House Appropriations Committee to Decide Fate of Wild Horses and Burros
The upcoming meeting of the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, July 18, in Washington, D.C., could significantly impact the future of thousands of wild horses and burros on public lands. This meeting will review the fiscal 2018 spending bill for the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, and related areas, commonly referred to as a markup.
Included in the $31.4 billion bill is language that forbids the killing or sale for slaughter of wild horses and burros roaming millions of acres in the West. This language has been part of prior House spending bills. However, the Trump administration seeks to remove it, citing a horse overpopulation problem that threatens public lands and the budget for the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program.
Wild horse advocacy groups, including the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign), have mobilized to retain this language, arguing that wild horses are an enduring symbol of the West. They challenge the BLM’s horse population data and criticize the bureau for not aggressively pursuing birth control vaccines to manage herd numbers.
Advocates have also pressured Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, who chairs the appropriations subcommittee dealing with interior spending. The American Wild Horse Conservation released a poll showing 78 percent of voters in Calvert’s district favor the ban on wild horse slaughter.
“Sanctioning the slaughter of tens of thousands of horses is a disgraceful, shameful idea. It is an unacceptable idea that will produce protests in the streets, from Reno to Washington, D.C.,” Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, said in a news release. “Mass slaughter will happen only over the cries, protests and interventions of the American people.”
Calvert appears open to considering an amendment to allow for wild horses to be put down or sold for slaughter. He stated, “In a perfect world, these animals would be adopted and we wouldn’t have this problem. The horses that are on the range, it’s not just a matter of health of the herd, it’s a matter of the health of the environment.”
Calvert noted the $80 million cost of the BLM’s wild horse program and highlighted other pressing needs, such as Indian Health Service funding, within the interior budget. “There’s only so many dollars, and so we’ve got to get control of this horse issue because this number is only going to increase,” Calvert said. “I want a humane and practical solution. Some of these horses are in bad shape and that’s not right either.”
“We’ll look at (an amendment) if it comes up,” the congressman said. “I don’t want to see any animals destroyed. But it happens because there’s only so many resources.”
Last week, Calvert voted against an amendment to ban federal funding for inspections of horses ticketed for slaughter. The amendment, offered by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Downey, failed by a 27-25 vote in the appropriations committee.
“This is an incredibly difficult issue because everyone wants horses to be treated humanely,” Calvert said in a written statement after the vote. “The question ultimately becomes what is the most humane way to deal with horses at the end of their life? Subjecting horses to travel long distances in poor conditions to be killed in a Mexican slaughterhouse under poor conditions – or – having highly regulated, humane facilities closer to the horses.”
Committee Hearing
The House Appropriations Committee will conduct a full markup of the fiscal 2018 spending bill for the Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, and related agencies. Included in the bill is language that would prevent wild horses and burros on public lands from being euthanized or sold to slaughterhouses.
When: 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 18.
Watch the meeting: Go to appropriations.house.gov.
Originally posted by The Press-Enterprise