Federal Equine Legislative Issues

HR 503 - CONYERS-BURTON PREVENTION OF EQUINE CRUELTY ACT (Reintroduced on 1/14/2009)
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Status: The Missouri Equine Council, Inc. OPPOSES this bill.
Comments: Ironically named The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, HR 503 was reintroduced in 2009 to prohibit certain conduct relating to the uses of horses for human consumption and is an attempt to forever ban horse slaughter in the US. Missouri Equine Council, Inc. believes that humane regulated slaughter is the best answer to the nations problem of unwanted horses who are being abandoned, starved and neglected because owners have no affordable way to divest themselves of horses they can no longer care for. This bill is currently in the Judiciary Committee, even though it is obviously a bill that should have been sent to the Agricultural Committee.

S 727 - THE PREVENTION OF EQUINE CRUELTY ACT OF 2009
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Status: The Missouri Equine Council, Inc. OPPOSES this bill.
Comments: Introduced 3/26/2009 and has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. This bill is the Senate version of HR 503- The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act. Missouri Equine Council, Inc. opposes this bill.

HR 305 - THE HORSE TRANSPORTATION SAFETY ACT OF 2009
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Status: The Missouri Equine Council, Inc is MONITORING this bill.
Comments: Introduced 1/8/2009. Also known as the Horse Transportation Safety Act of 2009, HR 305 is an amendment to title 49, United States Code, to prohibit the transportation of horses in a vehicle containing two or more levels stacked on top of one another. It is believed to be a direct attack on the Rodeo industry. (As of 2006, federal guidelines were implemented to help protect horses being hauled in double decker-trailers in most of the United States. (Currently, only Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Massachusetts have completely banned the use of double-decker trailers for horses.) Because this bill does not provide any guidelines for transporting horses in single level trailers, the Missouri Equine Council, Inc finds the language of this bill lacking. HR 305 has been referred to the House Committee of Transportation.

HR 1018 - AMENDMENT TO WILD HORSES AND BURROS ACT
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Status: The Missouri Equine Council, Inc. OPPOSES this bill.
Comments: On 2/12/2009, Representative Rahall (WV-D) introduced a bill to amend the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act to improve the management and long-term health of wild free-roaming horses and burros (H.R. 1018). This bill would restore the federal prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros. It would also bar the Secretary of Interior from euthanizing any wild free-roaming horses or burros unless an animal is terminally ill. Representative Rahall introduced similar legislation in the last Congress. This bill has been referred to the House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands . Representative Rahall is Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee.