BLM’s cost-saving plan comes at the expense of equines.
By Jennifer Hayes, Best Friends StaffUPDATE:
The Alliance of Wild Horse Advocates sponsored a
nationwide call-in on July 7 to help save the wild horses and burros from being euthanized. However, even though that date has passed, you can still phone.
Take a few minutes to participate and express your
opposition to the BLM plan to the following individuals:
• Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, phone: 202-208-3100
• Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Jim Caswell, phone: 202-208-3801
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Horse slaughter – on the surface it sounds like a simple, though distasteful, subject. However, in reality there are currently many underlying issues which make the topic far more complex than one would initially think. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has just added another chapter to this multifaceted and controversial subject, when earlier this week they announced their intention to euthanize horses and burros who have been kept in their care.
According to their
statement, the BLM has around 30,000 wild burros and horses in holding facilities. They claim that the cost to maintain the equines has become prohibitive. So their recommended course of action is as follows:
“
It is clear the agency cannot continue current removal and holding practices under existing and projected budgets. Neither can the BLM allow horses to multiply unchecked on the range without causing an environmental disaster. That's why the BLM is exploring options to exercise its legal authority to (1) sell older and certain other unadopted animals “without limitation” to any willing buyers and (2) euthanize those wild horses and burros for which no adoption demand exists.”
Clearly neither option is in the best interest of the horses themselves; the animals whom the BLM has been entrusted to safeguard.
“We do not want the BLM to be killing the horses that are in their care, but at the same time, they need to be addressing the bigger (and admittedly complicated) issues,” noted
Jen Reid, Best Friends Manager of Horse Haven. “For long-term stability, they should look at their overall management plan. It’s just an easy out, instead of actually putting thought, research, time, and money into what can fix the causes of the problem, they are instead just killing them.”
In actuality, the BLM has allowed the sale of wild horses and burros for slaughter since 2004, when Senator Conrad Burns quietly snuck legislation into an appropriations bill that amended the
Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. Since that time, literally thousands of these symbols of the Wild West have been killed for human consumption overseas and the former Senator has been hired as a lobbyist by the American Quarter Horse Association to support the continued slaughter of wild horses.
There are two major pieces of legislation currently before our United States Senate and House of Representatives which if passed, would put a halt to this travesty. However, both were introduced in January 2007 and have effectively stalled.
H.R. 249 was introduced to prohibit the sale of wild horses and burros for slaughter, reversing the “Burns rider” from 2004. While the legislation was passed in the House in April 2007, over one year later the Senate has yet to vote on the bill.
H.R. 503/
S. 311 were also both introduced in January and though scheduled for debate in November, it has not come to a vote in either the House or Senate. Thought it is against the law to slaughter horses in the United States for human consumption, this does not protect the equines from being exported over the borders to Canada and Mexico, where many animals are currently being shipped and killed in brutal ways. These two related bills amend the
Horse Protection Act, and if passed would “prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption, and for other purposes.”
FIVE WAYS YOU CAN HELP:1. Though the official call-in day is past, you can still contact the following individuals to express your opposition to the BLM plan.
• Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, phone: 202-208-3100
• Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Jim Caswell, phone: 202-208-3801
2. Urge your United States Representative and both Senators to
sponsor H.R. 503 and S. 311 and to vote in favor of saving horses by making their transport across borders, for the intention of slaughter, illegal. Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your legislators. You can also search online for your
Representative and
Senators. Follow your phone call with an e-mail, reemphasizing your support of the bills and the importance of animal welfare to you as a constituent.
3. While discussing H.R. 503/S. 311, please also note your
support of H.R. 249, which would reverse the “Burns rider” and will once again protect the wild equines, as was the original intention of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.
4. Voice your
opposition of the BLM’s proposed action to manage their herd populations via lethal means. You can
leave feedback online or call 1-800-710-7597 to recommend that they consider positive solutions for the wild horses and burros, instead of euthanasia and slaughter.
5. If you are interested in adding an equine to your family, consider taking a walk on the wild side. There are many wonderful adoptable wild horses and burros who are in need of homes. If you are interested, see the BLM
adoption information webpage.
For more information: •
Animal Welfare Institute Condemns BLM Proposal to Kill Thousands of Wild Horses in Holding Facilities•
Help Restore Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act Gutted in 2004•
A Study of Equine Slaughter/Abuse Patterns Following Closure of Horse Slaughter Plants in US•
Study Shows No Increase in Equine Abuse Following Closure of Horse Slaughterhouses•
Best Friends Animal Society Equine Page**Best Friends Animal Society supports the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. Photo credit: taken by Jennifer Hayes