Official Summaries

Save America's Forgotten Equines Act of 2025 or the SAFE Act of 2025

This bill permanently prohibits the slaughter of equines (e.g., horses and mules) for human consumption. (Current law prohibits the slaughter of dogs and cats for human consumption. This bill extends the prohibition to equines.)

Specifically, this bill prohibits a person from knowingly (1) slaughtering an equine for human consumption; or (2) shipping, transporting, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donating an equine to be slaughtered for human consumption or equine parts for human consumption.

The bill subjects a violator to a fine.

The bill applies to conduct in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States. However, it does not apply to an activity carried out by an Indian for a religious ceremony.

As background, in recent years, the appropriations acts have prohibited the Department of Agriculture (USDA) from using federal funds to inspect horses before they are slaughtered for human consumption. Therefore, there are currently no USDA-inspected horse slaughter facilities in the United States.

Current Full Text

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1661 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1661

   To amend the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 to prohibit the 
              slaughter of equines for human consumption.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 27, 2025

 Mr. Buchanan (for himself, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Nehls, Mr. Beyer, Mr. 
 Ciscomani, Mr. Cleaver, Ms. Tenney, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mrs. Kim, 
   Mr. Foster, Mr. Steube, Mrs. McBath, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Ms. 
  Escobar, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Connolly, Mr. Barr, Mr. Quigley, Mr. 
     Carey, Mrs. Dingell, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Thanedar, Mr. LaLota, Mr. 
Espaillat, Mr. Carter of Louisiana, Ms. Davids of Kansas, Ms. Meng, Ms. 
  Pingree, Ms. Malliotakis, Mr. Pocan, Mrs. Trahan, Mr. McGarvey, Mr. 
  Takano, Ms. Stansbury, Ms. Budzinski, Mr. Veasey, Mr. Stanton, Mr. 
Smith of Washington, Mr. Harder of California, Mr. Mrvan, Ms. Chu, Ms. 
Salinas, Mr. Horsford, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Khanna, Ms. Scanlon, Ms. Matsui, 
    Mr. Doggett, Mr. Carson, Ms. DelBene, Ms. Perez, Ms. Omar, Ms. 
McCollum, Ms. Tokuda, Mr. Mullin, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mr. Garcia of 
California, Mr. Sorensen, Mr. Correa, Mr. Lieu, Mr. Torres of New York, 
   Mr. Goldman of New York, Mr. Frost, Ms. Titus, Ms. Brownley, Mr. 
Peters, Ms. Hoyle of Oregon, Mr. Lawler, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Schweikert, Mr. 
  Tonko, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mrs. 
     Beatty, Ms. Jayapal, Mrs. Sykes, Mr. Neal, Ms. Sherrill, Mr. 
 Haridopolos, Ms. Strickland, Mr. Pappas, Ms. Tlaib, Mrs. Foushee, Mr. 
Amo, Mr. Latimer, Mr. Calvert, Ms. Scholten, Ms. Dean of Pennsylvania, 
   Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Ms. Barragan, Mr. Crow, Ms. Moore of 
 Wisconsin, Mrs. Cherfilus-McCormick, Mr. Magaziner, Mr. Huffman, Mr. 
 Gomez, Ms. Ross, Mr. Raskin, Ms. Norton, Ms. Adams, Ms. Salazar, Mr. 
   Bilirakis, and Mr. Kean) introduced the following bill; which was 
                referred to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 to prohibit the 
              slaughter of equines for human consumption.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Save America's Forgotten Equines Act 
of 2025'' or the ``SAFE Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON SLAUGHTER OF EQUINES FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION.

    Section 12515 of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (7 U.S.C. 
2160) is amended--
            (1) in the section heading, by striking ``dogs and cats'' 
        and inserting ``dogs, cats, and equines''; and
            (2) in subsection (a), by striking ``a dog or cat'' each 
        place it appears and inserting ``a dog, cat, or equine''.
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