Equine Legislative Issues of Interest
to Wisconsin Horse Owners

This is extremely important. Please e-mail or call your individual state legislators. Senator Plale of Milwaukee is reintroducing legislation regarding the slaughter of equines. Read the attached bill. He is looking for co-sponsors of his bill. You must contact your legislators NOW and tell them you are opposed to this bill and ask that they NOT sign on as a co-sponsor.

Why should you oppose this bill? Because it does nothing to resolve or even address the issue of unwanted horses. I don't believe this urban senator is very well informed about the horse industry, especially the scope of the problem with surplus and unwanted horses. Most alarming is his viewpoint that horses are not livestock and should be categorized as pets/companion animals.

If you do not know who your legislators are, here is a link for you.

http://www.legis. wisconsin. gov/w3asp/ waml/waml. aspx

This cannot wait. You need to act now. Included below is Senator Plale's memo looking for co-sponsors. This is very bad legislation and not good for our horse industry at all.

Let's flood the legislators' offices with our voices.

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TO: Legislative Colleagues

FROM: enator Jeff Plale

RE: Cosponsorship of LRB 1790/1, Relating to the slaughter of equine animals

DATE: March 2, 2009

I am reintroducing legislation that prohibits the slaughter of equine animals for human consumption. In the United States, horses aren't considered livestock as much as they are viewed as pets, companions, and working partners. It is unacceptable that such unique animals are slaughtered in such an inhumane fashion.

Current Wisconsin law prohibits the slaughter of equine animals in places in which other animals are slaughtered for human consumption. This bill would prohibit the slaughter of equine animals for human consumption in any establishment.

If you have any questions or would like to cosponsor this legislation, please contact Sen. Plale's office at 6-7505 by 5:00 pm on Monday, March 16th.

Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau:

This bill prohibits the slaughter of equine animals (horses and related animals) for human consumption.

There is a template letter in the article list to the right.