Legislation Needed to Save Wild Horses From Slaughter

(Washington, D.C.) Last December, Montana Senator Conrad Burns slipped language into a spending motion that quietly stripped wild horses of their last remaining protections under the law. The new provision legalized the rounding-up and selling of wild horses and burros “without limitation.” In other words, Burns gave Western ranchers what they’ve been hoping to get for years: the go-ahead to destroy wild herds and grab publicly owned grazing land for their own cattle. In the meantime, more wild horses will be taken off the range and sent to slaughterhouses — and, from there, to the restaurants and butcher shops of Europe and Asia.

But Reps. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) and Ed Whitfield (R-KY) have introduced HR 97, which would prohibit the commercial sale and slaughter of wild horses and burros.

Here are three things you can do to help:

● Contact your Congressional representatives (by clicking here) and demand that they support the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (HR 857 and S 2352), a bill that would stop the killing of horses in the U.S. for human consumption abroad, and support HR 97.

● Write to Senator Burns (by going here) and the Montana Promotion Division (at P.O. Box 200533, Helena, MT 59620-0533) and let them know you won’t be spending your tourist dollars in their state.

● Adopt wild horses and burros through a program of the Bureau of Land Management. (To learn more, click here).

“Congress once passed legislation describing wild horses and burros as ‘living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West,” says ALDF founder and general counsel Joyce Tischler. “It’s heartbreaking to see the federal government toss those symbols aside so callously. Now it’s up to us to ensure that free-roaming horses and burros have a place on the open range.”