Horses in our Hands

10/02/2026

🚨 AMERICA NEEDS TO KNOW WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING WITHIN THE HORSE SLAUGHTER PIPELINE. 🚨

A HUGE thank you to FOX 11 Los Angeles Glen Walker for interviewing our incredible friends and partners Tawnee Preisner, founder of Horse Plus Humane Society, and Dawn Olivieri, actress from Lioness and founder of Moon Mountain Sanctuary & Rescue. 🐴🇺🇸

We are SO proud of these two women for speaking up and helping bring national attention to what we are uncovering together.

Only 0.4% of America’s horse population is shipped into the slaughter pipeline — yet as we’ve looked deeper into the networks surrounding this trade, much bigger concerns have emerged, including documented cases involving human smuggling, drug trafficking and cartel activity, as well as serious border security and biosecurity concerns.

THIS IS NO LONGER JUST ABOUT HORSES.

America deserves to know what is really happening within this largely hidden pipeline.

Thank you FOX 11 LA and Glen Walker for covering this story and helping bring it to the American public. 🙏🇺🇸

And Dawn & Tawnee — WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU! ❤️🐴

🎥 KEEP WATCHING THIS CLIP — then head to the LINK IN OUR STORIES to watch the FULL FOX 11 interview on YouTube.

WATCH. SHARE. ASK QUESTIONS.

🇺🇸 Protect our horses. Protect our borders. Protect America.

FOX 11 Los Angeles
🎥Watch full interview :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HgbnwHHeco

Drug cartels are utilizing "the horse slaughter pipeline" to smuggle illicit substances and traffic humans across the southern border—a crisis directly impacting Southern California. Actress and horse sanctuary founder Dawn Olivieri (Yellowstone) and Tawnee Preisner of Horse Plus Humane Society joined FOX 11 to expose how these operations work and the severe health risks involved. MORE BELOW ⬇️

09/29/2026

🚨 HORSES ARE BEING USED AS COVER FOR TRANSNATIONAL CRIME🚨

🎥 Watch this video.

When we first started rescuing horses from the slaughter pipeline, we believed we understood what we were fighting-horses bought by kill buyers and shipped to Mexico and Canada under horrific conditions to be brutally slaughtered for human consumption!

👉But the deeper we looked, the more questions we had.

Another reality started unfolding around the horse transportation network — involving drugs, human smuggling, cartel money laundering and serious biosecurity concerns.

⚠️Federal authorities have uncovered :

➡️ Numerous cases of Human Trafficking including 32 people hidden inside a compartment of a horse trailer carrying four horses at a Texas Border Patrol checkpoint.

➡️ Methamphetamine transported in horse trailers in a federal drug investigation.

➡️ 350 pounds of co***ne transported in a horse trailer carrying six horses in Oklahoma.

➡️ Hundreds of pounds of ma*****na concealed in a horse trailer carrying racehorses.

➡️ Millions of dollars in cartel drug proceeds laundered through American Quarter Horse purchases, breeding & racing.

Horse Plus Humane Society’s investigation has uncovered what’s believed to be evidence of drug & human and criminal activity connected to slaughter-bound horse networks.

BIOSECURITY:
Horse Plus has reported two dozen slaughter-bound horses tested positive for diphtheria .This is only transferred from long exposure with sick humans!

Investigators have also reported horses arriving with disturbing tracheotomy wounds large unexplained surgical scars that raise questions about what these animals may have endured or been exposed to.

👉When you combine this with documented cases of human smuggling, narcotics trafficking, cartel money laundering and disease concerns involving horse transportation, one thing is clear:

⚠️THIS PIPELINE DESERVES IMMEDIATE FEDERAL INVESTIGATION

✅ We are asking the president to sign an executive order immediately ending the horse-slaughter pipeline and addressing the risks it poses to Americans and our horses.

✅ We need coordinated federal scrutiny of the horse slaughter network!

🚨TAKE ACTION🚨
at 🔗 www.horse crime.com

09/23/2026

🚨USDA WE DEMAND ANSWERS IMMEDIATELY 🚨

-Dr Shannon Kroner

🚨I WANT ANSWERS
Why does yesterday’s USDA press release about the protection of animals look VERY different today! Yesterday it specifically stated the protection of horses. Today horses has been totally scrubbed from the online document!!!

YESTERDAY: “Having delivered two dozen animal welfare priorities, the Administration, through APHIS, is taking new steps to strengthen dog, horse and fellow companion animal welfare including…”

TODAY: “Having delivered two dozen animal welfare priorities, the Administration, through APHIS, is taking new steps to strengthen dog and fellow companion animal welfare including…”

YESTERDAY: “The newly formed team is in action, playing a pivotal role in supporting the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and Horse Protection Act (HPA) programs by conducting targeted compliance reviews, coordinating investigative efforts, and implementing modernized enforcement strategies.“

TODAY: “The newly formed team is in action, playing a pivotal role in supporting the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) by conducting targeted compliance reviews, coordinating investigative efforts, and implementing modernized enforcement strategies.”

09/23/2026

🚨 ALERT: USDA — WHY WERE HORSES REMOVED FROM YOUR PRESS RELEASE? 🚨

Yesterday we celebrated what appeared to be an incredibly important development for America’s horses.

USDA’s September 21 press release, “USDA Announces Actions Marking New Era of Companion Animal Welfare,” originally stated:

➡️ “…taking new steps to strengthen dog, HORSE and fellow companion animal welfare…”

It also announced that USDA’s newly formed Animal Protection Bureau would play a pivotal role supporting:

➡️ “the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) AND Horse Protection Act (HPA) programs.”

We have the screenshots.

We have the original USDA-hosted version.

But today, that SAME press release has been edited.

❌ “HORSE” has been removed.

The current version now reads:

➡️ “…strengthen dog and fellow companion animal welfare…”

And the explicit reference to the Horse Protection Act has also been removed.

The current paragraph now refers only to the “Animal Welfare Act”.
( swipe left ⬅️to see original version then the redacted version)

🆘In fact, there is now NO reference to “horse” anywhere in the live USDA press release.

So our question to is simple:

WHY?

Why was a federal press release changed AFTER publication to specifically remove horses!

Why was the reference to the “Horse Protection Act” removed from the description of the newly created Animal Protection Bureau?

This wreaks corruption!

🚨The American public deserves and DEMANDS an explanation IMMEDIATELY🚨

This isn’t about Republican vs. Democrat.

This is about transparency, accountability and America’s horses.

❌You cannot publicly include horses in a major federal animal-welfare announcement one day, quietly remove them from the published language afterward, and expect horse advocates not to ask what happened.

⚠️USDA: PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY HORSES AND THE HORSE PROTECTION ACT WERE REMOVED⚠️

Americans deserve an answer‼️

09/23/2026

🚨 Did the USDA just quietly throw horses under the bus? 🚨
Just days ago, the USDA released a major announcement titled: "USDA Announces Actions Marking New Era of Companion Animal Welfare."

When it first dropped, this was a HUGE step forward for horses. The original press release explicitly stated they were taking new steps to strengthen welfare for "dogs, horses and fellow companion animals." It even specifically highlighted the newly formed Animal Protection Bureau's role in supporting and enforcing the Horse Protection Act (HPA).

But if you look at the website now? All mentions of horses and the HPA have been completely scrubbed. Just quietly erased from the live page without a word. 🐎❌

Announcement with horses scrubbed: https://bit.ly/4yS8GMC
Original Announcement with horses: https://bit.ly/3TMg4dC

Why the sudden backpedal? It’s hard not to wonder if this is connected to pressure from the "Big Lick" faction of the Tennessee Walking Horse industry. The HPA is the very law meant to stop the horrific, abusive practice of soring, yet the USDA just deleted their public commitment to enforcing it from a major welfare announcement.

We need answers. Why do you think the USDA quietly scrubbed horses from this so-called "new era" of companion animal welfare? Was it industry pressure? Politics?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments! 👇💭

09/21/2026

🚨 THE CONVERSATION AROUND AMERICA’S HORSE SLAUGHTER PIPELINE IS GROWING.🚨

👉Animal Wellness Action reports that six additional House Republicans have asked President Trump to make the current restriction on exporting American horses to Mexico for slaughter permanent. They join an earlier effort led by Rep. Vern Buchanan and signed by 17 House Republicans.

At Horses In Our Hands, we believe this issue goes beyond animal welfare.

Tens of thousands of American horses have historically been transported long distances to slaughter in Mexico and Canada. The June congressional letter cited roughly 20,000 horses sent across the southern border for slaughter last year.

Now, New World screwworm has brought biosecurity into sharper focus. USDA states that Mexico is prohibiting equine exports from every U.S. state, including horses intended for slaughter, because of screwworm detections. Disease does not recognize borders.

Border security also deserves serious examination. Federal records document separate cases involving horse trailers used to conceal migrants and methamphetamine. These cases highlight that the horse-slaughter pipeline is being exploited by criminal networks.

⚠️That raises important questions for DHS, CBP, USDA and law enforcement⚠️

❓Who is moving these horse❓Where are they coming fro❓Where are they going❓What is inside the trailers❓Are animals, transporters and cross-border movements being tracked and inspected effectively❓

🚨This is no longer only a horse-welfare conversation. It involves animal welfare, biosecurity, agricultural security, border integrity, traceability, transnational crime, smuggling vulnerabilities and public safety.🚨

The current screwworm restrictions create an opportunity to examine the entire system more closely and ensure America’s animals, agriculture and borders are protected.

🐴🇺🇸 HORSES IN OUR HANDS

09/17/2026

🚨🐴 HORSE SLAUGHTER UPDATE: THE FARM BILL MOVED — BUT OUR FIGHT IS FAR FROM OVER

Yesterday, September 16, the Senate Agriculture Committee advanced the 2026 Farm Bill.

But based on the committee record we have reviewed, we have not found the horse SAFE Act protections included in the bill that advanced.

That does NOT mean our opportunities to permanently end this pipeline are gone.

There are still several federal pathways:

🇺🇸 EXECUTIVE ACTION
17 members of Congress have already urged President Trump to issue an Executive Order permanently prohibiting the export of American horses to Mexico for slaughter.

🐴 BUILD AMERICA 250 ACT — H.R. 8870
The House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee adopted Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s amendment prohibiting the transport of equines intended for slaughter for human consumption. The amendment passed 34–30, and the overall bill advanced from committee 62–2. It still must complete the legislative process.

🇺🇸 THE SAFE ACT — H.R. 1661 / S. 775
The bipartisan SAFE Act remains another pathway to permanently prohibit horse slaughter for human consumption in the United States and stop American horses being exported for slaughter.

And there are growing reasons this pipeline deserves scrutiny beyond the horrific animal suffering.

🚨 BIOSECURITY

On September 10, USDA confirmed New World screwworm in a horse in Presidio County, Texas — the first equine case associated with the current U.S. outbreak.

Screwworm larvae feed on the living tissue of warm-blooded animals and can affect livestock, horses, wildlife, pets and humans.

Long-distance and cross-border movement of horses therefore raises legitimate animal-health and biosecurity concerns—one of the reasons 17 members of Congress specifically cited New World screwworm when asking for permanent executive action.

🚨 TRANSNATIONAL CRIME & TRACEABILITY

We also cannot ignore documented evidence that horse-related transportation and products have been exploited by criminal trafficking operations.

In Tennessee in 2026, authorities reported seizing more than 1,500 pounds of suspected methamphetamine disguised as alfalfa pellets in a shipment investigators said came from Mexico.

In another 2026 Texas investigation, authorities reported approximately 1,600 pounds of methamphetamine concealed in horse feed.

And federal prosecutions from previous years provide even more direct examples of traffickers exploiting horse infrastructure—including narcotics concealed in horse trailers carrying horses and criminal organizations using horse ranches, racehorses and trailers in trafficking operations.

These cases do not prove that every slaughter shipment—or the slaughter industry as a whole—is connected to organized crime.

But they demonstrate why cross-border horse movements, transport networks and supply chains deserve serious traceability, veterinary oversight and law-enforcement scrutiny.

The horses are the ones caught in the middle.

This is no longer a conversation about animal welfare alone.

🐴 Animal welfare
🦠 Biosecurity
🇺🇸 Border security and traceability
🚨 Transnational-crime vulnerabilities

America has an opportunity to permanently close this pipeline.

Pass the SAFE Act.
Protect the horse-transport provision in H.R. 8870.
And pursue permanent federal executive action to stop American horses being exported for slaughter.

We will continue following the evidence and fighting for permanent protection for America’s horses. 🇺🇸🐴