A message from President/Founder Susan Wagner:
Dear Friends,
This Action Alert is an urgent appeal to New York State Residents to pass Senate Bill S2163B and Assembly Bill A5109 to prohibit the slaughter of horses for human and animal consumption!
This legislation has national implications! Everyone, regardless of where one lives, needs to get involved now!
With your immediate action, history can be made for horses in New York State before the end of the current legislative session, which runs through June 8th. There is not a lot of time left, which is why your involvement is needed now.
New York State has been the “Horse Slaughter Highway” into Canada for trucks transporting equines to slaughter from New York, as well as from neighboring states across the eastern U.S. We need to shut down this Avenue of Death for good and if everyone acts quickly, there is a really good chance that it could pass. Both bills in the NYS Senate and Assembly are now out of committee and ready to go to the floors of their respective houses for a vote.
I personally spoke to legislative aides for the sponsors of this legislation in both the NYS Senate and Assembly and this is what they advised all of us to do:
Just take these three important steps in order to make a difference in getting this legislation passed:
- Contact your NY State Assembly and State Senate Representatives! Find Your New York State Assembly Member and ask him or her to please vote for Assembly Bill A5109 to ban the slaughter of horses for human and animal consumption. Find your NY Assembly Member here: nyassembly.gov/mem/search/
- Please contact NYS Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie and ask him to please bring A5109 banning horse slaughter to the floor for a vote – Call him at (518) 455-3791 – Email him at Speaker@nyassembly.gov
- Contact your NY State Senator and ask him or her to please vote for Senate Bill S2163B which would ban the slaughter of horses for human and animal consumption. Find your New York State Senator here: www.nysenate.gov/find-my-senator
IMPORTANT: If you live in another state but know people in New York State, please share this alert with them and ask them to please move on this right away. This bill, if passed, will be by far the best state legislation to protect equines from slaughter in the nation as it gets rid of the loopholes and exemptions that legally allow these animals to be sent to slaughter for pet food and all secondary markets. If passed, not only would New York set the gold standard for state legislation banning the slaughter of horses for human and animal consumption, but it would get us closer to a federal ban which is the ultimate goal.
New York would also join California, Illinois, Texas, and New Jersey which already have laws banning horse slaughter on the books.
Time is of the essence, so please act now and spread the word! We can do this, but immediate action is needed before the NYS legislative session ends on June 8th.
Thank you for your action and advocacy!
Sincerely,
Susan Wagner, President