Protecting America’s Horses

At Animal Wellness Action, we are committed to protecting America’s horses — whether they’re wild mustangs on our public lands, athletes on racetracks, or companion animals at risk of slaughter. Our work spans three major fronts: ending the slaughter of American horses, curtailing cruel and unnecessary BLM round-ups and public-lands removals, and making horse racing dramatically safer for the animals at the center of that business enterprise.

We are leading the charge to ban horse slaughter once and for all, working to shut down the pipeline that sends American horses to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. Through investigative work, media exposure, and relentless advocacy on Capitol Hill, we’ve helped reduce the number of U.S. horses exported for slaughter by more than 75 percent since the 1990s. We’ve spearheaded efforts to maintain federal defunding of horse slaughter inspections, which has effectively blocked the industry’s return on U.S. soil.

We are also working to stop the Bureau of Land Management’s inhumane helicopter round-ups of wild horses and burros. These round-ups lead to injuries, family separations, and even deaths — and are a wasteful use of taxpayer dollars. Instead, we’re pressing for humane, science-based fertility control (including via the Veterans for Mustangs Act) and reforms to the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act that would prevent these traumatic mass removals. We’ve helped elevate this issue in Congress, generate media attention, and drive public opposition that is beginning to slow the pace of round-ups.

And we’re making racing safer. We were a driving force behind the enactment of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), which created a national regulatory body to oversee anti-doping rules and racetrack safety standards. As a result, equine fatalities in racing have dropped significantly. We continue to monitor implementation of HISA, push for tougher penalties, and advocate for rules that put horses’ welfare first.

Through legislation like the Veterans for Mustangs Act, we’re also creating innovative solutions that benefit both horses and people. This bipartisan bill would empower veterans to care for wild horses, offering therapeutic benefits to those who served while reducing the number of animals vulnerable to future round-ups.

Everything we do is rooted in a simple principle: horses deserve better. And we’re working every day to make that vision a reality.