Photo taken at RTF’s American Wild Horse Sanctuary by Josephine Blossfeld
Dear Wild Horse Advocate,
On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill amendment that would give wide leeway for the Interior secretary to order the use of dangerous sterilization surgeries on wild horses and burros.
“…The Secretary of the Interior may hereafter manage any group of wild horses or burros as a non-reproducing or single-sex herd, in whole or in part, including through sterilization,” reads the amendment to the Fiscal Year 2019 Interior appropriations by authored by Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah. The amendment was approved by the committee on a voice vote, meaning no roll call was kept.
Click here to read more about the vote.
We must stay positive and redouble our efforts despite this worrying amendment. It would allow the Bureau of Land Management to make any herd a non-reproducing herd, using field surgeries that threaten the lives of individual mares and the viability of entire herds for the benefit of special interests.
Last year, when the House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment that would have allowed the Bureau of Land Management to euthanize – shoot – healthy wild horses and burros. Fortunately, with your encouragement, Senate leaders stood up for wild horses, insisting that protective language was included in the final FY2018 spending package.
The House amendment passed on Wednesday and a new push by BLM to use field sterilization surgeries that threaten the lives of wild mares and viability of whole herds would only delay real solutions – solutions that would begin the long-overdue move toward a sustainable and humane long-term plan to manage our nation’s wild horses and burros on their rightful ranges.
Please call your senators today and keep calling: Urge them to act rationally and demand humane, proven methods to ensure the future of wild horses and burros, not unproven, dangerous schemes.
And please help us spread the word by sharing our posts on social media.
Stay strong – America’s wild horses and burros need your voice!
The RTF Team
TAKE ACTION
Please call (202) 225-3121. Tell your senators that you:
* Oppose any amendment to the FY19 Interior Appropriations bill allowing BLM to kill wild horses and burros;
* Oppose any amendment allowing for the sterilization of wild horses and burros because it is dangerous, unproven, costly and could be devastating to the future of these federally protected animals;
* Support the use of safe, proven fertility control vaccines for wild horses and burros;
* Support the anti-horse slaughter language in the FY19 Agriculture Appropriations bill;
* Support the SAFE Act (S. 1706) to ban slaughter and the transportation of horses for slaughter.
Tell your representative that you:
* Oppose any amendment to the FY19 Interior Appropriations bill allowing BLM to kill wild horses and burros;
* Oppose any amendment allowing for the sterilization of wild horses and burros because it is dangerous, unproven, costly and could be devastating to the future of these federally protected animals;
* Support the use of safe, proven fertility control vaccines for wild horses and burros;
* Support the SAFE Act (H.R. 113) to ban slaughter and the transportation of horses for slaughter;
* Support the Horse Transportation Safety Act (H.R. 4040) to ban hauling horses on double-deck trailers under all circumstances.
Sign RTF’s Wild on the Range petition, calling for humane management solutions.