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[Ed. Note: This letter was taken off a political blog (Daily Kos) asking for help.]
The Omnibus Budget Bill has had another provision added without notice to Congress or public that will allow the immediate slaughter of Wild Horses bought from the BLM Wild Horse Auction program.
The story today in the NYT details a provision inserted at the last minute by Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana,requires the sale to slaughter houses of wild horses that have been rounded up and are more than 10 years old or have unsucessfully offered for auction three times to the public. The UNANNOUNCED effect could be to remove the current prohibition against a member of the public from buying a horse at a legal BLM (Bureau of Land Management) auction and immediately selling it to a slaughterhouse for use,generally, in Pet Food.
There is more detail to this story and the 'backstory' than easily meets the eye if you don't have a background in the subject. It's not short...but it's worth your time. So here goes:
The Wild Horse is one of the most symbolic remaining fixtures on the Western Ranges. Ranchers, using unfenced BLM range cattle grazing leases (a perfectly legitimate business), have complained for decades that their cattle have to compete for scarce food on the ranges which are primarily desert. This is true.
Also the Wild Horse herds, if left to simply inbred and overpopulate, do have a overgrazing effect on the land. Unfettered herds create conditions that mean that they cannot sustain themselves. This leaves more animals to suffer slow deaths from starvation and other causes.
The BLM for 3 decades has tried to create a system that thins the herds while keeping the horses alive. The latest version of this policy is to gather wild horses and, after some basic handing (but NOT MUCH!) offer them for sale to the public. Initially this was at a flat price ranging from an early price of $75 to $150 or so.
Now, in the West at least, they've gone to a true auction format where market value will prevail.
There is a provision in the current law that doesn't pass full title (allowing free resale) of the purchased Mustang for a year after purchase.
Mustangs are literally a different breed. They take special handling and training techniques. Here in California at least, the BLM has begun to require a fundamental class for buyers. Most buyers have NO idea the difficulties of starting and training a Mustang. It is NOT easy and not for the novice...who is the usual buyer. That's one of the reasons why the BLM as a one year moratorium on sale.
I'm a life-long horseman and have worked large ranches in my youth. I'm no bleeding heart. And there is a place for the unwanted, lame or infirm horse that no ones wants to care for to be sold to slaughter rather than to be starved to death or nearly so in a backyard. I recently 'put down' my great #1 horse of many, many years at 28 years old. Yet my vet bill for the illness and the act of putting him down, after a bunch of payments, is still $450. Classical by Parade of Stars was a great horse with great grace of spirit and died the same way...in my hands with a sigh.
Yet before someone says all these horses should be kept alive no matter what...the illness and suffering of the horse can be the unintended result if there isn't someone nearby who is willing to take the financial and emotional burden.
The HUGE problem in this bill is that it would allow a horse trader (and I do some myself...just sold two and made a deal for a new one) to bring a large trailer to a BLM auction...wait for all the ugly and lame to be left unsold after the inexperienced public, who really just want to own a piece of picturesque and beautiful West, to load that trailer at $150 a head or so and drive to the nearest slaughter house and sell the same herd for $500-850 per head based on weight.
This is profitable and would be legal under the new law. Maxine Shane, a spokeswoman for the BLM, estimates as many as 8,000 horses in captivity would be eligible for immediate slaughter under the new provision. This is NOT what the BLM or any government agency wants to happen.
So what's next? Will the President veto the Omnibus Budget Bill? Of course not.
But we can bombard our Senators and Congresspeople to immediately introduce new legislation to reverse this policy as soon as a new Congress is in session.
This is another example of the major problem of how legislation that MUST be passed can be hijacked at the
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