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.
>>? ? Here in Nevada they don't overgraze the land, they don't overgraze the land,<<
Would you care to go for a drive and I'll show you mustangs that are as skinny as bean poles, here in Nevada, because they don't have enough decent food? Have you heard about the drought we've had for the last six years?
He turned out to be a great horse. I put thousands of trail miles on him.
He went to another good family with kids... and did well there but is prolly not living now. That pic was nearly 25 years ago ;~D
So then they are over-harvesting them? That's a horse of a different color. (I know - bad pun - but is there another expression that fits?)
Most people want a nice trained horse or one that already trusts people. It's a rarer group that will actually take on a fully adult middle aged horse that's never been handled. The young ones are easier.
Awwwww---that is one cute one!
BLM does truck horses all over for adoption sales. I've seen ads for them even all the way up here.
Part of the problem is that developers fenced off the 25,000 acres of the 102 Ranch - which I tried mightly to stop. Horses whose range extended down to the river could no longer get there. I admire what you guys are trying to do.
Hopefully, the rain we've had the past several weeks will help the drought situation.
I don’t see a lot of difference between tree huggers and animal huggers. Come on people, either man thins both of them humanely or Mother Nature does it. Your choice. But just remember, Mother Nature is a real b**ch.
I have spent many hours driving and flying over extremely remote areas of Eastern Oregon, Eastern California, and Nevada. The horses are over grazing the land and there is not enough water for all of the other animals. Horses drive other animals away from the water holes and turn the water holes into dust bowls. It isn’t pretty and it isn’t Disney. Seeing dead horses around dried up water holes doesn’t make my day.
Do you have wild horses in Texas?
The other horses I raised were fine. I raised them from colts. Believe me they sucked. They weren't smart and they didn't want to be tame. 90% of the people who bought them, horse people, sold them as soon as the 2 yr limit was up.
You obviously missed the point.
Phoooey. There are far more cattle grazing public lands than horses. We cleared the horses out for them. If the lands are overgrazed now, it has nothing to do with horses.
I've seen them. I know what's happening up there. Lay most of the blame on the developers, putting in houses like crazy at Virginia Highlands, Mark Twain, and Stagecoach. Lay some of it to the guys who fenced the 102 ranch. And, sadly, the feeding programs save the old and weak that would die otherwise. There is no easy answer, but selling for slaughter is not the way to go.
BLM to round up thousands of wild horses in Nevada
By Sandra Chereb ASSOCIATED PRESS 11/28/2002 10:43 pm
Liz Margerum/RGJ file A BLM helicopter rounds up wild horses in the Virginia Range on Aug. 13 east of Reno.
The Bureau of Land Management plans to round up thousands of wild horses from the northern Nevada range to reduce herd sizes, a move a horse advocacy group calls misguided and unnecessary.
Beginning Sunday, BLM officials will round up more than 2,650 wild horses to prevent them from starving and destroying rangeland already damaged by overgrazing and drought.
The first gather will remove about 870 horses from the Monte Cristo Herd Management Area west of Ely, which is jointly managed by the BLM and U.S. Forest Service.
About 1,100 wild horses now roam the range, according to the BLM, which has set an appropriate level of 236 horses for the remote region. The land has four times the mustang number it can support. Do you know how long it will take for the Monte Cristo Herd area, west of Ely, land to recover to be able to support 300 horses? Probably four to seven years!
I agree. And many other people do too. Just not enough of them know how to help!
Then just what would you do? Bring in wolves to eat the colts and keep the herd from expanding? That option has been discussed in Ely.
Yes, I've got five horses left in my valley. Last year, a herd of twenty plus trapped with a Judas mare, came from two miles from my house. BLM, the brand inspectors and the newspaper claimed they came out of the Pine Nut range.
I watch my neighbor's horses. They're beautiful. I'm not wealthy enough to cover their expenses without getting something more than eye-candy.
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