Information supplied by Daniel Cordero Fernández
“We must relentlessly call Congress until they ask for mercy and remove the two offending sections legalizing wild horse killings and enabling horse slaughter in Appropriation Bills…”
photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation
Focus on all the member of the House and Senate appropriations committees but also contact your own Congressman and two Senators. This is because, in all likelihood, the two pro-slaughter sections (one removing the USDA slaughter inspections ban and other adding language to allow BLM to kill and sell for slaughter wild horses in holding) will be passed by the appropriations committees since western pro-slaughter folks have the majority and they have already discussed the matter and have allegedly agreed to pushing this to the full Congress to bring horse slaughter back. In my humble opinion, it is a done deal.
When contacting both your own legislators and the members of the committees, you must ask:
- a) Committee members:
– Ask them to vote no on any language allowing the killing of wild horses in holding and / or their sale without limitation, that is, for slaughter or “processing into commercial products” as they like to call it.
– Ask them to oppose any changes to refund horse slaughter inspections by USDA. Ask them to reintroduce the defunding language by means of a private amendment if necessary.
- b) Rest of congressmen:
– Ask them to oppose any language allowing the killing of wild horses in holding and/or their sale without limitation and, if necessary, to introduce or support an amendment striking down any language in the appropriations bill allowing the killing and sale without limitation.
– Ask them to support any amendment reintroducing the ban on the use of tax money to fund USDA horse slaughter inspections.
Contact information for all members of Congress, including the ones from a specific committee can be found together in this site:
https://www.contactingcongress .org/
Just select the committee you want contact info from the drop down menu and you are ready to go.
In the case of the agriculture appropriations one, whose text is already made but wasn’t formally introduced, they are aiming at removing Section 767 from the former appropriations bill, which contains the USDA defunding language that prevents horse slaughter plants to open up:
https://www.obpa.usda.gov/34gp exnotes2018.pdf
Go to Page 18 where it reads:
«Section 767: Prohibits inspection of horses for slaughter.
[Sec. 767. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available in this Act may be used to pay the salaries or expenses of personnel—(1) to inspect horses under section 3 of the Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 603);
(2) to inspect horses under section 903 of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 1901 note; Public Law 104–127); or (3) to implement or enforce section 352.19 of title 9, Code of Federal Regulations (or a successor regulation).]
This change deletes the entire section 767. This change is requested in order to permit the Executive Branch to carry out programs in the most efficient manner. » >>> They are deleting the ban entirely.
In the case of the Interior Appropriations Bill there is still no bill text (looks like these welfare ranching cowboys have problems putting two words together) but we have Trump’s budget request where HE VERY CLEARLY REQUESTS WILD HORSES IN HOLDING TO BE KILLED AND TO ALLOW SALES OF WILD HORSES FOR “ALL PURPOSES”, THAT IS, FOR SLAUGHTER:
https://www.doi.gov/…/u…/fy201 8_blm_budget_justification.pdf
Go to page 24 of the .pdf where it reads:
«Wild Horse & Burro Management Shift Management Strategies (-$10,000,000 / -29 FTE)
The WH/B budget is principally consumed by the cost to care for excess animals in off range facilities, […]. Animals for which there is no adoption demand are to be humanely euthanized while others that meet certain criteria are to be sold without limitation. Enacted appropriations bills from 1988 to 2004 and from 2010 to present have prohibited destruction of healthy animals and unlimited sale. […] The BLM must be able to use all of the tools included in the Act to manage this program in a more cost-effective manner, including the ability o conduct sales without limitation. The budget proposes to eliminate appropriations language restricting the BLM from using all of the management options authorized in the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. An estimated $4.0 million of the $10.0 reduction will be achieved through savings resulting from unrestricted sales. »
The markup session where both bills (agriculture and interior) text will be formally redacted and introduced is NEXT WEDNESDAY July 12th. Make sure you keep calling and writing until these two languages are killed for good.
https://rtfitchauthor.com/2017/06/30/speak-up-for-wild-horses-before-its-too-late/
https://www.contactingcongress.org/
Categories: Equine Rescue, Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Reblogged this on Paths I Walk.
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I have made my phone calls. Not only to my Congressional Representative; additional to my Senators. Hopes and prayers.
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Important information to provide to all congressional committee members.
This agenda has been in the works for a long time.
June 11, 2009
BLM’S SECRET PLANNING DOCUMENTS “ALTERNATIVE MANAGEMENT OPTIONS”
Documents obtained by the Freedom of Information Act:
BLM Alternative Management Options Draft Plan + Markup
BLM Implementation Team minutes + markup
BLM Implementation Team minutes + markup
Click to access alternativemanagement_optionsblm10_2008_markup.pdf
Click to access blm_implementation_team_minutes_2008_markup.pdf
http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/news/press-releases/archived-press-releases/350-blm-s-secret-planning-documents-alternative-management-options
Documents Reveal BLM Secret Plan to Destroy Wild Horses
Documents obtained from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) via the Freedom of Information Act by a Phoenix-based non-profit, The Conquistador Program, reveal shocking and detailed plans to destroy healthy wild horses in government holding facilities as well as those still remaining in the wild on public lands.
BLM employees as well as a USDA veterinarian held weekly “Implementation Team” meetings beginning in July of 2008 in which they discussed and developed strategies aimed at ridding BLM of thousands of mustangs. In October they completed a 68 page document entitled “Alternative Management Options”. Tactics included in this document are reminiscent of those used to wipe out Native American tribes in the 1800s.
The BLM team created scenarios for killing mustangs using barbiturates, gun shots, or captive bolts. Bodies would be disposed of through rendering, burial or incineration. They discussed killing 1200-2000 wild horses per year. The document states that “the general public would be prohibited from viewing euthanasia.” Additionally, the Team felt that “increased support from public relations and management staff would also be needed to insulate those doing the actual work from the public, media and Congressional scrutiny/criticism.”
“Minutes from these meetings as well as the Draft Plan reveal what amounts to ‘the final solution’ for the American mustang,” states Ginger Kathrens, filmmaker and Volunteer Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation. “Despite a huge outcry from the American public last year regarding BLM plans to kill wild horses in holding, the agency is still pressing forward with a plan to destroy our American mustangs both on and off the range.”
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BLM SECRET DOCUMENTS
BLM Implementation Team minutes
Click to access blm_implementation_team_minutes_2008_markup.pdf
Team Members formulated ways in which they could circumvent the National Environmental Policy Act, asking “How many (wild horses) could be euthanized during a gather (roundup) without having NEPA?” BLM discussed ways to circumvent the federal carcass disposal law (43 CFR 4730.2). Conversations included how many wild horses could be rendered at the Reno Rendering plant or “disposed of in pits”. The Team concluded that “there will not be large numbers of horses euthanized during gathers or in the field. This is due to state environmental laws.”
Recommendations include the creation of gelding herds, and sterilization of mares to create non-reproductive herds in the wild in place of natural herds. The team recommended changing the sex ratio from the normal 50% males and 50% females to 70% males and 30% females. Then the experimental two-year infertility drug, PZP-22, would be given to all mares that are returned to the wild. Plans call for rounding up the wild horses every two years to re-administer the drug.
“Mares on the drug will cycle monthly and, with the altered sex ratio, the social chaos will be dangerous and on-going,” Kathrens explains. “Any semblance of normal wild horse society will be completely destroyed.”
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House Committee on Appropriations
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/committees/HSAP
Senate Committee on Appropriations
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/committees/SSAP
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Active Advocacy must be working.
In the last few days email accounts have been hacked.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article160966189.html. URGENT: DIAZ VOTED FOR HORSE SLAUGHTER NOT AGAINST. PLEASE CALL EVERYONE EVEN PEOPLE WHO WE KNOW HAVE HELPED IN THE PAST. THIS MUST BE STOPPED! MAKE CALLS! WERE IN IMMEDIATE SAVE THE HORSES UGENT MODE….PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS. EVERYONE MUST BE CALLING.
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http://www.sweetwaternow.com/blm-issues-draft-environmental-assessment-wild-horse-gather/ Please read fake news needs disputed publicly….lies about horses ROUTINELY DYING FROM LACK OF WATER IN WYOMING CAUSING ROUNDUPS
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The link includes this information, but it was proven illegal to roundup and remove wild horses from PUBLIC lands at the request of private landowners in the Checkerboard (where these HMAs are). Unfortunately, the 1200+ horses removed were not returned despite the determination this was illegal. Now the BLM seeks to remove even more from these same areas, with what seems to be a guaranteed one way trip to slaughter buyers? What is legal now that was illegal in 2014?
“In the three HMAs affected by the proposed gather, the current, overall population of 2,836 wild horses exceeds the cumulative AML of 1,560 animals by about 80 percent. The proposed gather would remove 513 of the 1,123 wild horses present in the Adobe Town HMA, 725 of the 976 in the Salt Wells Creek HMA and 322 of the 737 in the Great Divide Basin HMA. The proposed gather would also allow the BLM to comply with the 2013 Consent Decree of Rock Springs Grazing Association v. Salazar.”
See ruling here:
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/court-feds-broke-law-in-wild-horse-roundup/article_202a1008-ecf6-52a9-99aa-9bf66a01d751.html
Fatalities here:
https://americanwildhorsecampaign.org/media/wyoming-roundup-september-15-2014-october-9-2014
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