LANDRIEU PRAISES "PROJECT UNWANTED HORSE'

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 06/20/2008
Effort disproves slaughter's proponents' claims that horses are unwanted.
WASHINGTON -- United States Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., today commended the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA) for the partnership they launched this week to help find homes for the so called "unwanted horses" on farms operated by NBFA members.
"I am so glad that AWI and NBFA have started this partnership, flying in the face of the horse slaughter industry's argument that the push to end the killing of horses has created a surplus of horses without homes in this country," Sen. Landrieu said. "This new effort, 'Project Wanted Horse,' proves that these animals can find loving homes here in America, and need not be shipped across the border to be killed."
Sen. Landrieu's bill, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, S. 311, would prohibit horse slaughter for human consumption. Although the last horse slaughter facilities have closed their doors in the U.S., more than 100,000 American horses were exported to Canada and Mexico in 2007 to be slaughtered, processed and exported to Europe and Asia for human consumption.
"Project Wanted Horse" directly disproves the bill's opponents, who claim that slaughter is necessary to control the excess population of horses that has resulted since they are no longer sent to slaughter.
The effort will ensure that horses rescued from the slaughter pipeline or from other forms of abuse by equine protection organizations will be placed on farms operated by NBFA's 94,000 members across the country. AWI will oversee the placement of horses, and each animal will be accompanied by a contract that ensures quality lifetime care, and a commitment that they will not be resold into slaughter.