Issues
End Horse Slaughter
During 2022, a total of 19,989 American horses were shipped to their deaths – down 3,442 from 23,431 during the same period last year – a 14.7% decrease.
While those numbers are horrific, horse exports for slaughter have continued their steady decline from a 20-year high of 166,572 in 2012 to just over 19,989 in 2022.
That decline is all the more reason for Congress to end the inhumane work of kill buyers, yet the 2007 shuttering of the last horse slaughterhouse in the United States has done nothing to keep our horses from foreign killing floors or decrease the risk to human health from eating horse meat.
Protect Wild Horses
The current situation is the result of a long history of failed policies, land allocation issues, and an intricate money trail. The BLM and the USFS, among others, are responsible for managing the nation’s public lands and are foremost the managers of wild horses and burros.
Their responsibilities also include issuing public land grazing permits to cattle ranchers. These grazing permits cover limited areas of public land that are available for lease. So, for every wild horse removed from a grazing permit allotment, a fee-paying cow gets to take its place, and a public land rancher gets the benefit of public land forage at bargain rates. This is the number one reason wild horses are removed from public lands.
Eliminate SOring
Soring involves the intentional infliction of pain to a horse's legs or hooves to force the horse to perform an artificial, exaggerated gait. Blistering agents like mustard oil, diesel fuel and kerosene are applied to the horse's limbs, causing extreme pain and suffering. A particularly egregious form of soring, known as pressure shoeing, involves cutting a horse's hoof almost to the quick and tightly nailing on a shoe or standing a horse for hours with the sensitive part of his soles on a block or other raised object.
Soring has been a common and widespread practice in the Tennessee walking horse show industry for decades. Today, judges continue to reward the artificial "Big Lick" gait, thus encouraging participants to sore their horses and allowing the cruel practice to persist.
These are just a few of the horse issues the National Horse Protection PAC will focus on. Please check back as more important issues will be added over time.