New Billboard Urges Arizona Senator Jeff Flake to Oppose Horse Slaughter
PHOENIX, ARIZ. (September 25, 2017) – A new billboard in Phoenix is urging Arizona Senator Jeff Flake to oppose the mass slaughter of over 90,000 wild horses on public lands across Arizona and the Western United States. The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) highlights recent research showing that 80% of Americans oppose this brutal practice. The billboard is prominently displayed at the intersection of S. 24th St. and E. Buckeye Road near the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Senator Flake is a member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining, which oversees public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service.
In July, the House Appropriations Committee passed legislation that would remove protections against slaughtering America’s wild horses, in place since 1971. This change, introduced into the 2018 federal budget at the request of the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, would authorize the unrestricted “culling” of herds using brutal methods on the open range and in holding facilities.
“Horse hating Representatives have taken steps to end protections for America’s wild horses and open them up to mass slaughter, and their fate is now in the Senate’s hands,” said Simone Netherlands, president of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group and national spokesperson for the American Wild Horse Conservation. “We now have to call on Senator Flake to reverse this death warrant that the House of Representatives has issued for these peaceful animals, icons of the American West. We ask both of our Senators who have stood up for the Salt River wild horses before, to do everything in their power to keep America's wild horses under federal protection.”
Earlier this month, Netherlands and a group of volunteers delivered a petition signed by 300,000 Americans to Senator Flake’s Phoenix office.
“If the Senate allows the House language to be implemented, there is no telling how many thousands of wild horses and burros will meet a horrible and cruel fate,” Netherlands continued. “Instead, we need to protect and manage them humanely on the range, which is what the American public wants and believes.”
In a survey taken this summer, 80 percent of Americans said they opposed cruel practices and wanted the current protections to remain in place. In 2013, the National Academy of Sciences recommended that the BLM use the PZP birth control vaccine to humanely control population growth rates on the range. The availability of this proven, scientific, and cost-effective management tool renders the BLM’s lethal plan unnecessary and outrageous, Netherlands concluded.
About the American Wild Horse Conservation
The American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC) (formerly known as the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign) is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage. Its grassroots mission is endorsed by a coalition of more than 60 horse advocacy, humane, and public interest organizations.
About the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group
The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group (SRWHMG) is an Arizona non-profit organization dedicated to protecting, monitoring, and studying the Salt River wild horses. The SRWHMG has been spearheading the effort to secure lasting protections for this iconic and beloved wild horse herd in the Tonto National Forest.