2005 Virgie S. Arden American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act
On October 25, 2005, S. 1915 has been introduced in the Senate.  This Senate bill was the companion bill to the House bill H.R. 503, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act,

It had been introduced by Senator John Ensign (NV) and had numerous co-sponsors.

HR 503, the corresponding bill in the House, passed September 7th, 2006 with overwhelming support.

The Senate version of The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, S.1915 was never allowed to come to the Senate floor for a vote in 2006. Consequently, the great victory of H.R. 503, the version of the same bill that passed in the House of Representatives on September 7, 2006, is now lost and the entire process must start all over again - the hard work and dedication by so many people to pass this vital legislation in 2006 so that it would take effect in 2007 was ignored and disregarded by both those with hidden and not-so-hidden agendas.

This now means having to deal with staunch horse slaughter proponents again like Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), who remains the head of the Agriculture Committee in the House, and who strongly opposed the horse slaughter ban, along with Steve King (R-IA) and others representing special pro-horse-slaughter interests. We all saw their award-winning "performances" as they purposely distorted and twisted the meaning of this important legislation both during the hearings in the House and on September 7, 2006, the day it was voted on. Luckily, not only did they lose, but hostile amendments proposed by both Goodlatte and King were soundly defeated and H.R. 503 was passed as written. Had it passed in the Senate, a bill supported by the vast majority of Americans would have finally become law after eight long years of waiting. Now, we have to start from scratch, including going back to the House of Representatives again, even though the legislation passed there with 263 votes. Talk about government waste and red tape! This was truly a national disgrace!

While horse slaughter statistics fell steadily through the late '90's and had reached all-time lows to under 50,000, it is now back to over 120,000 annually. The large increase is also contributed to a new state-of-the art slaughter plant in Dekalb, Illinois.

Defeated former Senator, Conrad Burns (R-MT) with his strong ties to the Cattlemen and other pro-horse slaughter groups, succeeded in helping to prevent this vital legislation from coming to the Senate floor for a vote, thus thwarting the will of the American people yet again on this issue in favor of special interests. The Cattlemen now have a direct profit-making stake in promoting horse slaughter, as they receive a fee for every horse slaughtered in the State of Texas, home to two of the three remaining horse slaughterhouses in the United States. Former Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist (R-TN) and former Senate Majority Whip, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also did nothing to try to get S.1915 to the Senate floor for a vote. Active horse slaughter proponents, including Charles Grassley (R-IA), Burns and others also threatened to block it. Without Frist ordering a motion to proceed, the bill was going nowhere...and it didn't.

See actual bill, S. 1915.
See co-sponsors.

A new version has been introduced for 2007, S. 311.