HORSEPOWER CALLS ON ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISALTURE TO CONNECT THE DOTS IN THE RACING INDUSTRY
January 16, 2026
Last week the following article, FBI Wiretaps, Illegal Drugs and Dead Horses, was published outlining the ongoing abuses of horses, particularly standardbred harness racehorses here in New York. This is despite many watchdog and advocacy organizations working for years to end or, at a bare minimum, curb such injurious and often heinous practices in the racing industry.
Over the course of the last several years, the New York State legislature has passed and the Governor has signed into law, several statutes (of which have been referred to by national advocacy groups as the strongest in the nation) to stop the sale or transfer of horses for the purposes of slaughter and to hold auction houses accountable for attempting to participate in such sales. What New York has not done, is fund the laws that they so often receive credit for passing which, from the outside appear to “lead the way in the protection of equines.”
Despite collective continued advocacy for implementation, we have proof positive (vis a vis FDA documentation) showing that kill buyers continue to use NY State as a thoroughfare to transport horses to Canada for Slaughter. 99 percent of these horses are Standardbred horses (identifiable by tattoo or freeze brand) and New York has been turning a blind eye to the blatant offenders.
The State Troopers who are required to implement the laws are between a rock and a hard place. If they stop a tractor trailer full of horses bound for slaughter, they have no designated holding facilities. We have asked the Governor’s administration for meager funds to provide such facilities for several years. To date, no funds have been forthcoming.
We have shared the FDA documents and asked the Attorney General’s office to prosecute the offenders, and we are told it is not within their jurisdiction to do so. So, while we have passed laws…we have not enforced them once!
Meanwhile, as articulated in the article first referenced, the state continues to provide subsidies to the industry to the tune of $250 MILLION ANNUALLY, while both the state and the industry continue to ignore where many of these horses end up…on a slaughter truck, heading up I-87 to Canada.
Cut to this week, when the Governor’s representative told a FOCUS journalist Governor Hochul and Lawmakers Call for Consequences… | New York Focus noted she “has zero tolerance for rule breaking…” Well, to that we say, Governor, you needn’t look far in this industry for rule breaking and total disregard for the statutes you’ve already enacted to protect these very animals.
Earlier this year, after meeting with the legislative leaders in the horse racing space, and the governor’s team while they worked on the upcoming budget proposal, we, along with numerous advocates and rescues across the state, asked for funding that would effectively implement the laws they signed into effect HORSEPOWER And Other Statewide Advocates Continues to Push Legislature and Hochul Administration for Funding — HORSEPOWER. We left said meetings with no commitments that implementation of these laws or the safety and care of these horses would be prioritized in the upcoming Executive’s Budget Proposal but given the recent exposures and the Governor’s current ire at the industry, we hope we are pleasantly surprised when we see her proposal rolled out next week.
In the meantime, we will continue to call on the administration and the legislature to allocate the meager funds necessary to implement our own state's laws. It seems a reasonable request to shave a million dollars off of the $250 million this industry is receiving through subsidies since they continue to use such funding to injure and kill horses and feed the slaughter pipeline. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.