Dear friends,

Since it was reintroduced in January 2007, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (S. 311 - HR 503), a bill to ban the slaughter of US horses and their exportation for slaughter abroad, has been waiting to be brought up for consideration in both the Senate and the House where it was denied due process by a group of pro-slaughter legislators who believe the profits of three foreign-owned horse slaughter plants outweigh the welfare and safety of American horses and horse owners alike.

This group of legislators, led by Senator Larry Craig (R – Idaho), has successfully blocked the bill in the Senate, preventing it from being even debated on the floor using procedural means and hiding behind a plethora of myths and fabricated stories to support a "need for horse slaughter" while tens of thousands of American horses continue to be exported for slaughter in Canada and Mexico under appalling conditions.

As the legislative deadline of mid-September set up by the upcoming elections approaches, the need to get the AHSPA passed increases dramatically, making necessary to launch an all-out counterattack to break the pro-slaughter blockade on the bills and proceed to their consideration in the corresponding chambers. If the AHSPA is not at least passed by the Senate before mid-September it will die since there would not be enough time in the brief "lame duck" session taking place after the elections to move it through the rest of the legislative process, forcing us to start all over from zero next year and spelling doom for tens of thousands of additional horses that will be cruelly slaughtered abroad until we have another chance.

To this end, horse owners and enthusiasts from all over the United States will gather in Washington DC next March 4 and 5 to lobby their elected officials in a desperate effort to break Sen. Craig’s blockade on the AHSPA and expedite its passage in both chambers.

In order to be effective, we need to show a massive grass roots support for those lobbying the legislators on Capitol Hill and let them know that Americans want the AHSPA passed as soon as possible to end this sordid trade. It is extremely important that as many people as possible contact their Representatives and Senators urging them to cosponsor S. 311 and HR 503 if they have not yet done so and requesting them to press the Senate leadership and to set S. 311 free from Sen. Craig’s blockade.

Contact as many times as possible both your two US Senators and all the Representatives of your state requesting them to:

1. Cosponsor S. 311 (Senators) or HR 503 (Representatives) in case they have yet done so.

2. Ask the Senate Leadership to do everything possible to break Sen. Craig’s blockade on S. 311 and expedite its passage in both chambers.

If they are already cosponsoring the bills, please praise them for doing so and request them to keep their support commitment to the end.

Also, please forward this action alert to all your contacts, relatives, friends, work and school partners asking them to follow it and contact their respective Congressional delegations in support of the AHSPA. The more people contact Congress the more chances we have to get the AHSPA passed!

Please remember this is virtually the last chance we have to lobby Congress to get the bill passed before it is too late: If S. 311 is not at least passed by the Senate by mid-September we can take it for dead, forcing us to start from scratch next year and dooming without recourse tens of thousands of American horses to horrible, agonizing deaths in Canadian and Mexican slaughter plants. Therefore, it is vitally important we employ all the resources we have available to flood Congress with a continuous stream of calls and faxes during those two days. Their lives depend on us.

Thank you for your help.