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This Valentine’s Day, horses need some love. They need you to use your voice to protect them from a lurking menace: the horse slaughter pipeline. 

Each year, tens of thousands of American horses are transported abroad to be slaughtered for human consumption because of a legal loophole. Thankfully, Congress took action years ago to to prevent horse slaughter from happening in the U.S. but even that could change—we have to fight that fight every single year. We must finally and fully ban horse slaughter–whether in the U.S. or by export. It’s a cruel betrayal that takes the lives of horses who fall into the slaughter pipeline and strikes fear in the hearts of horse owners and lovers everywhere.

The good news is that there is a way to end it–if we all work together to pass the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act. And the great news is we have the support of the American people behind us on this! We just received some excellent national poll results showing that a massive 83% of Americans now support banning horse slaughter. At this moment in history, it’s quite unusual for that many Americans to agree on anything—but we have a united front against horse slaughter so we must take our case to Congress, for the horses’ sake. 

Other very positive news is that the number of U.S. horses going over the borders for slaughter has declined dramatically in recent years–so while every single horse who is sent to slaughter is a horse too many, this means that now is the time to put an end to it. This is a supply and demand business. Without a permanent ban, horse slaughter will continue to exist. 

Through your advocacy and compassion this Valentine’s Day, we can finally ensure no American horse is ever again sent to a slaughterhouse.

Join us for our Have a Heart for Horses Week Challenge, which is all about urging Congress to pass the SAFE Act to permanently ban horse slaughter. We’ve developed five fun and love-filled ways to effectively raise awareness about this issue and to encourage your federal lawmakers to pass the SAFE Act. 

As our special thanks to you for helping horses, advocates who take all of the below steps to advance the SAFE Act may be eligible receive one of our ASPCA equine ambassador baseball hats! *while supplies last* 

Monday is for Mail (okay, email)

Email your lawmakers! Visit our SAFE Act web alert to quickly and easily urge your members of Congress to pass the bill into law. 

Tuesday is for Telephone

Telephone your lawmakers! This is incredibly easy: just visit aspca.org/lookup to identify your U.S. representative and two U.S. senators and get their telephone numbers, then place quick calls to all three offices and say:

For senators:

“Hello, my name is [your first name] and I live in [your town and state]. I’m calling today to urge Senator [senator’s last name] to take strong action to advance the SAFE Act, S. 2732, and help ensure that this bill is passed into law this Congress.”

For your representatives:

“Hello, my name is [your first name], and I live in [your town]. I’m calling today to urge Representative [representative’s last name] to take strong action to advance the SAFE Act, H.R. 3355, and to help ensure that this bill is passed into law this Congress.”

Wednesday is for Widen

Widen your circle of compassion by urging your family and friends to join us in pressuring Congress to pass the SAFE Act. We suggest taking a quick selfie of you and your furry companion and posting it to your social media channels with the hashtag #passthesafeact … and please tag @ASPCA!

Thursday is for Tweet

Tweet your federal lawmakers and ask them to please # passthesafeact! Don’t forget to include the bill numbers in this tweet: they are H.R. 3355 and S. 2732. You can find your legislators’ Twitter handles on their lawmaker webpage through a simple web search or by searching their last name followed by “representative” or “senator” on Twitter. Make sure you’re tagging a verified account! 

Friday is for Facebook

Post this image on Facebook!

Love is strong. Love is powerful. Let’s make our love for horses count this Valentine’s Day and work together to save our horses from the horror of slaughter. By joining forces across the nation, we can show Congress that now is the time to pass this bill and ensure no American horse has to meet this nightmarish fate. 

Once you’ve completed all of these actions, let us know by February 18 so we can send you a special ASPCA equine ambassador hat!