Well, the 109th Congress has officially come to an end without a final Senate vote taking place on S. 1915, the "American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act." Although it is a shameful farewell for the current Senate, there is great hope that the incoming 110th congress will save our horses by finally banning horse slaughter in America next year.

The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act would have banned the practice of slaughtering American horses for human consumption. More than 90,000 horses are slaughtered in the United States every year at only three foreign-owned slaughterhouses. Horse meat is not eaten in the United States, but it is exported to Europe and Asia, where it is considered a delicacy in many countries. Horse slaughter was banned in California in 1998 and recent surveys in Texas, Virginia and Kentucky show that 70 percent of respondents are opposed to slaughtering horses for meat.

In September, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the bill by a 263 to 146 vote, indicating strong bipartisan support. Although the Senate version did not make it to a vote, it did manage to obtain 33 cosponsors.

Many of our staunches opponents have now been voted out of congress, like Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., who is widely believed to have filed an anonymous "hold" to block the vote in the Senate this year. So next year, all the calls we’ll be making and letters we’ll be writing will, hopefully, finally make a difference. Our battle begins again on January 4, 2007.

Thank you for all your hard work these past two years. If you would like to start preparing for next year, check out our Myths and Facts page on our website at http://www.uan.org/index.cfm?navid=256. Now take some time to rest and rejuvenate and please enjoy the upcoming holiday season!


P.S. If you have not done so yet, I would highly encourage you to subscribe to our quarterly PMULines e-mail newsletter to stay updated on this issue and find out when action is needed. You can sign up at http://ga4.org/uan/join.tcl.