Anti-Less Restrictive Wild Horse Bill

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 Sens. 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 facilities.

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.