 Animal Protection Voters - Update and Action Alert
December 10, 2004
1. Action Alert: Save Wild Horses and Burros
2. Santa Fe New Mexican: Rider on bill could mean death for thousands of mustangs
1.
We are all outraged at the surprise inclusion of a “rider” in the omnibus appropriations bill that severely undermines the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Protection Act (Wild Horse Act). Slipped in by Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) without any public discussion or hearings and no opportunity for a separate vote of the Senate, the rider directs the federal government to sell our nation's wild horses to the highest bidders, without any of the protections that currently prevent the shipment of these animals to the slaughterhouse.
We must let our federal legislators know that Americans will not stand for this. Please contact your federal Senators and Representative TODAY to urge them to reinstate protections for America’s wild horses and burros.
The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act passed in 1971 as a result of an enormous outcry of citizens through letters and phone calls to legislators. Before this bill was enacted horses and burros were shot and slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands.
We must be tireless in making our voices heard. Please contact your federal legislators today, write letters to the editors of your local newspapers, and share this message with your friends.
Senator Jeff Bingaman
US Senate
703 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510-3102
1-800-443-8658 (toll free from New Mexico)
Senator Pete Domenici
US Senate
328 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510-3101
202-224-6621
Representative Heather Wilson (district 1)
US House of Representatives
318 Cannon House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
202-225-6316
Representative Steve Pearce (district 2)
US House of Representatives
1408 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
202-225-2365
Representative Tom Udall (district 3)
US House of Representatives
502 Cannon House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
202-225-6190
 By STACI MATLOCK The New Mexican
A rider attached to the massive 3,000-page federal appropriations bill could spell slaughterhouse for several thousand mustangs, according to wild-horse advocates.
The one-page rider was proposed by U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. It calls for changes to the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which provided federal protection for the free-roaming descendants of horses brought over from Europe five centuries ago. Under the act, both the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service set aside protected areas and manage existing herds.
Under the proposed changes, excess horses older than 10 years or horses left unadopted after three attempts could be offered for sale through auctions at local sale yards, where many are bought for slaughter.
Currently, the BLM and U.S. Forest Service round up horses to thin a herd when it is deemed too large for its range. The horses are offered for adoption, but not for slaughter. Adopters must meet certain criteria to qualify for a horse. The agencies retain title to the mustangs for a year before the horse becomes the private property of the adopter.
Celia Boddington, a BLM spokeswoman from Washington, D.C., said the agency did not request the rider and still considers its adoption program highly successful. She said staff had only recently received the rider and are still analyzing it.
Since 1973, the BLM has placed 203,000 mustangs through adoptions. It turned over 6,644 for adoption last year alone, she said. Currently, 14,000 mustangs are in BLM long-term holding facilities and another approximately
7,000 are in short-term facilities. It costs the agency about $465 per year for each horse, Boddington said.
Patience O’Dowd, a member of Wild Horse Observers Association in Placitas, called the rider “the rape of the Wild Horse and Burro Act.”
She said the rider, like many others, were added last minute without allowing congressional delegates the traditional three days for review. In the push to send the appropriations bill for a presidential signature, many riders slip by like this one, O’Dowd said.
This isn’t the first time there have been calls for changes to the wild-horse act. In 2003, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association proposed legislation to authorize the immediate sale of unadopted mustangs and to make federal agencies pay for land damaged by feral horses.
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