign our petition to help pass this ban, and save the lives of America’s most iconic animals:
