Sale of Wild Horses to Slaughter Legalized

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- Wild horses and burros could be bought or sold for slaughter under a provision in the $388 billion spending bill that President Bush signed into law on Wednesday.

The new law lets the animals be sold, potentially for use as meat in foreign markets, if they are more than 10 years old or, if younger, after they have been offered unsuccessfully for adoption three times. It also requires any money from sales to go to the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management adoption program for wild horses and burros.

Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., who sponsored the amendment to the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, said he believed most horses would wind up being adopted, not slaughtered, but his intent was to spur the BLM to get serious about its adoption program.
........
Advocates of wild horses described Burns' provision as inhumane, misguided and likely to reduce the genetic pool.
........
Thousands of the wild animals, mostly horses, have been sent to slaughterhouses, sold for a profit and processed as meat mainly for Europeans. But since 1997, that illegal trade has been reduced by making adopters sign an affidavit they don't plan to sell an adopted animal for slaughter

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-wild-horses,0,2081458.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[Karenca]

1. OH MY GOD!

Fuck---
that's horrible :(

[MuseRider]

2. Damn

I was hoping this would not happen. This is sickening, I am so sad. Anyone who knows these animals will mourn this loss and the treatment these animals will see before they are slaughtered. What is wrong with this country? It seems that slaughter is all we are good at anymore.

[Chico Man]

3. One of my most fond memories..

Running to the top of Mt Rogers with the Va Tech XC team... past wild horses roaming the mountain praries..

This is awful!

[KT2000]

7. A fond memory too

was traveling by train from Washington to Montana. At sun up I saw wild horses running through the fields - it was a beautiful sight.

What have we become if wild horses are only valued in dollars.
This is so sad.

[oldcoot]

4. How many horse lovers voted for Bush?

It might be a good idea to send a copy of this article to horse magazines. It might make interesting reading for all those horse lovers.

[Divernan]

5. Sen. Conrad Burns(R-Montana) & Repub. cattlemen are scum of the earth!

If you read the whole article, you see that the REAL reason is a false claim that wild horses and burros are responsible for what is euphemistically called "over grazing of PUBLIC lands. The real cause of over-grazing are the many thousands of cattle being run on PUBLIC (That means owned by us taxpayers, buckaroos!) lands as part of the corporate welfare allowing the rape of public lands by mining, ranching, lumbering and farming special interests.

Even MORE HORRIFYING is the fact the the Bureau of Land Management has set a goal of reducing the number of wild horses and burros currently under their oversight by FIFTY PERCENT in ONE YEAR! Right now they estimate 53,000 head of horses/burros; they '"hope to reduce this to 26,000 BY 2006.

These animals will be transported under brutal conditions and slaughtered most painfully!

In contrast to this treatment of horses in the RED states, in the BLUE state of New York, the riders at the only remaining stables in Manhattan (its horses are the ones you see ridden in Central Park) just had its annual benefit for funding the retirement of the saddle horses to a lovely farm in Maryland where they live out their last years in green fields.

[amazona]

9. Horses do over-graze

Cattle are responsible for over-grazing as well, but you start with the battles you can win.

Horses are not a native species, and they are not a natural part of the North American eco-system. They were introduced a few hundred years ago and like any introduced species they do put unnatural pressures on the system and must be managed. I have heard responsible Fish and Wildlife people complain about the over-grazing caused by wild horses, not just GOP senators. The claim about over-grazing by introduced animals is certainly not false. It is a very serious issue. When we go "oh woe" and react from sentiment rather than science, we put ourselves on the same plain as the GOP. We are supposed to be the ones who make decisions based on reason. It is sad, but no one of us is willing to adopt an over-the-hill horse to save the grasslands. I certainly wouldn't be.

[Ediacara]

12. Actually horses are native to North America

They were slaughtered by paleo-Indians about 10,000 years ago, but were native to North America. What you're claiming is akin to claiming that moas are not native to New Zealand.

[Skip Intro]

6. We see beautiful creatures, they see $$$

but if you can wait a few minutes, they'll be happy to give you a lecture on "the sanctity of life."

[graywarrior]

8. Remeber Ghandi's statement:

"The moral progress of a nation, can be judged by the way it treats it's animals."

[VegasWolf]

10. "Wild horses survived 300 years, but can't survive a Bush administration"

headline seen here.

[RealLiberal4U]

11. This Sucks

There must be other options.

[Ediacara]

13. This is Burns' death-knell

Montana may be a red state (trending blue btw), but this is obscene. Burns' championing of this rider is not likely to be forgotten, and that, coupled with the fact he's a senile old racist, will help Mike McGrath kick his ass in 06.