🇺🇸 Thank you to Reps. @juliejohnsontx.bsky.social, Tim Burchett, @rephaleystevens.bsky.social, Tim MacKenzie, and @repemilyrandall.bsky.social for becoming the latest to support the bipartisan SAFE Act to ban horse slaughter! #horses #yes2safe

How to support the SAFE Act to ban horse slaughter:

✅ Send a message to your members of Congress by tapping Take Action in our bio or at returntofreedom.org/current_acti...

✅ Spread the word: Please share this post!

Congress has also failed to pass a lasting federal ban on horse slaughter within U.S. borders. Currently, only language barring the hiring of horsemeat inspectors inserted into in annual government prevents the resumption of horse slaughter here at home. #horses

Until Congress acts, kill buyers will profit from shipping American horses from auctions to Mexico or Canada to be slaughtered. Last year, almost 20,000 #horses suffered that fate. That number may climb by upwards of 25%, according to government statistics.

🧡 We’ll soon be providing information about how you can help us reach shelter goal on social media. and in our e-newsletter. See our bio to or returntofreedom.org/subscribe/ to receive news about #wildhorses at our sanctuary and on the range. 7/7

As we face more storms of unprecedented power, this work is a top priority as well as an ongoing financial challenge for our nonprofit. 6/7

Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of all of the rescued wild horses and burros in our care. We are constantly working to add shelters that ensure dry ground, improve footing for all of our horses and burros, and better the ranch’s infrastructure. 5/7

Shelters can mean the difference between life and death for our vulnerable senior horses in particular. At our Lompoc location, a third of our rescued horses and burros are 24-older. Many are in their lates 20s and early 30s. 4/7

We're blessed with beautiful weather on CA's Central Coast. But when rainy season storms strike here, they are intense: Sheets of rain turn adobe clay soil into wet cement that can suck your boots off. Flooding and mud slides can limit our team’s access to horses and burros. 3/7

Here’s why we hope that you’ll consider helping us with an emergency need: Devastating rains recently hammered our Lompoc, Calif., headquarters sanctuary. More brutal storms are likely on the way. 2/7

For more information about wild horses and how to take action on their behalf, see our bio or returntofreedom.org

As we said often of our board member Robert Redford when he passed away in September, it’s special when someone as iconic turns out to be a wonderful person. That’s true of Ed, too, an acting legend who has shared his time and lent his name in support of RTF and our advocacy work.

✅Ways to help:

Send a message to Congress: Tap Take Action in our bio.

Call your senators & representative at 202-224-3121. Urge them to support the SAFE Act (S. 775 in the Senate, H.R. 1661 in the House).

Share this thread!

Donate to our Wild Horse Defense Fund in our bio.

Domestic and some wild horses make up the vast majority of American equines purchased by kill buyers then trucked to Mexican or Canadian slaughterhouses.

But we’re among those that have rescued burros that have ended up at auctions frequented by kill buyers.

Spirit, the Kiger mustang who served as the animators’ muse and model for “Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron,” has lived at our sanctuary and served as an ambassador for #wildhorses since 2003.

➡️ Learn more about #wildhorses and burros, on the range and at our sanctuary, and how you can help them in our bio or at returntofreedom.org

Video: Meg Frederick Photography

You can help: Send a message to your members of Congress at returntofreedom.org/current_acti...

Thanks to your support, we’ve helped add 16 new House cosponsors since Oct. 1, despite the government shutdown! We need to continue building support and pushing for a vote!