Alert! Call your Legislators ASAP
Last chance to save our Wild Ones and keep horse inspections out of the budget.
Here’s information our board member Daniel prepared (with a few additions):
Action alert! Markup session to bring horse slaughter back and legalize wild horse slaughter next Wednesday 12th
We must relentlessly call Congress until they ask for mercy and remove the two offending sections legalizing wild horse killings and enabling horse slaughter. Focus on all the members of the House and Senate appropriations committees but also contact your own Congressman and two Senators. We are sure they are on a fast track to push this through so we need your calls to let them know that Americans do not want the trump administration to bring back an industry that has been gone for 10 years and is NOT wanted nor do we want our Wild Ones killed.
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:
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:
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. Let’s make sure America’s horses are safe.
Source: Equine Welfare Alliance