Posted on 11/26/2004 5:37:54 PM PST by mommadooo3
Congress Approves Mustang Slaughter
PLEASE HELP, PLEASE PASS ON.......................
Stealthily tucked within a much larger appropriations bill (HR 4818) while no one was watching, Congress approved measures this weekend to end 33 years of Federal protection for an America Treasure, our "Living Legends" - wild free-roaming horses and burros on public lands. This bill seems to have broadsided everyone, including many BLM personnel, who had drafted their own plans to handle the problem, and thought their plan would work. Since both House and Senate have already passed it, the only hope left is to get Bush not to sign it - which he will do tomorrow, unless enough public outcry can be generated within the next less-than-24 hours.
The Wild Horse & Burro Act was signed into law in 1971, after a long campaign led by Velma Johnson, "Wild Horse Annie" and thousands of school children. Congress received more mail about wild horses than about Viet Nam. In today's crisis-weary world, is this the end for America's wild horses?
LINK to bill: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/Z?r108:H19NO4-0085:e758617:247850 The BLM part is about 1/3 of the way down the page.
I would suggest to EVERYONE you can get hold of, through phone calls, e-mails, chat rooms, equestrian sites, etc, anything......get them to call the president's comment line, fax letters to the fax number, and to e-mail both the president and vice president IMMEDIATELY. Please pass on to everyone for immediate action. Currently there are over 23,000 wild horses in holding facilities within BLM and their contract sanctuaries. 1100 new horses are being gathered from the Calico Mountains this month and next. If this passes, ALL, could potentially be sold to slaughter.
President Bush president@whitehouse.gov
VP Cheney vice.president@whitehouse.gov
202-456-1111 phone 202-456-2461 fax
Calico mountains horses slated to be gathered this month. Will they go to slaughter?
Tuesday, November 23, 2004 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Congress passes less-restrictive wild horse bill
Measure sparks concern among animal activists who say it opens door to killing
By SAMANTHA YOUNG STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Aging wild horses and those that cannot be auctioned off as pets could be sold for slaughter under a bill that Congress passed over the weekend.
The legislation immediately sparked concern among wild horse advocates who said it could lead to the killing of thousands of healthy horses as the government drives to reduce herds on public lands.
Wild horses older than 10 or those that have unsuccessfully been put up for adoption three times may be sold "without limitations," at local sale yards or livestock facilities, according to the bill.
"If someone under this program can now buy 300 horses and ship them to a slaughter house people will start making money," said Howard Crystal, attorney for the Fund for Animals. "I would expect under this law we're going to have far higher numbers of horses going to slaughter."
The bill strips from federal law a clause that no wild free-roaming horse or burro can be sold or transferred for processing into commercial products.
The provision was tucked into a 3,000-page year-end spending bill that lawmakers largely completed on Saturday.
Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that funds the Bureau of Land Management, placed the measure into the bill after consulting with Sense. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., Burns spokeswoman Jennifer O'Shea said.
"We've got to get the number of animals down to appropriate management levels and keep them there, but do it in a way that doesn't bankrupt us," Burns said in a statement. "This language is a step in the right direction. It gives BLM another tool to help get this under control."
Lawmakers have grown increasingly frustrated with the BLM's handling of the wild horse program, whose costs have skyrocketed as more and more horses have been taken off the range and placed into government-run holding fa- cilities.
Giving the BLM the authority to sell those horses could solve the agency's long-standing budget problems while allowing the agency to continue gathering thousands of wild horses from the public lands, a Senate aide said.
For each horse that is placed in a long-term holding facility, the BLM spends about $465 annually, or about $6.8 million a year.
The agency estimates there are about 36,000 horses in the wild, roughly 7,000 more than the government contends the land can sustain.
BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington declined to comment on the congressional action.
"We've not yet reviewed the language," she said.
Unlike the adoption program, in which buyers are limited to four horses and must sign an affidavit promising not sell the horse to slaughter, the new sales would not have such restrictions, Senate aides said.
BLM officials long have contended that adopters don't want to buy older horses, forcing the government to place them at the long-term holding facilities at taxpayer expense.
In fiscal 2004, the BLM adopted out 6,650 horses out of the 9,900 horses it gathered from the range. The rest were sent to long-term sanctuaries in the Midwest.
Crystal said the new law would empower the BLM to round up herds of horses for adoption, knowing that many could later be sold for profit.
"You could have an adoption of year-old horses on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with no advertising, and then sell to people at a yard sale," Crystal said.
Chris Heyed, a policy analyst with the Society for Animal Protective Legislation, called Congress' latest move "a systematic attack on wild horses."
"There is no other real other intent of dumping them into the market and slaughter is the only outlet," Heyed said.
In addition, the bill makes clear that it is no longer a crime to sell an aging or horse for slaughter, Crystal said.
I'm with you! Mustangs are an introduced animal along with burros "jennies". Thin them all with a .300 Win Mag!!
PETA and HSA can take a hike. "Horse Lovers" can take a ride (read hike) along with them. Not a single thing is served by the herds of mustangs in our deserts. Heritage has nothing to do with it. If "heritage" had anything to do with it we'd be breeding woolly mammoths!! (Not a bad idea
think of the hunting!)
You might want to see this
"Team Infidel USA" - ?? Please explain. Thanks.
Well, if that's all that counts, so are we.
If you read the preface to the artice, He has: We take action, to get it reversed, same as when "He wanted the Bald Eagle saved from extinction."
Helps those who help themselves, and so forth.
Which should we slaughter; the Mustangs, or the illegal aliens? Hmm... Let me check my list of priorities. I'll get back to you.
(1) in subsection (d)(5), by striking ``this section'' and all that follows through the period at the end and inserting ``this section.''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
``(e) SALE OF EXCESS ANIMALS.--
``(1) IN GENERAL.--Any excess animal or the remains of an excess animal shall be sold if--
``(A) the excess animal is more than 10 years of age; or
``(B) the excess animal has been offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least 3 times.
``(2) METHOD OF SALE.--An excess animal that meets either of the criteria in paragraph (1) shall be made available for sale without limitation, including through auction to the highest bidder, at local sale yards or other convenient livestock selling facilities, until such time as--
``(A) all excess animals offered for sale are sold; or
``(B) the appropriate management level, as determined by the Secretary, is attained in all areas occupied by wild free-roaming horses and burros.
[Page: H10306]
``(3) DISPOSITION OF FUNDS.--Funds generated from the sale of excess animals under this subsection shall be--
``(A) credited as an offsetting collection to the Management of Lands and Resources appropriation for the Bureau of Land Management; and
``(B) used for the costs relating to the adoption of wild free-roaming horses and burros, including the costs of marketing such adoption.
``(4) EFFECT OF SALE.--Any excess animal sold under this provision shall no longer be considered to be a wild free-roaming horse or burro for purposes of this Act.''.
(b) CRIMINAL PROVISIONS.--Section 8(a)(4) of Public Law 92-195 (16 U.S.C. 1338(a)(4)) is amended by inserting ``except as provided in section 3(e),'' before ``processes''.
YUP, horses were NOT indigenous to N.A.
But they WERE an integeral/important part of our American heritage. (no matter WHICH side one was on)
THANK you.
You'll smoke turds in hell for that!
Now if it was LIBERALS that were gonna get thinned ...
Sad that America has no room for them. We don't have a Canada anymore so you want to just round them up in a canyon? If they can't roam free, then why not put them up for adoption?
True. We should not be allow the horses and burros to push out the endemic species.
What does this have to do with the present situation?
Further, if we want to measure worth based on breeding, then I guess the cheetah isn't worth protection either, since it is severely inbred. Many, including myself, would even argue that we humans would have to include ourselves in that number, since there is more genetic variation in a single troop of chimpanzees than there is in the entire human clade. I don't have the citation for the last statement handy, but I can dig it up, if you insist.
Finally, we are spending many millions more on an even bigger nuisance -- illegal aliens -- than we ever will on horses. We need to get our priorities straight.
These horses are not adoptable and will starve to death or force out native species. We either round them up and keep them in holding pens for the rest of their lives or sell them for dog food. If you want to save these horse, go adopt them or volunteer to pay for them. Don't use my taxes for you to have a Disney moment.
Not only that, but they make an excellent stew! they're ANIMALS, people! No one's talking about abusing them: just thinning the herd. Get a life, already!
Thanks.... I'll read it in the morning, I am too tired tonight and this is such a depressing topic :~\.
No matter how this ends, people screwed it up and the horses deserved better. Better than slaughter, better than life sentences in holding pens. It's hard to fix when it's gone on this long.
They will be required to put them up for adoption at least three times before they can be slaughtered. As it is now, what are they supposed to do with horses no one will adopt? If you're looking for a horse for little Jimmy, you don't want an old sway-backed stallion that's never been broke. So who's supposed to bear the burden of caring for the horse the rest of his natural life?
Excellent right hook :) And you did it with FACTS, which some seem to be oblivious to and just spout the last thing they heard on Rush. [...not indiginous to America..sheesh! LOL...They ARE part of our history...American history...]
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