The US California Equine Council is promoting a "Save the Horses," campaign to try and outlaw the slaughtering of horses for food. Every year 100,000 horses in the USA are slaughtered for shipment abroad, mostly to butchers and restaurants in France, Belgium and Japan. The council claims horses are crowded into low-ceiling trailers and shipped without food or water to slaughterhouses out of state, most of them in Texas, a three day ride. There the horses are killed by metal bolts shot point-blank into their heads.