[Rain]

The following is an article of out Newsweek (Febuary 7, 2005):

Corraled in a federal holding pen at Palomino Valley, Nev., a buckskin mare with the number 9598 cold-branded in code on its neck suddenly faces anuncertain future. When the 12 yr old was rounded up in November as part of a federal program to humanely control the mustang population in the West, it looked as id it would be relocated to a grassy farm in Oklahoma or Kansas. But that all changed weeks later. Thanks to a controversial revision of the 1971 law protecting wild horses and burros, the mare could be sold, killed and butchered.

Icons of independence and living reminder of the old West, mustangs have always excited fierce passions. But the passion turned to anger after Republican Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana quietly inserted a rider in the federal budget that lifted the ban on selling wilf horses for slaughter. The revision forces the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sell "without limitations" every captured horse that is 10 or older or has proved unadoptable. The new rule applies to 8,400 horses in captivity, and many more in the future. "This consigns thousands of horses to death," says Howard Crystal, a lawyer for the Humane Society. Last week DEmocratic Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia introdued a bill to restore the old protections. "When Americans picture the West, I doubt they envision wild horses' being rounded up and sent to slaughterhouses to be processed into cuisine for foreign gourmets," says Rahall.

About 50,000 domestic horses are killed every year at three U.S. slaughter houses mostly to be shipped to France and other countries where horse meat is socially acceptable food. A bill that would ban the slaughter of any horse in the United States for human consumption will be introduced in Congress this week.

The mustangs' current troubles come thanks in part to another Western icon: cattle ranchers. THere are currently 37,000 mustangs sharing public rangelands with several million head of cattle. The result has been overgrazing, exacerbated by six years of drought. To restore the land, the BLM has but the number of cattle allowed, and ranchers say the horses and burros have to be pared substantially. "If we don't receive relief, and soon, we'll be out of business," Lemoille, Nev., rancher Kenneth Jones told a state legislative committee last summer. The BLM wants to cut the horses and burrows on the range by 9,000 to 28,000, but critics of the agency complain that horses are being blamed for damage caused by the more-numerous cattle. "It's not the 37,000 horses that are tearing up the land," says Chris Heyde, an analyst with the Society for Animal Protective Legislation.

Horse advocates complain that Senator Burns came up with the worst possible fix. "What's so senseless about this is that humane alternatives exist," says Rahall. He suggests controlling the populations by gelding stallions; other are pushing to expand a pilot program in Nevade that injects mares with a long-term contraceptive. Nearly everyone wants to improve the existing adoption program that has put thousands of horses in private hands.

Nobody can predict how many horses will wind up in slaughterhouses. Burns believes "most of these horses" won't, because sales (expected to bein later this year) will be simpler than adoptions. In the meantime, the BLM is talking to private horse sanctuaries in hopes they will take some of the animals. Neda DeMayo, who runs a nonprofit 220-horse sanctuary in Lompoc, Calif., promises she and other advocates will save as many as they can afford to, but "we can't save them all." Montana rancher Merle Edsall hopes the new rules will fnially enable him to build a tourist attraction in northern Mexicao featuring thousands of American mustnags. That may not sound like the most surefire solution, but as slaughter looms, a lot of ideas may start to look better.




If you are a horse lover, and are angered by this new bill, there is something you can do. Help save our wild mustangs from the slaughterhouse. Call one of the following numbers and REPEAL RIDER # 142.

Senator Obama (202) 224-2854
Senator Durbin (202) 244-2152
Representative Hyde (202) 225-4561
White House Comment Line (202) 456-1111

[GeM]

I honestly do not know how much good calling that number will do. There was a post about two days ago...and I hate to rain on your parade, but I don't think calling that number will stop mustangs from being killed.
Do you think the white house is going to care for wild horses?

Edit to say: Didn't they already pass the bill that allows the old, sick and weak mustangs to be slaughtered?

[Rain]

I don't mean to be rude, but with that kind of attitude, there will be no hope for the mustangs. Shame on you.

[Blistering Winds]

Key, AFFORD.

The reason the Ban was lifted was MANY unadoptable horses were just sitting in corrals, and funds are beginning to run VERY VERY low to feed these horses.


By STOPPING mustang slaughter, and forcing them into "private sanctuaries", you doom a horse that is possibly younger, re-habitable, or various other reasons that are now having to turn them to auction.

So either way, a horse dies.

Be it the mustang or a personal horse.

I'm loving the ability to purchase a mustang from Auction. Gives MORE people who want to adopt one of these guys, but don't have the desire to change things to accomidate the BLM to house these beautiful creatures.

Why is it the MUSTANG is so much more important that the Thoroughbred or Quarter horse?

There are private breeders of the Mustang. Once you ADOPT the mustang, break the mustang, they are no longer "WILD", so what makes them so different?

Really? (jsut went through this in class....lots of excellent comments on both sides.....)

I'm not trying to be mean, not trying to be nasty. I am just opening up conversations and your minds to the options currently at hand.

WHO will feed these horses?

What should be done with the "surplus" of Mustangs?

And then you delve into the "slaughter" issue again, about what to do with them.

LESS THAN 1% of all horses in the United States are slaughtered every year. Can you imagion that? LESS than 1%. Which last year alone, a little over 50,000 horses were at slaughter. That is LESS than 1% of the WHOLE population of horses in the United States!! WOW! Yet Abuse and NEglect cases are on the rise, funds are dwindling in both rescues, save havens, and land management places, as well as the SUPPLY of food has dwindled because of droughts, fire, TOo much rain, etc. Various reasons!

Anyways, Just some thoughts. Not EMOTIONS. Because Emotions don't feed your horse. Emotions don't pay the water bills or the land bills.

[GeM]

I'm not trying to be rude. I am trying to be realistic. I love mustangs and I would adopt one if I could...
In reality, no one at the white house, or even most senators for that matter could give a darn if mustangs were killed. I'd try, but I honestly think a bill has already been passed.

[Blistering Winds]

The mustangs that are now "up" have had 3 chances at adoptions, Over 10 yrs of age, or COmpletely "unadoptable" according to the adoption standards.

[ROO]

I think its worth a try! I mean come on it couldnt hurt and I think we all should. Unless your not against it that is.

[GeM]

Hail Blister. Thank You!

[CowGirlUp1833]

First Off, EXCELLENT Post BW....one for the record books...I'd LOVE to see that one Sticky

Second:

Rain, I can tell you that there have been a million posts like this...myself starting one included. Its not that we don't care...its just we've talked about this many a time and have taken our own private ways of action. I applaud you for caring. I suggest looking thru some of the old threads, and you will see there has been lots of discussion about this topic.

Originally Posted by Rain

I don't mean to be rude, but with that kind of attitude, there will be no hope for the mustangs. Shame on you.

[Blistering Winds]

Yes, the bill has been passed and signed. I'm waiting for a friend of mine, who happens to be a kill buyer, to call me. He promised me the first crop of mustangs to choose from if he acquires any. He is always willing to turn ANY of the horses he hauls over to someone willing to pay him just a bit more than his costs will be hauling them down this way and what he would get from BelTex.