Chris Heyde in the founder of Blue Marble Strategy and is a Washington D.C. lobbyist who has dedicated his career to animal welfare issues. Along the way, he has had some important successes, including effectively ending horse slaughter in the U.S. But one main goal remains and has been elusive. Heyde has been fighting for passage of the Save America's Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act, which would prohibit the slaughter of horses in the U.S. as well as ban the shipping of them to slaughterhouses in the Mexico and Canada.Heyde joined this weeks TDN Writers' Romm Podcast presented by Keeneland to discuss his work and why it has been so difficult to get the SAFE Act across the goal line. He was the Gainseway Guest of the Week.“It is frustrating because we have done well,” Heyde said. “We've passed it out of the House of Representatives several times. Even in the last Congress, we moved it out of there. It's just kind of getting all of those parts lined up is to get it out of the House and get it out of the Senate. Because if you've ever watched the old Schoolhouse Rock, they always knew it. The Senate was set up to be a lot slower. It's where things kind of get bogged down. They're a little bit more deliberative.“Unfortunately, we've been caught up with that, even though the bills always enjoys strong support,” he said. “I say bills because there have been several over the years. We've tried different committees, different bills, different avenues to get this done. And they've always had support. It's just the frustration that comes with animal issues. Everybody likes them. Everybody supports them. But when it comes down to that last thing, are you going to take the tax break commitment or are you going to try to ban horse slaughter?”He said that one problem is that he does not have anyone with political connections or the wherewithal to make campaign contributions to key Senators. John Hettinger was his main advocate, but he passed away in 2008.“John Hettinger, he could pick up the phone and he would get members of Congress on the phone or he would get other major business leaders to get on the phone and tell them that this is a priority,” Heyde said. “And that's really what we need. We really haven't kind of had that leadership since John passed away.” When Heyde started his work he would often hear that the end of slaughter would mean thousands of horses would be abandoned and left to walk the streets. That obviously hasn't happened.“When we started this, the excuse we would hear from everybody was, 'My God, there are 400,000 horses (going to slaughter each year),” Heyde said. “'What are you going to do with them all?' And then two years later, oh, there are 200,000 horses. 'What are you going to do with them all?' Now there's around 20,000. 'Oh my God, what are you going to do with them all?' We still hear that.“If that's ultimately an issue, then euthanize them,” Heyde said. “But do it humanely, 99 percent of horse owners do it right. They'll take their horse out and euthanize them, bury them on the property. So it was always just a red herring, because it's a great argument. It's a great way to scare people. I remember our sponsor in Illinois, when we banned (slaughter) in 2007 in that state. He was like, 'My God, you'd think I'm driving down from Chicago to Springfield and horses would be bouncing off the hood of my cars if I'd listened to everybody. Because I saw a lot of cows, but I didn't see any horses. So there isn't an argument put up for this that's justifiable.”The “Fastest Horse of the Week” was Post Time (Frosted) a 17-length winner of the Polynesian Stakes at Laurel. He got a 103 Beyer figure. The Fastest Horse of the Week segment is sponsored by WinStar.Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by 1/ST TV, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders' Association and West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Bill Finley, Zoe Cadman and Randy Moss wrapped up the Del Mar meet, focusing on the two Grade I's over the weekend, the GI Del Mar Debutante and the GI Del Mar Futurity. As has happened so often, Bob Baffert won both stakes. The team also looked at the overall 2-year-old picture and gave their predictions for which ones have the brightest future.Taped on Tuesday, after the first day of the Keeneland September sale, we looked at the record numbers on the opening night and projected that this, from beginning to end, would be a very strong sale.To watch the Writers' Room, click here. To view the show as a podcast, click here.The post Animal Welfare Lobbyist Chris Heyde Joins The TDN Writers’ Room Podcast appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.