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Billboards Hope To Save Horses From Being Slaughtered

GLENVILLE, Pa. (WJZ) -- At least 100,000 horses each year are taken from the United States to be slaughtered. But a local campaign is hoping to change that.

Andrea Fujii explains how one horse rescue is taking their message to the streets.

Drivers on Leeds Avenue in Baltimore County may have seen the "Stop the Slaughter" billboard. It's a grassroots effort to stop horses from being slaughtered.

"We believe that the American public does not know that horse slaughter is a very brutal and inhumane practice," said Jo Deibel, Angel Acres Horse Haven president.

Deibel runs the Angel Acres Horse Haven Rescue in Glenville, Pa. and through donations put the billboard up.

"They're slaughtering them for human consumption. They're shipped out of the United States to Mexico and Canada to be exported to other countries that eat horse meat," said Deibel.

Horse advocates say the horses are slaughtered because euthanizing them would taint the meat.

Angel Acres Horse Haven has saved more than 300 former race horses from certain death.

Deibel says she doesn't know of any Maryland rescues that slaughter, but there are others that do.

"There are groups around the country that are trying to promote horse slaughter as a humane euthanasia; it's not," said Deibel.

She says many of the horses have already lived through trauma and should be able to die with dignity.

Deibel hopes the billboards will help.

Angel Acres hopes to put billboards in every state. For more information about Angel Acres, click here

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