WILLIE NELSON - NELSON SAVES DOOMED HORSES

WILLIE NELSON has been hailed a horse hero in his native Texas after quietly saving 25 doomed beasts from Mexican slaughterhouses. The country legend now stables the mares on his ranch and is taking the horrors of Mexico's horse slaughter trade to Washington, D.C. in a bid to gain political help. He says, "I have faith that Americans will put an end to it (killing) once and for all." Nelson's horse heroism began in 2006 when he heard about a group of emaciated horses that had been shipped from America to Mexico to be slaughtered. He successfully brought the creatures back to the U.S. and now they run free at his Willie's Luck ranch in Texas. Nelson has teamed up with tabloid the National Enquirer to push for a new Animal Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, which will stop the practice of shipping horses to Mexico, where they are brutally slaughtered for use in the world's restaurants.