Robert Redford, Ed Harris, Wendie Malick and Ian Somerhalder are among a diverse group of celebrities including Oscar and Grammy winners, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and scientists who have all stepped forward to help draw attention to the threat posed to wild horses (see full letter and signatures below).
“My family and I stand strongly against horse slaughter and against our government harming our wild horses,” said actor and director Ed Harris. “I am pleading… I am demanding that a humane and common sense solution to the management of our wild horse population be mandated by Congress in keeping with the spirit of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.”
Since the implementation of the act, the Bureau of Land Management has attempted to maintain stable populations of wild horses and burros by rounding up and removing thousands of horses from the wild — despite repeated directives that this was leading the program to financial instability.
Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation, The ASPCA, The Humane Society of the United States and The Humane Society Legislative Fund have long called for the agency to cease these actions and instead redirect money spent on capturing and holding wild horses toward available solutions, including judicious use of safe, proven fertility control on the range.
The Bureau of Land Management did not listen — and now it wants to fix its mistakes by slaughtering wild horses.
Provisions in the budget proposed by the administration would allow the BLM to kill captured wild horses or sell them without restriction – a change that would enable kill buyers to purchase wild horses on the cheap and haul them to Canada or Mexico for slaughter.
As a result, tens of thousands of horses could be killed or slaughtered if Congress approves provisions in the president’s budget.
On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote on the 2018 interior appropriations bill. A draft of that bill contains protective language, but there is a chance it might be removed.
Wild horse supporters are raising their voices to ensure that protective language is kept in the interior appropriations bill.
Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation is a national nonprofit dedicated to preserving the freedom, diversity, and habitat of America’s wild horses and burros through sanctuary, education, advocacy and conservation, while enriching the human spirit through direct experience with the natural world.
Founded in 1866, the ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) is the first animal welfare organization in North America and serves as the nation’s leading voice for animals. More than two million supporters strong, the ASPCA’s mission is to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States. As a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, the ASPCA is a national leader in the areas of anti-cruelty, community outreach and animal health services.
The Humane Society of the United States is the most effective animal protection organization, as rated by our peers. For more than 60 years, we have celebrated the protection of all animals and confronted all forms of cruelty. We and our affiliates are the nation’s largest provider of hands-on services for animals, caring for more than 150,000 animals each year, and we prevent cruelty to millions more through our advocacy campaigns.
The Humane Society Legislative Fund is a social welfare organization incorporated under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code and formed in 2004 as a separate lobbying affiliate of The Humane Society of the United States. The HSLF works to pass animal protection laws at the state and federal level, to educate the public about animal protection issues, and to support humane candidates for office.
Photo by Bristol Mac Donald
We Stand with America’s Wild Horses and Burros
Our nation’s iconic wild horses are fighting for their lives and we cannot stand by silently and let that happen.
We the undersigned call on Congress to oppose provisions in the president’s 2018 budget that threatens the lives of tens of thousands of wild horses and burros that will be senselessly killed or easily sold to those who would profit from their slaughter.
For decades, we have had available humane solutions which would keep wild equines on the range and save tax dollars. Sadly, agencies continue to discredit proven alternatives instead of committing to implement them.
The American people have repeatedly and resoundingly called for wild horses and burros – the descendants of the animals who helped build our country, made our own freedom possible and shaped a vital part of our cultural heritage — to live free on the range.
Two years after the passage of the “Wild Horse Annie Act,” which banned the use of vehicles to hunt down wild horses sold for slaughter, the 1961 movie “The Misfits” brought the brutal practices of the mustangers onto the big screen. Marilyn Monroe cried out on behalf of audiences when she pleaded for a roped and struggling wild horse to be set free.
A decade later, in 1971, the overwhelming passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act enshrined in law the historic bond between Americans and wild horses and the policy of Congress “that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment or death.”
Yet, for all that apparent progress, the lives of tens of thousands of captive wild horses are again at risk.
As American citizens and as voters, we do not accept the use of our tax dollars, which for so many years were invested in the health and safety of the captive wild horses and burros, to now pay for the destruction of these noble animals because they have been deemed inconvenient. It is unnecessary and unconscionable.
The American people would never forgive such a betrayal.
We respectfully urge Congress to take a leadership role by opposing mass euthanasia, slaughter and unrestricted sales and, instead, work together to forge a bipartisan, well-reasoned and humane management plan worthy of these “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West” by recognizing and prioritizing viable alternatives that do exist.
As a nation, we can and must do better.
Respectfully,
Robert Redford, Actor, Director, Advocate
Governor Bill Richardson, Politician
Wendie Malick, Actress, Advocate
Ed Harris, Actor, Director
Willie Nelson, Musician, Advocate
Amy Madigan, Actress
Lily Harris, Student
Elle Fanning, Actress
Ian Somerhalder, Actor
Carol Burnett, Actress
Ali MacGraw, Actress
Dr. Ross MacPhee, Professor and Curator of Mammals, AMNH
Allen Rutberg, PhD, North Grafton, MA
Bonnie-Jill Laflin, Fox Sports/BBC sportscaster
Priscilla Presley, Actress, Entrepreneur
Noah Wyle, Actor
Sam Elliott, Actor
Katherine Ross, Actress
Robert Gossett, Actor
Dougray Scott, Actor
Debbie Levin, CEO Environmental Media Association
Huey Lewis, Musician
Diane Warren, Songwriter
Scarlet Rivera, Musician
David Midthunder, Lakota Pipe Carrier, Actor
Amber Midthunder, Lakota Dancer, Actress
John Fusco, Writer
David Franzoni, Screenwriter, Geologist
Petrine Day Mitchum, Author, Film Historian
Robert Knott, Writer, Producer, Actor
Rex Linn, Actor
Rachael Worby, Artistic Director MUSE/IQUE
Lance Bass, Producer, Singer
Jill Rappaport, Media host, Advocate
Ed Asner, Actor
Mike Smith, Hall of Fame Jockey
Peri Gilpin, Actress
Laraine Newman, Actress, Comedian
Laura San Giacomo, Actress
Frances Fisher, Actress
Anjelica Huston, Actress
Jessika Van, Actress
Ray Abruzzo, Actor
Dan Lauria, Actor
Victory Tischler-Blue, Producer, Photographer
Tony Stromberg, Photographer
Amber Valletta, Actress
Kimberly Van Der Beek, Producer
Hart Bochner, Actor
Daryl Wein, Writer, Director
Olivia Newton John, Singer, Actress
Mickey Rourke, Actor
Jeff Franklin, Creator / Executive Producer
John Stamos, Actor
Beth Behrs, Actress
Drew Carey, Comedian / Host
Take action
Please call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
Urge your representative and senators to oppose any provisions that would:
• allow the Bureau of Land Management to kill wild horses
• or remove sale restrictions, opening the door for the BLM to sell wild horses and burros to kill buyers.
A key House committee is due to vote on Tuesday. Don’t wait to act.
Please note: If you reach a full voicemail, look for district office phone numbers on your representative’s or senators’ webpages.
We don’t need to resort to killing national icons. Humane solutions that would enable the management of wild horses and burros on the range have long existed.