Last week, the House Rules Committee rejected two bipartisan amendments to government funding bills that would have protected horses. The first would have prevented horse slaughter plants from reopening here in the United States. Horse slaughter is inherently cruel, uses barbaric and painful methods to kill the horses, and only benefits foreign companies at the expense of iconic American horses. In addition, these plants would then sell the horse meat to other countries for human consumption in spite of the fact that, due to their many drug injections, horse meat is unsafe for human consumption. Then, the committee rejected another amendment that would have prevented the mass killing of wild horses in Bureau of Land Management holding pens. The BLM was charged by Congress to ensure that wild horses are “protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death.” Rather than have the BLM fulfill this duty, the Rules Committee is allowing them to shirk and bending to pressure from special interests who want to see wild horses exterminated. Both of these amendments had strong bipartisan support and would have won on the House floor, should they have been allowed a vote. Those who want to kill horses would rather hide behind the Rules Committee then face the stark reality that they are the extreme minority. Americans do not support either of these horrific fates for horses.