Update July 1, 2008: The bill, H.B. 4162, has been sent to the Rules Committee. Click here to find committee members and write or call each of them and urge them to allow a vote by the full Senate on this bill to ban use of double decked trailers to haul horses. Click here to find the other Illinois senators. Write or call each senator and urge them to support this important legislation.

Read Animal Law Coalition's reports below for more information on this bill. Click here to read about Rhode Island's recent ban on double decked trailers to haul horses and the dangers to horses from riding in these vehicles often used by kill buyers to take horses to slaughter.  

Update May 13, 2008: This bill, HB 4162, is now in the Senate, and a  hearing is scheduled on May 14, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. CST in Room 409 of the Capitol before the Senate Agriculture and Conservation Committee. The bill is sponsored by state Senator John Cullerton. For more on this bill and talking points, read Animal Law Coalition's earlier report below.  

 Update April 9, 2008: H.B. 4162 which would ban use of double decked trailers to haul horses has passed the Illinois House of Representatives. The vote was 80-29.  The Farm Bureau and Rep. Jim Sacia's effort to eviscerate the bill failed.

Click here for a copy of H.B. 4162.

For more on the bill including the Farm Bureau's efforts to defeat it, read Animal Law Coalition's earlier report below.

Original report:  Illinois State Rep. JoAnn D. Osmond introduced a bill in the Illinois legislature to ban the use of double decked trailers to haul horses.

These double decked trailers are used by kill buyers to haul horses  to slaughter.  But these trailers are not designed for horses which are often stuffed into them for trips lasting more than 24 hours at a time. Horses cannot even raise their heads in these trailers or stand comfortably. Imagine their terror and suffering. They are many times trampled, injured and even killed during transport.

The USDA has issued a regulation barring use of double decked trailers, but with a wink and a nod at the kill buyers transporting horses to slaughter. 9 CFR 88.3 The USDA has said it does not have the resources to enforce the regulations. As a result, kill buyers still use double decked trailers to haul horses to slaughter. It's important that each state take action to ban use of these trailers to haul horses.

There have been a number of accidents involving over full double decked trailers. Just last October, a double decked trailer carrying 59 Belgian draft horses collided with a pickup, killing 15 horses and injuring many others. The driver, James Anderson, was charged only with disobeying a traffic control device and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. These horses were on their way to the slaughterhouse in Canada.

The Animal Welfare Institute has reported "[d]ouble-deck trailers are designed for livestock such as cattle and hogs, not horses.

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has said studies suggest "there are  increased rates of injury associated with the use of double-decked conveyances for transporting horses."  According to the AVMA, "sources, such as the National Agriculture Safety Database and various manufacturers producing trailers specifically for horse transport recommend heights of 7 to 8 ft as being necessary for the safe and comfortable transport of horses (i.e., adequate headroom for the horses to stand comfortably with their heads in normal position); it appears difficult, if not impossible, to meet such recommendations via the use of currently configured double-deck trailers, particularly for taller horses."

The bill, H.B. 4162, amends the Humane Care for Animals Act, 510 ILCS §§70/1 et seq., to ban the transport of horses in doubled decked trailers. A violation is a Class B misdemeanor on the first offense and  a Class 4 felony on subsequent offenses.

But Rep. Jim Sacia and the Farm Bureau are pushing an amendment to H.B. 4162, Amendment No. 2, that would make it legal to haul horses in these trailers if they are "specifically designed for the transportation of horses", whatever that means,  and don't violate  625 ILCS 5/15-103 which bans vehicles from Illinois roads that exceed 13 feet, 6 inches from the under side of the tire to the top of the vehicle. Almost anyone could claim their double decked trailer is "specifically designed" for the transportation of horses. There is no definition in the Amendment.  

This amendment No. 2 would eviscerate the purpose of the bill!