End The Agony And Ban Horse Branding Across America

3,448 signatures toward our 30,000 goal

11.493333333333332% Complete

Sponsor: The Animal Rescue Site

Branding sears through a foal’s skin in seconds, leaving burns, fear, and lifelong trauma. With humane identification tools already available, there is no excuse to keep inflicting this pain on horses who deserve better.

End The Agony And Ban Horse Branding Across America

Branding horses with hot or frozen irons causes intense pain the moment metal touches skin. Foals cry out, struggle, and are left with raw burns that can take weeks to heal. The practice creates open wounds, swelling, and necrotizing tissue1. Yet this is still legal across much of the United States.

Hot branding burns through multiple layers of tissue and produces severe aversive reactions in horses, including attempts to flee and signs of heightened sensitivity afterward3. Even freeze branding, often promoted as a kinder option, inflicts shock and distress. Research shows it still triggers physiological stress responses, though less intense than those caused by heat2.

The pain is not the only harm. Young horses often experience disrupted feeding and play after branding, behaviors directly linked to physical discomfort and fear4. These are not brief reactions. These are early-life traumas that shape how a foal learns to trust, move, and interact with the world.

Branding Has Outlived Its Purpose

Centuries ago, branding was used to prevent theft and identify animals in open-range herds. Those conditions no longer exist. Microchips, digital databases, and other modern tools now provide accurate, permanent identification without inflicting burns or creating wounds. Studies comparing microchips to hot irons show far milder reactions and lower inflammation following implantation3.

Despite this, branding continues because federal regulations require anesthesia for the procedure, yet no approved anesthetic exists for branding. This loophole leaves foals unprotected, ensuring the procedure continues without meaningful oversight1.

Horses Deserve Better

Horses are intelligent animals capable of fear, anticipation, and pain. They depend entirely on human choices for their safety and well-being. Continuing to burn identification marks into their skin when humane, accurate alternatives exist reflects outdated thinking, not responsible care.

A permanent national ban on horse branding would end a practice rooted in tradition, not necessity. Replacing branding with humane identification methods would protect foals, support modern traceability standards, and reflect a commitment to animal welfare grounded in ethics and science.

Horses cannot speak to defend themselves. That responsibility belongs to us.

Stand Up For Horses

Sign the petition calling on the Secretary of Agriculture, APHIS leadership, and Congressional Agriculture Committees to permanently end horse branding and adopt humane identification methods nationwide.

More on this issue:

  1. Camryn McNeill, Mad Barn (14 October 2025), “Hot vs. Freeze Branding in Horses: Alternatives, Regulations & Welfare Concerns.”
  2. Godoi et al., ScienceDirect (2021), “Physiological and behavioral response of foals to hot iron or freeze branding.”
  3. Lindegaard et al., PubMed (2009), “Evaluation of pain and inflammation associated with hot iron branding and microchip transponder injection in horses.”
  4. Anja Huehmer, eHorses Magazine, “Branding in Horses.”

The Petition

To the Secretary of Agriculture, the Administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and Members of the House Committee on Agriculture:

Branding horses with hot or frozen irons is one of the most painful and outdated practices still permitted in the United States. The hiss of a hot iron, the smell of burnt flesh, and the cries of a foal are not the sounds of responsible animal stewardship. They are reminders of an era when we lacked the tools to identify animals humanely. That era is long over.

For centuries, branding served a clear purpose: identification in large herds, theft prevention, and breed verification. But today, microchips, digital traceability, and secure registration systems provide accurate, permanent identification without inflicting severe pain, burns, or trauma. Modern technology makes the old tools unnecessary. Yet branding continues, despite evidence of its physical and psychological harm.

Under current federal regulations, branding is allowed only with anesthesia—yet no anesthetic is approved for this procedure. This regulatory gap makes the practice effectively ungoverned. As a result, foals as young as a few months old endure third-degree burns, open wounds, infections, and stress that can disrupt normal behaviors. Young horses are restrained, burned, and left with lifelong scars, all for the sake of tradition that no longer reflects our knowledge or values.

We urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture and APHIS to permanently ban horse branding nationwide. We ask Congress, through the Senate and House Agriculture Committees, to support legislation that eliminates this painful method and requires humane alternatives such as microchipping or equivalent modern identification tools. These solutions provide accuracy, traceability, and security without inflicting unnecessary suffering.

Compassion must guide the way we care for animals who depend entirely on human choices. Ending branding is not only a scientific and technological step forward; it is a moral one. Horses are sensitive, intelligent beings capable of fear, stress, and pain. They deserve identification methods that reflect humanity’s progress and empathy, not practices rooted in outdated custom.

A national ban will protect horses, modernize livestock identification, and demonstrate a commitment to ethical, science-based animal welfare. This action will ensure a better future for all—one where innovation replaces cruelty, and responsibility replaces tradition.

Sincerely,

Sponsor This Petition To Increase Impact

Sponsor This Petition To Increase Impact

$3.00
$3.00
Sale Sold out
View full details
DEV MODE ACTIVE. BRAND: gg