American horses are being packed onto trucks and hauled across the border to Canada, where they are killed for meat. Congress can shut this pipeline down by passing the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act (H.R. 1661/S. 775). The bipartisan bill would outlaw horse slaughter for good, including shipping horses out of the country to be butchered as food for people.

Even horses the public believes are protected are caught up in it. In August, The New York Times reported that wild mustangs sold by the federal government are showing up at auctions where buyers shop for horses headed to slaughter. Some reportedly sold for as little as $25. Federal officials are not allowed to send wild horses to slaughter, but according to the report, horses sold off to private buyers have been passed along to slaughter-bound buyers for about 20 years.

“Now we’re seeing a huge influx, and most of these horses are young—2 or 3 years,” Clare Staples of Skydog Ranch Sanctuary said, as quoted by PETA.

Retired racehorses face the same fate. And the trip is grueling. A PETA investigator who rode along on one 36-hour, 1,100-mile haul to a Canadian slaughterhouse in freezing weather reported that the horses were given no food, water, or rest.

No horse slaughterhouses operate in the United States today, and New York and California already ban moving horses for meat. But without a national law, the route to Canadian slaughterhouses stays open.

Wild mustangs are a symbol of the American West, and horses of every kind have served this country for centuries. They deserve better than a kill auction.

Sign the petition to tell Congress to pass the SAFE Act now, before more wild horses and retired racehorses are shipped off to slaughter.