Wild Horses SAVED: Congress Votes To Protect Mustangs And Burros From Government-Sponsored Slaughter

WASHINGTON — Galloping to the aid of the nation's wild horses and burros, the House voted Friday to rescue them from the possibility of a government-sponsored slaughter and give them millions more acres to roam.

But the effort may get penned up in the Senate.

The bill passed the House, 239-185, with Republican opponents arguing that it underscored wrongheaded Democratic priorities by focusing on animals instead of people at a time when the nation's unemployment rate is approaching double digits.

An estimated 36,000 wild horses and burros live in 10 Western states. Federal officials estimate that's about 9,400 more than can exist in balance with other rangeland resources. Off the range, more than 31,000 other wild horse and burros are cared for in corrals and pastures.

The plan aims to reduce the number of animals kept in holding pens awaiting adoption and to reduce the stress on land currently set aside for them.

Supporters mobilized after the Interior Department announced last year that it might have to kill thousands of healthy wild horses and burros to deal with the growing population on the range and in holding facilities.

Republicans dismissed the measure as welfare for horses, but Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said a majority of Americans would not support slaughtering healthy animals or keeping them in holding pens for years at a time.

"The status quo is a national disgrace," said Rahall, chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources. "It is a disgrace to our heritage."

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However, no comparable bill has been sponsored in the Senate, which doesn't bode well for final passage of the measure. Both houses would have to approve the legislation before it could be sent to the White House for President Barack Obama's consideration.

Some lawmakers from Western states said Congress is mismanaging the nation's wild horse population by preventing the Bureau of Land Management from keeping populations at a level that's appropriate for the environment. They said more horses will just make the problem worse.

"This bill is based on emotion and not science," declared Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., saying the bill would elevate wild horses above threatened and endangered species in her state.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that enacting the Restore our American Mustangs Act would cost about $200 million over the next five years. Currently, the wild herds roam over about 33 million acres of Western land.

To comply with the bill, the Bureau of Land Management would need to find an additional 20 million acres, primarily after 2013, at a cost of up to $500 million, according the CBO. But Rahall said those estimates don't reflect new language in the bill that makes adding millions of acres of rangeland a goal rather than a legal requirement.

Rahall said the bill would actually save the government money by reducing the amounts now devoted to caring for the animals in corrals and on pastures. He said slaughtering healthy animals to control their population should not be an option.

"How in the world can a federal agency be considering the massive slaughter of animals the law says they are supposed to be protecting?" he said.

While Rahall said the cost estimates were overblown, Republicans weren't buying it. House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said even debating the bill was an insult to people looking for work and small businesses trying to keep their doors open.

"It doesn't make any sense that we're debating a welfare program about wild horses when the American people really want to know, 'where are the jobs?'" Boehner said.

The bill would give the government authority to enter into cooperative agreements to establish wild horse sanctuaries on nonfederal lands. It also would attempt to bolster an adoption program and sterilize more animals. It would prohibit the killing of healthy wild horses and burros and restrict time spent in holding pens to six months.

The Humane Society of the United States supports the legislation, saying the current program of rounding up wild horses and keeping them in holding pens is a "fiscal and animal care disaster."

"We have got to get off the current treadmill of spending millions of tax dollars rounding up wild horses and caring for them in captivity, and instead make wider use of fertility control as a humane population management tool," said Wayne Pacelle, the organization's president and CEO.

In Friday's vote, 206 Democrats supported the measure and 47 opposed it. Among Republicans, 33 voted for it and 138 against.

Comments

[berrycooda]

What is that song....save a horse...ride a cowboy....

Maybe we should go back to the horse and buggy days and use all these wild
mustangs... look how much gas we could save and look at how many shovel
ready projects there would be cleaning up the piles in the road.

Check out the real cost of this...sterilization..checking out places where people would adopt the horses and the clean up after the millions of acres are trampled down.
Why not use this land for farming...and round up the horses like they usually do and put them on ranches. People overseas use horses..outsource them
like they do everything else here.

[mollymac]

farming has destroyed the land. It is the cattlemen who put their cattle out to graze so that idiots can have steak and destroy their hearts. Leave the horses alone.

[mnkysx]

i just love when fools say, if you abuse animals, you also abuse people. thats the same kind of thinking that has you giving your child amphetamines because you refuse to discipline it. I have offed many cats, killed lots of animals, and eaten them, but ive yet to kill a human....guess i dont fit into their category.

[sense oar sheep]

feral horses: not wild horses.

[gallimaufry03]

feral means wild dude

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feral

[sense oar sheep]

feral doesn't mean wild, republican.

feral means released from domestication. feral, what you call wild, is invasive.

you have a domesticated cat. my cats run wild.

[smartdog]

i really hate these people first loving people. what these people first people are really saying is "they are" first. these same people don't do much of anything for people, bible thump mean spirited people, people who have never adopted the children they want women to have versus aborting, or volunteering at a meals on wheels or a literacy program for the uneducated say are a drain on society or any damn thing related to people! I truly hate these people.

[valerief]

To bad they can't do the same for US soldiers.

[smartdog]

if the soldier is fighting to save america then it's all of america, our land, people, houses, material things, wildlife, habitats, things we hold dear, our values, our generosity, our culture, our languages, our education achievements, and animals.

[gallimaufry03]

what, give them millions of acres to roam???

[OKSunny]

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the ways its animals are treated” – Mahatma Gandhi

You can tell a lot about a person by the way it treats animals, and a lot more about a nation. Animals do not get a chance to vote, so it is up to humans to take care of them. As stated by the US Humane Society implementing a sterilization policy would be the cheaper and more humane way to take care of the problem.
There is nothing wrong with caring about animals and wanting to do what is right by them, I respect and admire anyone who takes this attitude. Just because you can exert your power over another creature that is weaker than you, does not mean you should. I don't understand why Republicans are so against abortions but they don't see this as the killing of innocent lives. What, just because they aren't human, they aren't worth it? Ridiculous. I know a lot of humans who I'd rather see killed than a wild horse. Have you ever seen a herd of wild horses? It is a beautiful and majestic site; a real symbol of America!
Who ever voted against this should be ashamed of themselves.

[tenabo]

Have you ever seen a group of hungry starving thirsty horses in the Nevada desert? Have you ever seen a wild horse blinded by running in to the branches of burnt juniper trees and having their eyes poked out. I have . Have you ever watched a mare with a broken back try to water and can't reach the water. In the days when local ranchers managed the horse herds these animals were given a respite from their misery. Today we walk on by. Leaving the management of these beasts to all the animal care givers that truly do care but don't truly see the misery that mismanagement brings.

[Ohioan730]

There was a documentary about wild horse tribes that lived somewhere in the NW (?) USA. It was really touching to see how they live and choose mates, socialize and form families.

As for the GOP, it has been widely documented by psychologists and mental health professionals that apathy toward animals is directly related to apathy toward human beings. I'm just gonna leave it at that.

[OKSunny]

You are 100% correct...good point.
I have a background in Sociology, and it is common knowledge that like 99.9% of murderers and other violent criminals have a serious history of animal abuse

[smartdog]

Amen. Praise God. If God only wanted people on earth he wouldn't have created Republicans.

[sense oar sheep]

Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and James Garfield were Republican.

Republican's aren't the problem, they're American just like you and me. Modern Republicanism and Neo-cons are the problem.

[UtahLiberal435]

Oh great. As if there was any shortage whatsoever of feral horses. In five years all that expanded acreage will again be filled up with feral, exotic, introduced "wild" horses. In the meantime, the BLM will spend millions turning western sagebrush into a no-kill animal shelter to keep rich equestriennes from freaking out.

Newsflash to urbanites: No horse is "wild" in North America. They have a rapid birth rate and high survival rates relative to wildlife like bighorn and antelope. And they compete directly with native North American wildlife for water and forage. Most wild horses bear very little relationship to their romanticized photographic imagery, and "The West" is grossly overpopulated with horses both wild and domestic. I doubt that one-in-ten owned horses are ever ridden. They're like lawn ornaments.

We 'harvest' all the native wildlife, but let our 'wild' feral livestock explode like lemmings, and then keep them in pens like pets. Real smart there Animal Planet types.

[pxgabriel]

I am a serious horse lover, but I don't see how there is any other choice. There are too many, and with the economy the way it is, horses are being abandoned all over the country every day. Something needs to be done.

[Tom95134]

You could begin a roundup and selection program and initiate a chemical gelding that way the population would self-limit and have the benefit of a selective breeding program.

I hate to see any animal destroyed just because we don't know what to do about their population growth. Of course, they could be selectively harvested for food. There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating horse meat. Many people ate it during WW-II and there were meat markets that advertised horse meat for human consumption. In fact, I was working in Flint, MI in the 1960s and a burger place was using horse meat. They made really good burgers until someone found out where they were getting their meat.

[Vickster]

Gelding isn't the answer unless we find a way to geld 99% of the colts born every year. After all, one male and ten (or a hundred) females will make more babies than one female and ten males.

[Ann-Pittsburgh]

I, too, am very concerned about the number of horses being abandoned, but there are a number of options for people who can no longer afford to keep their horses that don't involve abandonment. People can lease them to one or more people who will cover horse-related expenses, or they can offer the horse under a "free lease" agreement, whereby the owner retains ownership of the horse and the person who leases the horse picks up all expenses without paying a leasing fee. Local horse-related websites and newspapers are a great place to network to put these arrangements together. Of course, any of us who are in a position to foster or adopt a horse provide a valuable service. And of course, if necessary, the horse can be humanely euthanized by a vet, rather than being sent to slaughter. As for the mustangs, the adopted mustangs I have met at BLM horse auctions are extraordinary animals -- highly intelligent and, surprisingly, very people-oriented. Adoptors tell me that mustangs have not acquired a fear of people as some domesticated horses do and that they're highly adoptable.

[totaldisbelief]

Ok all you horsey lovers go out and adopt a plug...and let them graze on your lawn.

[Lerrin]

I actually did.
How about you?

[sense oar sheep]

ever seen a feral horse run wild?

[sense oar sheep]

feral horses run wild with the wind -- iconic americana.

[Ann-Pittsburgh]

Three of my four equines were adopted, and they're all great horses and real success stories.

[mollymac]

The only plug here is you!

[Greggo]

Round 'em up and send 'em to the glue factory. We can't afford a welfare state for horses. This is utterly foolish!

[julianne]

They call them feral, white trash.

[ObamAtomic]

Republican only care *monies* for their wars and cronies.

[sense oar sheep]

you mean modern republicans and neo-cons.

James Monroe was a Democratic-Republican.
Thomas Jefferson was a Democratic-Republican.
Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.
Dwight Eisenhower was a Republican.

Democratic and Republican are American Ideals -- where has America gone wrong?

[julianne]

I have to believe that many past Presidents, outside of our recent-past human filth, would be taking care of this, pronto. Obama's healthcare plan is not going through because his Administration doesn't have an imaginative plan about ANYTHING other than pleasing the BIG MAN whether it be the grotesque insurance carriers, the sick FED, or the arrogant bankers. As has been shown, Obama could have funded the Public Option with a minor tariff, but he didn't want to displease his globalist friends just like he washed his hands of the devouring, corporate dominated economy that ruined our middle class. The slaughter of these relatively few, beautiful sentient creatures - this is not apples and oranges. Everything should be becoming clearer as the stress deepens and our lives in the U.S. continue to digress.. These kinds of events are where the tire hits the road because when things get real tough, that is when compassion and balance should be kicking in ACROSS THE BOARD, just like we do with our precious families, friends and animals when things get tough. If our government can't save these wild horses from the unconscious, breeding minions around them and the Cattle Association greed freaks who are despised by most country folks and small ranchers, then the government of the United States, one way or the other, should go straight to hell..

[gallimaufry03]

i'd love to see more compassion in our world ... so much greed and avarice

tomorrow i'm going to do something compassionate for someone i don't know

[sparkey]

500 million to save wild horses and congress and the senate cry like spoiled little brats who can't have candy. These same little brats hardly said a word when they gave the banks 300 billion and never asked what was going to be done with it. The best government that money can buy.

[totaldisbelief]

don't forget congress just gave themselves a bunch o' money for "expenses" too.

[petitcanard]

p.s. The worth of animals should not be judged by their usefulness to humans.
That is something I detest in many horse people. Horses have a right to live whether or
not they can be ridden, or raced, or eaten, or sold. They have the right to be beautiful creatures
standing in an open meadow, never be touched by a human hand.

[Trickywoo]

Amen.

[laddieluv]

Beautiful! Perfect!

I agree most heartily.

[totaldisbelief]

but what about the pigs (smarter than dogs) the sheep, the goats, the bunny rabbits and how about feral cats?...are they not all the creatures of the one true God?

[valletta]

yes, they are....let's treat them all well....

[pxgabriel]

But you need the resources. If there is not enough feed they will die from starvation. And it is very expensive to keep horses and it takes a lot of hay. There needs to at least be some kind of horsey birth control, or they need to be destroyed.

[rbtboss]

And cows, too. Right?

[petitcanard]

It's about time this has got some attention. These poor horses have been struggling for years
under the misguided programs of the BLM and the Department of the Interior. The fact is the
Cattlemen's Association has a very strong presence in Washington. They persuaded Conrad Burns and the Republican Congress (though questionable means) to roll back the protections that wild horses have enjoyed since the 1970's.

Millions of head of cattle are grazed on our public land for pennies. This was the domain of the wild horse that has lived here for centuries upon centuries. In fact, horses are indigenous to North America. Fences and overgrazed land are to blame for the difficulties the wild horses face. They are cut off from water and cannot find forage. The BLM even gathers horses that are not in an endangered state at all. All this for an industry that does more to contribute to global warming that any other.

I am shocked the Obama Administration and the Democrats has not taken up the cause. This is one of the most egregious cases of animal abuse and neglect in history.

And who are the Republicans kidding? They don't care about jobs for the people... they don't care about anything but their own self-enrichment. John Boehner - get real.

[badger2196]

I agree with your sentiments but your facts are off - horses are not indigenous to North America. They did not exist until brought here by the European explorers (just ask the Native Americans).

[blindjester]

Well, they've been here about 500 years. That's longer than my ancestors!

[pointbeing]

Actually, horses - just not in their current evolutionary form - were indigenous to North America, but died out. Horses were re-introduced to North America when Europeans began exploring the continent.

[TFlint]

People are not indigenous to North America.

[mollymac]

who cares. Are you indigenous to North America or were your ancestors imported? Just asking.

[UtahLiberal435]

Wild horses have been "struggling"!?!?!
In whose urban imagination?

They're population keeps exploding, and they compete with wildlife too, like bighorn and pronghorn.

"One of the most egregious cases of animal abuse and neglect in history."

Sorry, that's delusional.

[mollymac]

Go back to Utah. Backward state, backward thinkers. High rates of spousal abuse and pornography.

[MainStObserver]

This is the wisest comment on the board. Every Congress and President has supported protecting these horses---until the Republicans led by Conrad Burns showed their true cards of being in bed with the Western ranchers and cattlemen. Then they decided it would be ok to kill the old horses that are difficult to adopt.

How we take care of these horses speaks more about USA values than military might or political rhetoric.

Please, Senate, do the right thing! $500M is not even a rounding error in our budget.

And, yes, I adopted one of these mustangs from the BLM. A beautiful 4-y/o mare that has direct lineage to the Spanish and Calvary horses left to roam free when their services were not any longer necessary.

[Frenbar]

Nancy Pelosi is no prize to be sure, but the Democrats in the Senate are an absolute disgrace, especially Harry Reid.