Action Alert: Please Tell Appropriations Committee Members to Maintain Federal Protection for Our Wild Horses
May 27, 2016Gruesome Wild Mare Sterilization Experiments by BLM & Oregon State University Begin Next Month
July 1, 2016
Wild Horse Alert
Yesterday the House Appropriations Committee adopted the “Stewart Amendment” to the 2017 Interior Appropriations Bill. This language could very likely provide a convenient back door route for thousands of wild horses and burros currently in holding to go to slaughter. Today the Senate Appropriations Committee held a mark up session on the Bill.
How can this happen? If wild horses and burros are allowed to be transferred to state and local agencies and the federal protections of the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act are stripped away from them, they are at the mercy of states that are actively lobbing for their mass removal and slaughter such as Wyoming, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. Although the amendment includes a sentence intended to prohibit their “destruction for commercial processing,” this prohibition is completely unenforceable and does not outlaw killing the horses for non-commercial purposes.
The positive development at yesterday’s hearing was that Representative Steve Israel from New York acknowledged our ongoing concerns about the language and his willingness to continue to work to fix the language to address these concerns. Representative Israel has been a champion of animal welfare during his time in the house and we’re certain he has the best interest of our wild horses and burros in mind.
We do not know what changes will be made to the bill before it goes to a vote but we will keep you posted.
For a list of the Senate members on the hearing committee you can go to: http://www.appropriations.
2 Comments
Please save the wild horses instead of putting them at risk of slaughter let them run free and live their life to the fullest that mother nature will let them
This may seem to be a very strange way to PROTECT the wild horse herd from human removal but as the major stated (advertised and sometimes correct) reason for thinning out herds is to protect overgrazing the absolute best way to stop this legislation for any back door nonsense re either hunters or meat farming would be an insistence this could ONLY be used when natural predatory control via natural predation by the full range of original predators fails to limit herd size.
ERGO a proviso stating NO human removal via any means will be allowed until all the original predators fail to limit populations. ERGO-forced re introduction where they are no currently in existence on public lands of the three main predators of WOLF, BEAR or CAT. Yes-sometimes it may mean no foals or even a herd reduction some years BUT it is better than warehousing the animals or to allow meat harvest which does not take out weak, young or injured animals. The only problem would be rental grazing-and a proviso that Animal Damage Control place guard (not herding) animals like Anatolian Shepherds etc or (AS IN EUROPE) NEUTERED llamas or jacks-gelded males only. Perhaps BLM can provide gelded jacks or jennies to ranchers? to help farmers and ranchers protect their flocks against wolves.
I think a wold intro prior to allowing manual control will engage local help on thinnin measures and predation is kinder than warehousing animals.