Horse Slaughter: Fact Sheet - International Fund for Horses

Horse Slaughter Fact Sheet-Int'l Fund for Horses

HORSE SLAUGHTER: FACT SHEET

Introduction

There is a silent spectre that haunts our horses, and one that many Americans are still unaware of. Every week our young, healthy horses are sent across our borders to be slaughtered for human consumption overseas.

The largest number are Quarter Horses, although Thoroughbred race horses, and even some of our wild Mustangs are routinely slaughtered. Their meat is processed, freeze packed and shipped to countries like Belgium, France, Italy and Japan, where horse meat is considered a delicacy.

Why does this industry still exist?

Short Answer: There is a demand for it.

Horse slaughter exists for one reason and one reason only — for the sole purpose of providing horse meat for human consumption to those who eat it.

Although the number of horses slaughtered declined sharply for a period of years, there has been a recent resurgence in demand.

Horse meat is viewed as "clean meat" and a good alternative to beef and other traditional meats because of BSE and other contamination scares.

Europeans and Asians who consume horse flesh are willing to pay a high price for American horse meat, which is described by butchers and purveyors of horse meat as the very best on the market.

"I only buy American meat, which is red and firm. In butchering terms we call it 'well-structured', the best you can get. Out of a thousand animals, only the American ones are really worth buying. But they don’t eat horse meat in America. They raise horses for foreigners."

~ Quote from a Butcher in France

How many horses are slaughtered from the United States?

Initially, fewer U.S. horses were killed for their meat with the closure of three U.S. horse-slaughter plants in Illinois and Texas for violating state laws in 2007.

According to the USDA, however, nearly 100,000 equines were exported from U.S. to Mexico and Canada to be butchered in 2008. 2009 will see a further increase in that number.

Those are the ones who are counted.

Our wild horses and being slaughtered, but because the BLM fails to brand and accurately track them, the number cannot be reliably known.

Where do the horses come from?

Horses are not raised for slaughter as they are not traditional food animals, so they must be bought. Licensed horse dealers, known as "killer buyers," act as middlemen for the slaughterhouses and frequent the auctions where horses are sold.

Mass quantities of horses are bought by these dealers at unbelievably cheap prices, who then transport the horses and resell them to the slaughterhouses for profit.

Many times an auction house and the dealer will not turn away an unfit animal, because as long as it can live till it gets to a slaughterhouse, they can be killed for their hides. These horses are called "skinners." Slaughterhouses typically have a tannery either on site or nearby for this reason.

A number of the horses who end up at slaughterhouses are stolen, and can disappear without a trace.

However, statistics from one of the largest groups that assist owners in the recovery of their stolen horses, Stolen Horse International (netposse.org) show that approximately 60% of stolen horses are killed at slaughter plants.

What type of horses are slaughtered?

Horses of virtually all ages and breeds are slaughtered, from draft types to miniatures.

Horses commonly slaughtered include unsuccessful race horses, horses who are lame or ill, surplus riding school and camp horses, mares whose foals are not economically valuable, and foals cast off by the Pregnant Mare Urine (PMU) industry, which produces the estrogen-replacement drug Premarin®.

Ponies, mules, and donkeys are slaughtered as well.

A vast majority purchased for slaughter are in good health and bought for only a few hundred dollars.

How do horses get to the slaughterhouses?

Horses are transported, often thousand of miles, from all over the country for export in double-decker trailers designed for cattle in all types of weather with no food or water.

Often there is not enough clearance for the horses to hold their heads in a fully upright position.

No consideration is given to the gender or the condition of the horses as they are crammed into these trucks.

Horses are often injured and some even arrive at the slaughterhouse dead.


How are the horses killed?

United States

The ones who survive the ordeal of transportation are held in pens until it is their turn to be butchered. The horses stand in the killing line smelling the blood, sensing the terror ahead. They are electrocuted or speared into the "kill box" where they shake violently, falling, unable to stand from fear.

Under federal law, horses are required to be rendered unconscious prior to slaughter, usually with a device called a captive bolt gun, which shoots a metal rod into the horse's brain. Prior to the closure of the U.S. horse slaughter plants, it was not uncommon for horses to be improperly

Captive-bolt gun Image via Wikipedia

stunned and therefore conscious when they were hoisted by a rear leg to have their throats cut.

A major misconception is that animals being readied for slaughter are stunned with a captive bolt in order to make the process more humane. The fact is, the captive bolt stunning mechanism was designed to protect slaughterhouse workers from the flailing limbs of terrified animals and increase the speed of the production line.

Mexico and Canada

With the export of horses to slaughter increasing more than 300 percent, undercover footage shows live horses being dragged, whipped, and crammed into trucks in 110 degrees on their way to a horrific form of slaughter in Mexico and Canada.

These horses are stabbed multiple times in the neck with a "puntilla knife" to sever their spinal cords. This procedure does not render the horse unconscious, and it is not a stunning method.

Rather, it paralyzes the horse, leaving him/her twitching on the ground, unable to move or breathe, and then the animal dies from suffocation (because their lungs stop working) or from blood loss and dismemberment.

Conditions in the slaughterhouse—inside and outside of our borders—are stressful and extremely frightening for horses.

If horse slaughter is banned, where will all the horses go?

The number of horses slaughtered in 1990 was a staggering 350,000, a number that dropped to an all time low of 42,000 in 2002. Between 1992 and 1993 alone, the number of horses slaughtered dropped 79,000. These decreases did not create a glut of "unwanted horses." Society absorbed these horses, and the market remained stable, just as it will when horse slaughter is eliminated altogether.

The phrase "unwanted horses" is a myth created by horse slaughter supporters. The number of horses slaughtered each year is the one used by them to arrive at the number of so-called "unwanted horses" for the same time period. In actuality, the number of horses slaughtered each year is the number of horses the horse slaughter plants have the capacity to butcher and process.

There are many alternatives to horse slaughter. Horses can be given another chance at life through retraining and adoption programs as pleasure horses, with rescues, retirement homes, and sanctuaries. Horses can also enjoy second careers as Mounted Police horses, at riding schools and as therapy horses.

If a horse becomes old, infirm or mortally ill, then the horse should be euthanized by a qualified veterinarian. There are a wide variety of options for disposing of their bodies that range from the costly to economical. These include burial (where permitted), cremation, rendering, composting and landfills.

Texas A&M, in response to this question, released a special report on composting as a viable alternative that would be both environmentally and politically beneficial, predicting that this could become a big market when horse slaughter is banned.

If horse slaughter or export for slaughter is banned, won't abuse and neglect increase?

California banned horse slaughter in 1998. California has experienced no increase in abuse case, and even noted a decrease 3 years following the ban.

During the 4 years that Cavel was closed, Illinois saw a noticeable decrease in abuse and/or neglect cases. Texas, which had the only two slaughter plants in 2003, had among the nation's highest rates of cruelty and theft.

The conclusion is clear – horse slaughter does not decrease abuse and neglect but actually encourages it.

What Can I Do To Help?

Support organizations like ours working to put an end to horse slaughter and export for slaughter.

Be a responsible horse owner.

Sponsor the care of a horse in a horse rescue or sanctuary.

Think carefully before breeding a mare and consider adopting your next horse from an equine rescue organization.

Plan for your horse's eventual death by setting aside funds for humane euthanasia by a veterinarian, in case it becomes necessary.

Menopausal women on hormone replacement therapy should ask their doctors to prescribe one of the many safe and effective, FDA-approved alternatives to Premarin®.

Debate over horse meat gains new life - U.S. news- msnbc.com

Horses being transported to slaughter at a now-defunct Texas plant.



The Animal Welfare Institute says these horses, including one with cut and swollen eyes, were among animals being transported to slaughter at a now-defunct Texas plant. Such cases illustrate the inhumane treatment of many horses destined for the meat market, the group says.
Dixie Wilson / ARTEX

Mike Stuckey
Senior news editor

The emotional debate over slaughtering horses for human consumption gained new life in Washington this week as a House committee approved a measure that would ban the practice nationwide and halt the export of U.S. horses destined for dinner tables in other countries.

While it’s unclear whether the Judiciary Committee’s Tuesday approval of the slaughter ban will lead to passage by the full House and Senate before the clock runs out on the current session of Congress, the panel’s hearings refocused attention on an issue that has motivated animal-welfare groups for years.

Image via WikipediaOutraged by what they say is cruel treatment of horses sold for meat, the groups already have succeeded at forcing closure of the three remaining U.S. horse slaughterhouses — two in Texas and one in Illinois — in recent years. But since thousands of horses are still exported for slaughter in Canada and Mexico, and many states have no laws that would prohibit the opening of new plants, the groups have been seeking federal regulation since 2001.

“There’s absolutely no way to make it humane,” said Chris Heyde, deputy director of government and legal affairs for the Animal Welfare Institute, one of the ban’s principal backers. “It’s an industry that cannot be regulated to make it humane.”

So the “Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act,” sponsored by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of Judiciary, and Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., would make it a crime punishable by up to three years in prison to possess or transport horse meat for human consumption or horses intended to be slaughtered for human meals.

A necessary option

But opponents of the law, including some cattle ranchers, horse breeders and veterinarians, say that the now-defunct U.S. slaughterhouses, regulated and inspected by the Department of Agriculture, were run in a humane fashion and provided a necessary option to deal with unwanted horses.

“From a welfare perspective, they’ve made things a lot worse,” said Mark Lutschaunig, director of governmental relations for the American Veterinary Medicine Association, which represents 76,000 U.S. vets. Lutschaunig said his group is hearing reports of a sharp increase in cases of horses being neglected and abandoned by owners who can no longer sell them at auction for slaughter.

Despite the fact that horse meat is widely eaten by Europeans and Asians, the vast majority of Americans have no interest in taking a bite out of Old Paint. Since no U.S. horses are raised for that purpose, they only come to the meat market as castoffs: old, sick, too unruly to ride or genetically deficient. Because horses are not regulated as meat animals, Heyde said, the process by which they are slaughtered is fraught with cruelty.

About 100,000 American horses are exported for slaughter in Mexico and Canada each year, roughly the same number as when the U.S. slaughterhouses were operating. There are about 9 million horses in the United States, according to federal estimates.

Harrowing stories, images

Web sites maintained by Heyde’s group and others contain harrowing accounts, photos and videos of horses being transported to the slaughterhouses. “Deprived of food, water or rest, the horses are forced onto double-decked cattle trailers” and hauled for 24 hours or more, according to the Animal Welfare Institute’s site. “Callous workers use fiberglass rods to poke and beat their faces, necks, backs and legs.” At one plant in Mexico, horses are “stabbed repeatedly” with knives in “a barbaric practice (that) simply paralyzes the animal. The horse is still fully conscious at the start of the slaughter process, during which he or she is hung by a hind leg, his or her throat slit and body butchered,” it says.

CONTINUED - page 2

Horse Slaughter: A Global View™: Reality check ...

6/27/08

Reality check ...







An unknown off-the-track racehorse slaughtered in the U.S., June 2008. Did you know him?





June 27, 2008 ~ EquusEditorial's work on the racehorse memorials and horse slaughter project returns little joy or encouragement. But today we are shocked and saddened at the truth which had escaped us until now, was so well hidden from us and no doubt from many of you out there.



Where were we? Our head in the clouds? How did we miss it? Maybe we're the only ones who were under the impression that horse slaughter had ended in the United States, with the closure of the three remaining slaughterhouses. Isn't that why the horses are transported now across the Canadian and Mexican borders to be slaughtered? Wasn't our next big hurdle to actually end that transport to once and for all save our horses from the whole tragic ordeal?



The public's focus has been turned to the inhumane slaughter methods outside the more "compassionate" United States. But did you know that it is still legal in most states to slaughter horses for human consumption? As well as for other purposes? We confirmed this with the Humane Society of the United States today, June 26, 2008.



We're not talking about sending dead horses to the rendering plant. We're talking about live horses taken to slaughter. And in the specific case that led us to this truth, we're talking about off-the-track racehorses slaughtered for zoo meat. That is, broken down, injured, abused, neglected, or ill racehorses dropped off by their owners who have taken the cowardly way out. Owners who no longer have need for the animals nor, obviously, any compassion for them. Owners who could not find it in their hearts or their pocketbooks to humanely euthanize the horses instead.



This feels more like the review of a ghastly low-budget horror movie than it does the truth of horse slaughter right here in our own country. We will be working on this story and publishing it in all its shameful facts as soon as possible.



We're giving you this heads-up first, compelled to share how our perception of U.S. horse slaughter has been shattered. The situation is more complex and further from resolution than we had thought, further away from sparing our horses such horror at the hands of humans.



Posted by EquusEditorial at 5:39 AM

The more I think about this, the more ambivalent I find myself becoming. The carnivores in the zoos have to eat something, and feeding deceased horses to zoo animals would be one way of solving the problem that catches so many horse owners off guard: What does on do with a dead horse?

 

I don't think I would have a problem with my horse being fed to zoo animals after his death. When you think about it, it's no worse than rendering, or even burying - for the worms and whatever else to feast on.

However, this article is not about feeding zoo animals horses that are already dead - it's about slaughtering them specifically for that purpose. Which of course is no more humane than slaughtering them for human consumption. I can't speak for others, but it was never about the human consumption thing for me. It was about how inhumane it is to ship horses in trailers intended for cattle, and to use slaughter practices designed for cattle. 

And, it was - and is - about they type of owner who would do this to a horse instead of spending the money to give their animal a humane death. I have no words to express my opinion of these people. So, we're back to square one, aren't we?

I honestly don't know. There is no way I can support horse slaughter for any purpose until they are guaranteed humane transport, and until slaughter practices are revamped to make them at least reasonably humane for horses. Transportation is the easy part, although many fight giving up the double decker trailers tooth and nail. I realize they are more economical, but even those tall enough for cattle are inherently unstable. I've seen an overturned double decker cattle trailer, and believe me, it was a sight I wish I'd never come across.

Double decker trailers tall enough for horses would be even more subject to accidents, and very unsafe for all concerned. And overhauling the slaughter process to make it humane for horses is even more problematic. Frankly, I don't know if it's even possible to come up with a mass slaughter routine that would be humane for horses, with their high strung nature and powerful flight reaction. 

Even worse, I have a feeling that horses euthanized with narcotics would not be suitable even for other animals to consume. So, how would your vet euthanize a horse in a way that would be humane for the horse, yet leave it acceptable for other animals to consume? I don't have any answers. How I wish I did...

 

AVMA Amends Horse Transport Policy

Edited Press Release

May 12 2008, Article # 11855

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has reinforced its opposition to the use of double-deck trailers to transport horses and other equines by approving a new policy on the humane transport of equines.

The policy, which was proposed by the AVMA animal welfare committee and approved by the executive board on April 12, 2008, states that due to animal welfare and safety concerns, the AVMA opposes the use of double-deck trailers to transport equines. The AVMA previously has supported USDA regulations prohibiting the use of such trailers for transport of horses and other equines to slaughter, and submitted written comments to the USDA on this issue earlier this year.

Read the more at http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=11855

The complete policy can be accessed at AVMA.org.

Rodeo Company Drivers Convicted of Violating PA Horse Transport Law

Equine Protection Network
www.EquineProtectio

nNetwork.com
April 11, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rodeo Company Drivers Convicted of Violating PA Horse Transport Law
Banning Doubles has Scheduled Dates in IL – Passage of IL Horse
Transport Law will Ban Doubles

Three Hills Rodeo, whose drivers pled guilty to 36 counts of
violating the PA Horse Transport Law in 2005 and paid $5000.00 in
fines, also have five dates scheduled in Illinois in 2008. The
Illinois House just passed the IL Horse Transport Bill, HB 4162 on
Monday 80-26, and if passed will ban the use of double deck trailers
to transport any horse, no matter what its final destination
effective immediately.

State Representatives from the locations of these rodeos, Freeport,
Jim Saccia, (R), Peoria Rep. Schock,(R) and the Rep. from Rockford,
Winters, (R),all voted against the bill. Representatives Reiss (R)
also spoke out against the bill. Saccia has been the most outspoken
opposing the legislation and has introduced his own bill (HB4489)with
the same language and with language that would repeal the 2007
legislation that closed the horse slaughter plant in DeKalb. Saccia
and others are trying to move the focus of this legislation from a
horse transport issue to a horse slaughter issue. Low- end dealers,
rodeo stock contractors, and "killer buyers" utilize double deck
trailers. Double deck trailers are not designed, safety tested, and
manufactured for horses, nor are they marketed to the horse industry.

Background information on double deck trailers, including photos,
diagrams, video, statutes, violations, and convictions under state
and federal regulations, legislative history of the federal
regulations and more, can all be found at the Equine Protection
Network's website in the Transport Section.

Saccia's argument is the economic hardship for killer buyers
transporting horses long distances to slaughter. What Saccia fails to
understand is that it is against the Commercial Transportation of
Horses to Slaughter Act, Federal Regulations, Volume 66, No, 236,
published Dec. 7, 2001 to transport horses to slaughter in double
deck trailers. (the doubles ban went into effect 5 years from
effective date) Also according to the USDA,

"As stated previously, commercial shippers typically charge owners a
flat rate to transport their equines, so the possibility of fewer
equines per shipment should not result in less revenue for commercial
shippers."

Regarding Saccia's statements on overcrowding on single decks:

"Overcrowding can also occur in single-deck (also called straight-
deck) trailers, which are used to transport equines to a lesser
extent than double-deck trailers. The requirement concerning adequate
space could translate into fewer equines per conveyance."

Regarding questions on the number of equines carried on a double
versus a single or straight deck trailer: Pg. 63594:

"We acknowledge that double-deck trailers can carry more equines and
other livestock than single-deck trailers. We are allowing the
continued use of double-deck trailers for the next 5 years in order
to minimize economic losses to those dependent on the use of
doubledeck trailers.

Regarding the idea that doubles can be modified or that somehow a
double deck trailer can be constructed in the future that can
transport horses safely and humanely: Pg. 63594:

"We do not believe that equines can be safely and humanely
transported on a conveyance that has an animal cargo space divided
into two or more stacked levels. As stated in the proposal, double-
deck trailers can continue to be used to transport other commodities,
including produce and livestock other than equines. Also, owners can
sell their serviceable trailers at fair market value to transporters
of commodities other than equines."

Questions from those opposing regarding how many doubles are
utilized. From pg 63613:

"In fact, it is estimated that double-deck trailers in general carry
equines no more than about 10 percent of the time they are in use."

As for Representatives Reiss questions as to whether or not the
horses know what deck they are on, and if they do not what does it
matter, the EPN's Christine Berry responds,

"I know that horses realize they are not in a van designed for horses
from the moment they are forced with electric cattle prods, whips, or
biting dogs into a dark trailer by means of a "trap door" in the rear
of the trailer, forced to lower their heads & jump down into the
lower deck. As they slip and fall on the slippery metal floors and
then slam their heads into the top deck as they fight to regain their
balance by raising their heads, I can assure you those horses know
that they are not on a van that is designed, safety tested,
manufactured, or marketed to the horse industry!"

Boland from Moline voted in favor of the bill.

Three Hills also has dates scheduled in Maryland (2006) and New York,
(1980) two states that have also banned the use of double deck
trailers to transport any horse, no matter what its final
destination.

Three Hills has continued to come to PA for the rodeo in Plymouth
Meeting, PA in September. The sky has not fallen on rodeo since they
cannot use doubles to transport horses in PA since 2001 and it will
not fall in IL when IL passes the IL Horse Transport Bill. The EPN
supports this legislation as currently drafted and has the support of
the commercial horse transportation industry, including the National
Horse Carriers Association, Brook Ledge, Drexler Horse Transport, C
and E Horse Transport, along with Stolen Horse International and The
Paper Horse Magazine. Equine Advocates, Arlington Park, and numerous
other organizations support this legislation that is in line with
accepted horse industry practices.

Illinois Dates

Peoria, Rockford, and Moline, IL in January
Galena, IL on July 4-5th
Freeport, IL on August 21st

Christine Berry

Equine Protection Network

www.SaveAmericasHorses.com
www.HoofPAC.com

The Gift

My farrier, Matt, was over Friday to trim Indy and Ami. Neither of them wear shoes, but they need their regular trims just the same.

Matt is not only an excellent farrier, he's a great friend, and he only lives about ten minutes away. Over the years that he's taken care of my horses, we've come to know each other very well, and we discuss everything under the sun.

Friday we got talking about the whole slaughter/unwanted horses/owner responsibility thing. We agree that slaughter is not - or at least it shouldn't be - the answer to "unwanted" horses. We've both felt for a long time that owner responsibility - or the lack thereof - is the root cause of all these surplus horses, and that's what needs to be addressed. Owner education is the only real and humane solution.

Then Matt said something that I'll never forget. He said that we - that is, horse owners - seem to have forgotten what wonderful gifts our horses offer - the gift of riding them; the gift of working with them; the gift of just watching them; the gift of smelling their breath.

I think it was that last one that got to me the most, because it is a gift, just to smell their warm, sweet breath. I know many of you horse lovers know exactly what we mean.

What then is our responsibility to these unsurpassed creatures who give us so much? Is it - as Matt and I think - to keep our horses for the rest of their natural lives, or, failing that, make sure they go to a good home? At the end of their lives, is it our responsibility to ensure that they have a peaceful and painless exit from this world?

Or, is it okay to "dispose" of a horse that can't/won't fulfill the purpose we envisioned on purchase in any way available? Should we sell them to anyone who will meet our price without regard to what that person might have in mind for them? Should we send them to slaughter - with all it's attendant frightful possibilities - instead of providing them with euthanasia by a veterinarian? And, if slaughter is the best we feel we can do for our horses at the end of their "useful" lives, should we ever have owned them at all?

I've already stated my own opinions about these questions. I offer this post as food for thought.

Equine Protection Network - Horse Transport Information

Equine Protection Network
www.EquineProtectio

nNetwork.com
February 26, 2008

Horse Transport Information:
http://www.equineprotectionnetwork.com/transport/transportindex.htm

IL & MD Horse Transport Laws

The IL Horse Transport Law passed its first committee hearing on
Thursday, February 21, 2007 unanimously with the amendment removing
the language that would have created the same loophole that Arlow
Kiehl used in NY to avoid arrest and enter into plea agreements with
lower fines until NY closed the loophole.
Please send your support and appreciation to Representative JoAnn
Osmond, (R) for introducing this long overdue legislation that will
protect the first responders who had to enter that double deck
trailer to remove the horses, and the horses themselves who are
forced to travel in trailers that are not designed, safety tested or
manufactured to transport horses.
Rep JoAnn Osmond,201-N Stratton Office Building
Springfield, IL 62706
**************************************
Court Date for IL Horse Crash

Keith O. Tongen, 49, Minnesota is charged with four Class A
misdemeanor animal cruelty charges and one Class B misdemeanor animal
owner duties violation charge. With possible penalties of one year in
prison and $1,000 in fines. The animal owner duties violation carries
a penalty of six months in the Lake County Jail.
The accident occurred Oct. 27, 2006 when a double deck trailer
hauling 59 draft horses from Indiana through Wadsworth, Ill. to
Minnesota overturned. A total of 17 horses died, either on the scene
or within days of the event due to accident-related injuries. The
remaining surviving horses were adopted.
The EPN urges supporters to attend the court proceedings to
demonstrate support for the prosecution of those responsible for the
horses being transported in a trailer not designed or manufactured
for horses.
The EPN is aware of crashes involving doubles in Colorado,
Connecticut, Michigan, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
and Canada. In at least one of the crashes, two people died as a
result of the crash. The common denominator is the fact that these
trailers are often overloaded and top heavy when carrying horses.
******************************************
MD Horse Transport Law of 2006 Bans Double Deck Trailers- Cards
Available!
The MD Horse Transport Law of 2006 bans the use of double deck
trailers to transport horses and also specifies other safety
regulations regarding the transport of horses. The Equine Protection
Network has added MD Horse Transport Law Cards to our website in
addition to the NY, PA, and VT cards already available.

MD Horse Transport Law:

http://www.equineprotectionnetwork.com/statutes/mdhorsetransportlaw.ht
ml

(File ends in "html" Copy & paste entire link into your browser)

The EPN urges the public to download a card and carry it in your car
so that if you see a double deck trailer with horses inside you have
a place to write down the license plate, location of the trailer,
description of the trailer to provide to 911 operators.

Three Hills Rodeo, Bernard, Iowa has a rodeo scheduled in July at the
Cecil County Fairgrounds in Fair Hill, MD. This same company's
drivers pled guilty and paid $5000.00 in fines in 2005 for violating
the PA Horse Transport Law. The EPN hopes that Three Hills does not
plan on violating the MD Horse Transport Law.

The EPN is at the Reading Horse and Pet Expo March 14 – 16th at the
Greater Reading Expo Center. The EPN has hooded sweatshirts and
hoodies supporting HR 503 available along with Save America's Horses
License Plate Holders. See you at the Expo!

www.horseandpetexpo.com

###
Christine Berry
Equine Protection Network
www.SaveAmericasHorses.com
www.HoofPAC.com