Nevada Rep. Titus Leads Effort to Save Forest Service Wild Horses from Slaughter

Washington, DC (March 28, 2019) - Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), representing the state with over half of the nation’s wild horses, is spearheading efforts to include protective language in the Fiscal Year 2020 Interior Appropriations legislation. This initiative aims to safeguard federally-protected wild horses from a Forest Service plan that could lead to their slaughter. Titus seeks to extend the existing ban on slaughter, currently applicable only to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), to the Forest Service as well.

In her letter to the Interior Appropriations subcommittee, Rep. Titus also advocated for legislative language mandating the BLM to implement scientifically recommended humane birth control as an alternative to the costly and inhumane roundup and removal of wild horses from their natural habitats.

“Congresswoman Titus is one of the great champions of America’s wild horses, and we are deeply grateful for her strong leadership and steadfast support,” 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 Rep. Titus are urgently needed due to a Forest Service plan to sell wild horses captured from the Modoc National Forest in California without limitation, potentially leading to their slaughter. This plan, announced last fall, represents a significant shift from previous agency policy and has drawn widespread condemnation from the public and 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.

Rep. Titus is also acting on behalf of Nevadans, 86 percent of whom agree that wild horses are important symbols for their state and the nation and should be humanely managed, not slaughtered.

In addition to protecting wild horses and burros from slaughter, Rep. Titus seeks to promote humane and fiscally responsible management practices to control 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 allocates zero percent of its budget to 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.

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