After an enormous outrage from Americans across the nation, following an announcement on Friday that an advisory panel proposed to kill 45,000 wild horses and burros, the United States government quickly did an about face on Wednesday, and according to Reuters‘ update, stated they have no plans to euthanize the animals.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management contend they are having a tough time trying to find people to adopt the number of horses and burros and complain about the expense maintaining corrals and pastures. And then on September 9, the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board recommended that those not adopted be euthanized or sold for slaughter. The agency stated it has not yet formally replied to the advisory board’s proposal, and will do so at its next meeting, which is set to take place in the next few months.
Tom Corey, a spokesperson for the bureau sent the following email after an enormous uproar:
“…continue its current policy of caring for unadopted or unsold wild horses and burros… and will not sell of send any animals to slaughter.”
Americans were quick to criticize the advisory board manager for his suggestion to kill or send the horses to slaughter. Sadly, it is estimated that 45,000 horses and burros are being held in captivity, and the American public wholeheartedly agrees, it is therefore the bureau’s job to care for them, since they are the ones who decided to capture the wild horses to provide more room for grazing cattle. Most of the free animals roam in Nevada and California.
Gillian Lyons, manager for the wild horse and burro program for the Humane Society of the United States noted how quickly Americans responded to the idea of killing the horses.
“It’s something the American public just doesn’t know about; you don’t think of wild horses being held in facilities all across the United States,” Lyons stated.
The HSUS says the bureau spends too much money paying private contractors to keep the wild horses corralled and it doesn’t spend the needed money to expand the program for birth control for the horses instead of the expensive, brutal and inhumane round-ups that have been going on for years.
You can read more on RT Fitch Wild Horse Freedom Federation for contact information and how you can help.
(Photo: screenshot Jeff Green)
If they thought we were going to stand by and let this happen, well then, they are as stupid as we perceived. They made the mess by removing them from their natural habitate. Now they need to fix it right by all of them. Castration is a humane option to reduce the future numbers. Let the wild horses remain FREE.
This irrational cruelty is beyond the pale.
I am calling on all to ensure that the slaughter does not take place, & the BLM follows its legal obligation to protect wild horses in the wild, where they belong.
The BLM’s budget has rapidly climbed to $77 million and is claiming that it is expensive to care for corralled horses. Shooting them is not the answer – not only is it ethically abhorrent, it would be a perversion of the BLM’s legal responsibility to protect wild horses.
Wild horse numbers have plummeted in recent years, owing to extensive roundups to make way for cows. — Six states have entirely lost their wild horse populations.
There are now fewer than 50,000 mustangs remaining in the wild. — Around 270,000 mustangs have been removed from public land since 1971. — With wild horse populations critically low, the proposed slaughter amounts to a genocide.
Slaughtering wild horses would fly in the face of every single protection mustangs are afforded under the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act & is a gross travesty of justice for these horses who have already been ripped from their homes, torn from their families & placed in pens for their lifetimes only to now receive a death sentence.
I recommend the BLM stops rounding up horses and leaving them to rot at great public expense.
Instead, let them run free across public lands, to be enjoyed by the public as living symbols of the American spirit.
Secondly, restrict ranching on public lands. — Farming animals has a range of extremely negative environmental impacts, especially compared to the minimal impact of wild horses.
Wild equines have roamed the plains for thousands of years and according to the Act, are part of the natural environment.
Thirdly, a new board is needed to manage wild horses more effectively, in line with legal obligations, scientific advice, and strong public support for wild horses.
This is cruel, unconscionable, irrational, merciless, immoral. — DO NOT KILL OUR HORSES — we have options — life-affirming options — let’s do the right thing!
Maybe Government should think about spending money on birth control for people since world is so overpopulated they run out of land to breed more and more cattle to feed humans.i mean its crazy,world population has DOUBLED since 1940’s !