House Natural Resources Chair Raul Grijalva Fights to Save Wild Horses from Slaughter

Washington, DC (April 1, 2019) - Congressman Raul Grijalva, Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, has taken a significant step to protect wild horses from slaughter. He has requested language in the Fiscal Year 2020 Interior Appropriations legislation to prevent the U.S. Forest Service from selling federally-protected wild horses for slaughter. This move aims to extend the existing ban on slaughter, currently imposed on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), to the Forest Service.

In a letter to the Interior Appropriations subcommittee, Rep. Grijalva highlighted a loophole in the law that exposes hundreds of horses from the Devil’s Garden Plateau Wild Horse Territory in Northern California to the risk of being sold for slaughter. Thousands of other wild horses managed by the Forest Service are also at risk.

Congressman Grijalva also requested legislative language to mandate the BLM to use scientifically recommended humane birth control as an alternative to the costly and cruel roundup and removal of wild horses from the range.

“Congressman Grijalva has been a longtime champion for protecting America’s wild horses and burros. We’re grateful to him for taking this necessary step to prevent the federal government from selling wild horses for slaughter over the objections of the overwhelming majority of Americans,” said Suzanne Roy, Executive Director of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign), the nation’s largest wild horse preservation organization.

The protections sought by Representative Grijalva are urgently needed in light of a Forest Service plan to sell wild horses captured from the Modoc National Forest in California without limitation, which will result in their slaughter. This plan, announced last fall, marks a radical departure from past agency policy and has prompted widespread condemnation from the public, Nevada Representative Dina Titus, and California political leaders including U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, Attorney General Xavier Becerra, and Assemblyman Todd Gloria and 22 of his colleagues in the California legislature.

In addition to protecting wild horses and burros from slaughter, Representative Grijalva seeks to encourage humane and fiscally sound management practices to reduce population growth rates on the range through the use of birth control. In 2013, the National Academy of Sciences recommended fertility control as a more affordable option than continuing to remove wild horses from the range. However, the BLM still spends zero percent of its budget on this scientifically proven management approach.

The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) is the nation’s leading wild horse protection organization, with more than 700,000 supporters and followers nationwide.