AUGUSTA — A legislative committee is holding a public hearing on a bill that would make it illegal to ship horses from or through Maine destined for slaughterhouses in Canada.

The Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry is holding a hearing Tuesday afternoon.

Bob Fisk of Maine Friends of Animals says an estimated 1,500 horses are shipped each year from Maine to slaughterhouses in Quebec, where they are butchered for human consumption in Europe and Asia. He says the state also serves as a “slaughter pipeline” for thousands more horses that are transported from other states through Maine to Quebec.

Fisk says horses are companion animals, like dogs and cats, and that slaughtering them is inhumane.

The bill, L.D. 1286, would also ban horsemeat sales and horse slaughterhouses from operating in Maine.