Budget “Mishap”: Thousands of Wild Horses to be Slaughtered

[n2doc]

Recently the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) announced plans to kill tens of thousands of America’s wild horses.

The proposal “is killing pure and simple to balance the books for an agency whose reckless management has caused immeasurable harm to a national treasure at considerable cost to the American taxpayer,” said Chris Heyde, deputy director of government and legal affairs for the Animal Welfare Institute based in Washington, D.C.

BLM claims it can no longer afford to round up wild horses and confine them until it finds people to adopt them, and the agency wants to euthanize these majestic wild beauties or sell them to the highest bidder “without limitation” - meaning sell them to anyone, even if the bidder also plans to kill these horses. The BLM claims that the agency can’t “allow horses to multiply unchecked on the range without causing an environmental disaster.”

This has many people outraged. The fact that our own government recognizes these magnificent creatures as an important symbol of the American spirit, and that we need them, whether it be for labor or for presence, means that we must do all that we can to protect them.

The government issued a statement in 1971 stating: “Congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; (and) that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people …”(Public Law 92-195, December 15, 1971). It isn’t surprising that once again, the government isn’t standing by the law they put in place for our wild horses.

Currently there is an online petition posted at care2 with almost 38k signatures. The goal is 50k, and it seems they may achieve their goal. However, petitioning isn’t enough. We must get the word out and make more people aware of what will take place if these animals are not adopted out. We can no longer trust the government to protect what they claimed was under their protection.

More: (warning graphic pics):
http://weheartworld.com/featured/budget-mishap-thousands-of-wild-horses-to-be-slaughtered/

Petition:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/266046279?z00m=15681233

[Kali]

1. I thought Mrs. Pickens was going to take them all.

Maybe she figured stashing and feeding thousands of large animals wasn't going to work out so well either.

[4_TN_TITANS]

8. I read that too...

the article that said that Mrs. T Boone Pickens was going to 'adopt' them all. What happened?

Source: Washington Post

The unwanted horses seemed destined for death. The wheels had been set in motion to put down about 2,000 healthy mustangs, those in a federally maintained herd of wild horses and burros that no one wanted to adopt.

The Bureau of Land Management knew that euthanasia was a legal alternative, but officials were proceeding slowly, afraid of an intense public outcry. The wild horses had become too expensive to maintain, and cattlemen argued that turning them loose would be a drain on the already scarce grazing lands of the West.

Then yesterday, at a public hearing in Reno, Nev., to discuss the issue, a solution arrived on a white horse, so to speak.

Madeleine Pickens, wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens, made known her intentions to adopt not just the doomed wild horses but most or all of the 30,000 horses and burros kept in federal holding pens. Lifelong animal lovers, the Pickenses just a few years ago led the fight to close the last horse slaughterhouse in the United States.




Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[ailsagirl]

2. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/266046279?z00m=15681233

[ailsagirl]

3. kick

[Timefortruth]

4. I don't understand why we spend 10s of millions

to keep them alive in the first place.

[Kali]

7. Unintended consequences of good intentions.

[ailsagirl]

5. Please recommend and KICK (and sign the petition...)

THANK YOU

[Big Blue Marble]

6. I signed the petition. n/t

[ailsagirl]

9. kick

[Cetacea]

10. K+R Thanks n/t

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

11. T. Bone Picken's wife adopted all of them. Link to WAPO article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111703680.html?g=1

[ailsagirl]

12. That's what I thought but this might be something else...

Anything run by the BLM isn't safe

Let's hope these are the same horses

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

13. I provided the article from WAPO for you . From the article

Madeleine Pickens, wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens, made known her intentions to adopt not just the doomed wild horses but most or all of the 30,000 horses and burros kept in federal holding pens. Lifelong animal lovers, the Pickenses just a few years ago led the fight to close the last horse slaughterhouse in the United States.

[ailsagirl]

14. Thanks, Ommm

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. Your welcome ailsagirl!

[TexasObserver]

16. That's what the GOP does with real Mavericks.

Our wild horses need to be treated like other wild animals. We simply do not have many horses that are still wild, and a wild horse is so much more horse than a trained horse.

I love horses, and it's my love of horses that makes me oppose putting them in jail cells (stalls), where they can barely turn around. The reason many horses die from colic is their circumstances of imprisonment. They are meant to graze, to walk around and eat slowly, working for their food. They're not designed to eat oats from a bucket once a day. They're designed to run around, to use their sleek build to move quickly, to make dramatic turns.

I used to love putting them out in a big pasture with no emcumbrances, letting them run relatively free. The way they thunderously bolt into a run tells you how much they NEED to run like that.

I love horses, and that is why I quit owning them. I can't stand to see one kept in a stall.

[Kali]

17. If I had to keep a horse in a stall and it wasn't getting daily use I sure as hell

wouldn't be graining it (unless there was some actual need to do so). Seems to me that would be asking for problems.

Even then it should have plenty of turnout time daily. Do people really keep horses in stalls 24/7? Then THEY should try living in a bathroom 24/7.

[TexasObserver]

19. even with paddocks, stalled horses don't get enough exercise

If you live in a bathroom, getting out a few hours a day is still living in a prison.

I think it makes them crazy, if they're spirited at all.

[stuntcat]

18. right?

There is nothing in the world more beautiful than those free horses :cry: nothing.

kick

[TexasObserver]

20. a running horse is a beautiful thing