The Lost Horses: A Campaign to Save American Horses from Slaughter

They were champions, companions, and symbols of the American spirit. Now they’re being shipped across borders to slaughter.

The Lost Horses, which premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, is a cinematic PSA campaign exposing the brutal reality facing over 20,000 American horses each year—mustangs, retired racehorses, show jumpers, and family ponies sold into a shadowy, profit-driven industry through a legal loophole.

This isn’t euthanasia. It’s exploitation.

The multi-part series features celebrity-narrated vignettes designed to ignite public awareness and congressional action in support of the SAFE Act, which would permanently ban horse slaughter for human consumption. Paired with a bicoastal lobbying effort, The Lost Horses aims to close the pipeline for good—and give these animals the protection they deserve.

For more on the filmmaker, see Indie Entertainment Magazine’s Sundance Special Edition on ISSUU, including a reported interview with Ashley Avis by Jason Sander.  

And for readers who wish to learn more about current federal legislation related to equine welfare, additional information is available through the campaign’s official site.

 Visit website here.