President Biden’s budget includes record spending for roundups and removal of wild horses from our public lands. And too many go to slaughter after that. My question is, why not geld most of the stallions and let nature take its course?
Mary Irby, executive director of Animal Wellness, has his thoughts and this is a slightly edited version of what he has to say:
“President Richard Nixon signed into law the Wild Horse and Free-Roaming Burros Act, saying it embodies “the best judgment of both the Congress and the executive branch.” He added that it “permits the establishment of ranges for their use” and “makes the killing or molesting them a Federal crime,” prohibiting their sale or that of their remains.”Now 50 years later, his stirring words are long forgotten by many of today’s government bureaucrats and more than a few sitting members of Congress. Just this week, President Biden’s budget includes record spending for roundups and removals of these horses from our public lands.
It’s been a boon for kill buyers who line their pockets from the slaughter of the wild horses and burros that have been rounded up via helicopter chase and incarcerated in mass holding facilities – well over 50,000 held captive today.
Once in holding, the options are few, and many of these majestic icons are ‘adopted out’ to homes that would domesticate them and utilize them as working animals – or so we thought. The New York Times’ recent investigation into these alleged adoptions has revealed that many of the horses thought to be adopted are actually being funneled straight into the horse slaughter pipeline – shot in the head with a bolt gun, and ultimately ending up like slabs of meat on foreign dinner plates.
And while Animal Wellness Action (AWA), the Center for a Humane Economy (CHE), and the Animal Wellness Foundation (AWF) have been working for the past three years to ensure the protection of our wild horses and burros, we’re doubling down in light of the most recent news.
“Big Beef” interests such as the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) want nothing more than to eradicate the wild equids on the range so that they can utilize the lands to graze cattle on the taxpayer’s dime, paying little more than a few bucks a year for grazing permits.
In April, we were joined by more than 70 groups in a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland-the first Native American in the President’s cabinet–calling for a freeze on grazing permits. There’s been no response from Haaland.
A lack of response from the Biden Administration, combined with Haaland’s testimony before the House Appropriations Committee April 20 that the Department of Interior is “in agreement with the plan of the previous Administration,” in continuing to eradicate the wild horses and burros on public lands, has amounted not only to a terrible offense against wild horses and burros but the millions of horse advocates who expected anything but the continuation of the status quo from this administration.
This week, we partnered with actress Katherine Heigl to help stop the mass round-up and removal of perhaps 80 percent of the famed and beloved Onaqui wild horses of western Utah. Our billboards draw attention to plans to reduce the herd size by 80 percent, and our new microsite, www.SaveTheOnaqui.org, details why this herd is so special and undeserving of this attempt to draw down their numbers so dramatically.
Heigl, who lives in Summit County and keeps horses at her ranch in the Kamas Valley, said in a release this week from AWA, CHE, and AWF on the Associated Press’ website:
“With their historic place on the public lands of Utah, the Onaqui horses are living treasures that contribute to the beauty of the Great Basin Desert, as well as the economic vitality of nearby communities. Instead of cruel helicopter roundups, I call on the Bureau of Land Management to leave the Onaqui horses on the land, manage them humanely with fertility control, and limit livestock grazing to protect the ecosystem.”
The roundup is scheduled to begin July 12 and will result in between 300 to 400 of the 500 horses being permanently removed from their Herd Management Area (HMA.).
We’ve appealed to Secretary Haaland to turn around this situation and to no longer keep this program on auto-pilot. We’ve also asked the President – long a champion of horses and who came into office just a year after the Wild Horse and Burro Act was enacted – to intervene. We were joined by more than 90 groups, rescues, and businesses; and more than 1,100 individuals in a letter to the President calling for Biden to immediately place a moratorium on the roundups. So many groups are deeply disappointed that this administration is attempting to liquidate so many herds and allowing them to go to slaughter.
Join us in the effort to protect the icons who blazed the western frontier by clicking here to add your name.