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Wild Horse Crisis
CONGRESS PASSES THE BURNS AMENDMENT, PRIVATIZING OUR WILD HORSE & BURRO HERDS, STRIPPING AWAY OVER 34 YEARS OF PROTECTION & ALLOWING FOR THEIR SALE TO SLAUGHTER
URGENT CALL TO ACTION TO SUPPORT H.R. 297 and S. 576. THE SWIFT PASSAGE OF THESE BILLS WOULD REPEALTHE DEADLY BURNS AMENDMENT AND REINSTATE THE VITAL PROTECTION OF OUR WILD HORSES & BURROS
While most Americans and some members of Congress were unaware, over thirty-four years of protection of our wild herds was secretly lifted. Now under the Burns Amendment, noble animals like this proud mustang can be sold to anyone for any commercial purpose, including slaughter.
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The truth is that there is no wild horse over-population problem.
There is, however a tremendous wild greed and avarice problem.
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WARNING: This page contains a graphic and disturbing photograph.
Back in 1969, author Hope Ryden wrote *America’s Last Wild Horses, one of the best and most comprehensive books on the history and plight of our wild free-roaming horses and burros. Her tragically prophetic title has become a horrendous reality, as some high-ranking members of the United States government set out to trick and deceive the American people. Except for a few caring lawmakers, most members of Congress fit into one of the following categories: some feigned ignorance and looked the other way, many were fooled and outraged just like the rest of us, but some actively planned and plotted to give many ranchers and cattlemen what they have always wanted: the extermination of America’s wild horses and burros.
On December 8, 2004, President George W. Bush signed a 3,000-page Appropriations Bill which included a rider (Section 142), known as the Burns Amendment. Surreptitiously slipped into the spending bill by Senator Conrad Burns of Montana, this rider lifted over thirty-four years of protection for our wild horse and burro herds, allowing them to be sold for slaughter. With the passage of this bill, which would never have passed if introduced the conventional way, Bush basically signed a death warrant for wild horses. Not surprisingly, the American Farm Bureau Federation gave its overwhelming support of the Burns Amendment and strong opposition to any legislation which would ban horse slaughter. This goes directly against the will of the American people.
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This is all about something called Animal Units per Month or AUM’s. For every wild horse that is removed from the public lands, a cow and calf can replace one horse. That is what the ranchers and cattlemen are fighting to accomplish.
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Our wild horses and burros were selfishly and secretly privatized without so much as a word, a warning or a hearing. -
According to every poll taken since 1996, the vast majority of Americans want to see an end to horse slaughter in the United States. (Horse slaughter has been illegal in California since 1998.) Our Government allowed special interests to supercede the will of the American people by promoting and expanding horse slaughter with this legislation.
The Burns Amendment will ensure that large numbers of wild horses will be slaughtered every year, thus creating a new source and constant stream of “surplus” wild horses adding to the steadily increasing numbers of equines killed annually. This was an insidious and underhanded way to increase horse slaughter in the United States!
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On January 25, 2005, Congressman Nick J. Rahall of West Virginia introduced a bill, H.R. 297, that would repeal the Burns Amendment, "To restore the prohibition and commercial sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros." On March 9, 2005, Senator Robert C. Byrd, also of West Virginia, introduced S. 576, the Senate version of the same legislation. The swift passage of these bills is essential to stop the sale of wild horses and burros to individuals and businesses who want to market and slaughter them. This is already happening and severe damage has already been done. We cannot save the horses who have already been sold for these purposes, but we can prevent this from happening to others. Please take action now! Click here to take action.
Unless H.R. 297 and S. 576 are passed quickly, our wild horses and burros will continue to be rounded up and sold for commercial purposes, including slaughter. Today there are over 4.2 million cattle on our public lands, but only an estimated 37,000 wild horses left. The enormous public lands comprise areas larger than the size of France. It is an out and out lie to say that there is not enough room for the horses to live out their natural lives in their natural habitat.
The cattle have decimated the land while horses have always been part of the natural balance. While the cows chew their cud and put nothing back into the land, the horses (naturally sloppy eaters), spread seeds from their mouths and manure that keep the land environmentally sound. Unless drastic steps are taken NOW, these noble and proud creatures will be destroyed in the name of greed.
In what is widely referred to as The Biggest Welfare Scam in America or Welfare for the Rich, big-time ranchers, some of whom are among the wealthiest people in the nation, lease the public lands for a mere $1.42 per acre per month. The wild herds are basically hated for their freedom because they are in the way of making rich people richer. Now they will be slaughtered in record numbers at foreign-owned and operated equine slaughterhouses in Texasand Illinois and their meat then exported as delicacies for human consumption overseas. This goes directly against the American culture. In this country horses are considered to be favored animals just like dogs and cats. Americans do not eat horses and never will, just as they will never eat cats as consumed in China or dogs as eaten in Korea and other parts of the orient. As Americans, we are entitled to our own culture.
Horse being slaughtered & butchered at a Texas slaughterhouse.
A SAD AND DISGRACEFUL SITUATION
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Living Legends No More: Thanks to Conrad Burns & special interests, America's "living legends" have basically been reduced to slabs of meat.
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Decades of mismanagement by the Department of Interior, alleged graft and corruption within the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the self-serving agendas of some wild horse preservationists, the cruel, costly and unnecessary round-ups to run a wild horse & burro adoption program that never worked and the current political climate in this country, are some of the major contributing factors which have brought us to this terrible point. The BLM encourages people to "Adopt A Living Legend", but the treatment these horses and burros have received over the years has frequently been less than regal and often outright cruel and inhumane.
Wild horses are wild and should not be trained, ridden or confined. Capture for them is often torturous and thousands have died horrible deaths in the process. Many of these atrocities have been well-documented over the years. Mass graves of wild horses executed by the BLM and poachers have been photographed and published. Some former BLM employees actually exposed many of the horrific acts of cruelty perpetrated by members of this government agency.
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Captured & defeated, these wild horses have been stripped of their dignity and forced to become shells of the free-spirited animals they once were.
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Today, thousands of wild horses are on Death Row in government feedlots (once called "sanctuaries") where they are first in line to be sold for slaughter. Thousands more are being rounded up right now. The government is moving fast to enforce the Burns Amendment and the vast majority of these animals will die horrific, unspeakable deaths. Already, the horrors have begun as the BLM authorized the sale of 200 wild mustang mares to a for-profit Wyoming company which intends to breed the mares and market their foals in third world countries - that means slaughter, plain and simple. Included in the list of countries where these horses will be going is Mexico, the second largest supplier of horsemeat in the world.
As we previously stated, the surreptitious passage of The Burns Amendment was a sneaky and under-handed way to force Americans to accept horse slaughter as a common practice. It is already happening. In the name of culture...specifically, our American culture, we must act now to reverse this dangerous and very un-American trend.
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Once wild and free, this horse can now be sold for slaughter.
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Wild horses and burros deserve to be protected. They are part of our American heritage. To capture a wild horse is to strip away the spirit and dignity of these proud and noble animals. Even under the past laws, wild horses have ended up in slaughterhouses. To watch small groups of wild horses brutally run through a sales ring at a slaughter auction is to watch an atrocity which is so sad that it defies description. The round-ups need to stop. Common sense and compassion need to prevail.
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Wild free-roaming mares and their foals will become more scarce as the Burns Amendment is enforced.
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The good news is that it is possible to manage wild horses in the wild. There can be a balance so that wild horses can live out their lives as nature intended and restore their beauty and grace to our natural landscape. We, the People, have been fooled and duped by those who have greed as their main agenda. This situation, however, can be remedied. All it takes is dedication, imagination and the will to make it happen. This could be a win-win situation for everyone, but we have to become pro-active in order for it to become a reality. However, to begin that process the Burns Amendment must be repealed.
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CLICK HERE TO TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION.
WARNING: This page contains a graphic and disturbing photograph.
Let’s work together to undo the damage that was done and give our wild horses and burros the protection they need, deserve…and to which they are completely entitled.
Only the swift repeal of The Burns Amendment can save these horses. Please Take Action Now and be sure to spread the word about this issue to everyone you know. This deadly legislation can be repealed with the passages of H.R. 297 in the House of Representatives and S. 576 in the U.S. Senate.
Click here to find out what you can do to reinstate the vital protection our wild horses and burros rightly deserve. (WARNING: This page contains a graphic and disturbing photograph.)
* The latest edition of America’s Last Wild Horses, from Lion’s Press,was updated in 2000.
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