New Poll Shows 80 Percent of Americans Want Nation's Wild Horses Protected from Slaughter
Americans Overwhelmingly Support Protecting Iconic Mustangs as Congress Considers Allowing Mass Slaughter
WASHINGTON (July 17, 2017) -- New polling released today finds an overwhelming 80 percent of Americans, including 86 percent of 2016 Trump voters and 77 percent of Clinton voters, want Congress to keep anti-slaughter protections in place.
The PPP survey of 556 registered voters was conducted as Congress takes up two measures that would devastate America's wild horse population. Last week, the House Appropriations Committee narrowly passed a measure that would allow horse slaughterhouses to reopen following a 10-year ban. Tomorrow, the same committee could take up a measure that would allow wild horses to be sold for slaughter and human consumption.
Under current law, wild horses are federally protected; killing healthy wild horses is banned.
“The American people have spoken, and they are resoundingly opposed to killing off our America’s iconic mustangs,” said Suzanne Roy, Executive Director of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign). “These animals are a living link to this country's frontier history, and there are many cost-effective and humane ways to manage these herds that don’t result in their indiscriminate killing.”
Full poll results are available here.
The FY2018 budget submitted by the Department of Interior and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) asked Congress to lift the current ban on destroying healthy horses and burros and selling them for slaughter. Although the base bill reported out of the Interior Appropriations subcommittee maintains the slaughter ban, an amendment to strip the prohibition is expected to be offered at the full committee markup on Tuesday, July 18, at 10:30 am.
The separate measure to allow USDA inspections of horse slaughterhouses, essentially lifting the current national ban on the sale of horse meat for human consumption, is contained in the FY 2018 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, which must still pass the full House.
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.
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