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.
Oh, wait, no that's a deer.
Um, we has to save Thumper!
No, wait, that's a rabbit.
Hell, what Disney movie made the mustang popular?
OH! Hidalgo! We have to save HIDALGO!
Do you have wild horses in Texas? Here in Nevada they don't overgraze the land, they are less destructive than cattle or people.
Trouble is, these are the ones that aren't as adoptable. They are eager to find homes, there aren't that many.
It's the strings that keep the slaughter buyers from 'adopting' them for free, and it is those strings this bill seeks to remove.
If left alone, they will not crowd out any native species. Unless of course, you count cattle and they wouldn't even crowd them out, it's the cattlemen that want them gone.
"No, we gots to save Bambi"
Bambi is camp meat the day before deer season opens!
I could say the same about most of the people here.... ;~D
>>I take care of elderly and disabled horses as a volunteer. They're more human than a lot of people.<<
Then get your butt up here fast. We've got more damn Mustangs than we know what to do with.
http://www.wacotrib.com/search/newsfd/auto/feed/living/2004/10/10/1097394446.18121.9703.4107.html;COXnetJSessionID=BnsYfTgu8B52lgnzNe7Ov56PJRdUtTt7CnG2L9TuYQlreSz2j32e!-1802024462?urac=n&urvf=11015239928240.7846836042734516
10/10/04
"You get horses out there starving to death," he says. "They'll eat just about whatever they can to survive: sage grass, salt grass, cactus, even tree bark. We'll get them with mesquite thorns in their mouths. Once the vegetation is about depleted, they begin to move into residential areas, and that problem is made worse because people will start leaving food out for them, so they stay close to the urban areas."
mommadooo3
You come too and bring lots of money with you.
http://www.vrwpa.org/sponsor_a_horse.htm
We are entering the 5th year of a drought on the Virginia Range. Due to the drought, there will not be enough forage on the range to sustain the horses through the upcoming 2004-2005 winter.
Some of the horses will face starvation. Other horses will start to wander into populated areas looking for food. This puts them in harm's way. Because of this we hope to start our emergency winter feeding program again about the middle of September 2004.
Last year we fed about twice the number of horses as the year before, and hay prices have increased drastically. We expect to have about 20% more horses this winter (2004-2005) over last year, and our feeding fund has run dangerously low!
I bought 2 once, they were worthless.
Why do we thin the herds? Why do we thin the deer population?
You know, I love to watch ducks swimming in our creek. Sometimes I feed them, and take pictures of them. I also let duck hunters use my boat ramp. Why? Because I'm mean? No. Because I don't live in LaLa Land, where all the animals romp and play together. In the real world, we manage the wildlife populations. This is not a bad thing.
No one is planning to make Mustangs extinct. They are just managing the population. Now, if they over-harvest them, or abuse them, that's a problem. Slaughtering the excess and selling the meat is a rational solution.
Maybe Ford can pony up some dough while advertising their new Mustang. It should be a worthy effort to buy the auctioned wild horses and put them to better protected pastures.
And wasn't he grand? They are wonderful horses and deserve better than we are giving them. How fortunate for both of you :)
I don't know if we have wild horses here in Texas. The only place there could be would be waaaay out West, where the land is $50 an acre and the ranches are bigger than most states.
ROFLMBO!!!! A horse does NOT get sway-backed UNLESS someone has ridden it...BEFORE it was 'old-enough'.
maybe your skills at training them were worthless?
animals are only as smart as their trainers....
Obviously you knew about this but how many don't? Why are they not adoptable? I see some pretty sad cases of domestic horses that are fostered and homes found for. I just wonder what restrictions are placed. For a dog , you have to sign a 3 page do/don't contract. I can only imagine a government contract for a wild horse. Maybe, if one still arond when I finally get my place....:')
The point is, they are making the mustang extinct.
That's a lovely picture, Hair.
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