Your help is urgently needed to get Congress to pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503/S.311), a bill that would end the slaughter of American horses for human consumption, and prohibit the export of horses for slaughter in other countries. 

"The bill has been introduced several times in recent years and is the closest it has ever come to passing," says Valerie Sicignano, IDA's East Coast Director. "If it does not pass during this legislative session, we will have to start from scratch yet again -- and more horses will die in the meantime." She adds that, "H.R. 503 has been referred to a house sub-committee and has not gone to a hearing. There is currently a hold on S.311 in the Senate, but with enough co-sponsors we can override the hold and make the slaughter of American horses a thing of the past -- but we need your help."

1. Check to see if your U.S. Representative is already a co-sponsor of H.R. 503, and if your two U.S. Senators are co-sponsors of S. 311.

2. If your legislators are not co-sponsors of the bill, call the Capital Switchboard at (202) 224-3124 to be connected to their offices, then ask them to co-sponsor the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act immediately.

3. Next, Take Action to send a follow up email to your elected officials who are not yet co-sponsors of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. For best effect, rewrite our sample letter in your own words, and also print it out as a letter for mailing.