All over the United States, horses are treated as "Livestock" instead of as pets. Because of this, in some states horses are charged a "property tax" every year for you to own a horse, similar to how you pay property tax on your house or car. On top of that, over 100,000 horses ship to slaughter every single year because of horses being seen this way. 

Horses can be sold - Pregnant, injured, emancipated or as babies to kill-buyers and the owners who bring these horses in earn INCOME off these animals instead of being charged for animal abuse and cruelty. These auctions allow these horses to be trafficked across the border in order to go around the recent illegal horse slaughter houses in the U.S.

These are NOT your "old horses who's time is up" like everyone says, and this is no joke. These are your horses who have come straight off a race-track. Horses who "Just didn't work out" - Horses who "Didn't buck enough at the competition" or "Didn't preform well". These are Camp horses who get shipped off every summer because camp is over. These are horses being rounded up from the US wild lands and sent to slaughter.

These horses endure the entire pipeline system. At this point, the auctions sell so many horses that the diseases are in the dirt. These horses come to the auction sometimes completely healthy, but once horse traders and kill-buyers have taken them to numerous auctions over the course of months - these horse become extremely sick. 

Some of these horses will become pregnant on their journey - but the kill-buyers do not care. The more weight the more money. Some of these horses are going to stand in pain for 4 days straight waiting to go through the ring - and then another 48 hours on a crammed trailer where the horses aren't allowed food, water or a place to go to the bathroom until they reach the border. 

We might not be able to stop the slaughter tomorrow, but by working towards giving horses the ability to be seen as PETS - this livestock rule will no longer apply and we can begin charging these people with animal cruelty AND reduce the amount of horses going through the system. This is where we have to start.