Help Stop Senator Conrad Burns' Plan to Slaughter Horses

[Tony_Illinois]

<snip>
WASHINGTON -- In a reversal of three decades of government policy that protected all wild horses, a provision approved by Congress last weekend would allow some of them to be sold to slaughterhouses.

The provision, attached to an omnibus spending bill by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee with responsibility for the Interior Department, requires the sale of wild horses that have been rounded up and are more than 10 years old or have been unsuccessfully offered for adoption three times. The bill is awaiting final action.
<snip>

More information at:

<http://www.fund4horses.org/info.php?id=364>

or

<http://www.equineadvocates.com/>

[xultar]

1. I know there are groups who are trying to capture and adopt out the

Mustangs. Is there a drought that is affecting their ablity to eat in those plains?

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. WHY??? does he want to kill them?

Are they hurting him? Bastard.

[amazona]

4. they're an introduced non-native species

In some areas, where there are too many, they are in unfair competition with native species for food and habitat. We should give first preference to survival of what little is left of our native wildlife in the U.S. west, agreed? An old horse that has been given three failed shots at adoption is, can we agree, possibly not desired by anyone anywhere? I mean, I sure don't plan to put one in my backyard! Sometimes an apparent "kindness" to a feral animal cheats our native wildlife of their only habitat. It is similar to the feral cat issue. People who allow feral cats to roam may congratulate themselves for their kindness in their own heads, but they have the blood of many of our native birds on their hands.

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. Couldn't they be relocated?

Why is killing them the only way? The thought of killing a horse just breaks my heart. There has to be another alternative.

[C.C.D.]

8. Are you a Vegetarian? (m)

The thought of killing a cow or a chicken breaks my heart just as much...

From what I know, many have been relocated to holding centers and to Wyoming.

...Mosquito?

[in_cog_ni_to]

13. No, I'm not a vegetarian.

But I may be soon. :(

[jdj]

26. Soon indeed. Everyone, take a graphic trip through a slaughterhouse!

http://www.equineadvocates.com/hs/inside.html

just follow the series of picks.

Kind of reminds me of that graphic picture of that soldier.

[Tony_Illinois]

6. I Totally Disagree With You--Why Slaughter A Horse?

The language slipped into the bill (with absolutely NO public debate or discourse) by Senator Burns overrides an existing requirement that those buying horses for adoption keep them and provide care for them for a year before assuming full ownership, a hedge against horses being sold for slaughter. Now, the prospective law says, unwanted or old horses "shall be made available for sale without limitation." That enables slaughter, and sale to France and Belgium where horse meat is widely consumed.

The fate of wild horses and burros in the West has been an emotional flash point and source of litigation. Horse lovers have fought to preserve and expand the herds, whose bloodlines trace back, at least partly, to the animals brought by the Conquistadors in the 16th century.

[cattleman22]

14. I agree.

I do not understand at all why some people are against the use of horses for meat.

[jdj]

20. gee, cattleman 22, wonder how your username relates to

your p.o.v.?

[antigone382]

15. But they don't just want to kill these horses

They want to slaughter them. Have you ever been to a slaughterhouse? It's an absolutely brutal way to treat these animals.

Also, horses are more of a reintroduced species than an introduced one. They actually evolved in America, but were killed off by the first people that came here. Our ecosystem hasn't had time to change significantly enough for their re-introduction to have a truly devestating effect on it. The fact is, the diet of horses and the diet of deer and other wild grazing animals only overlap by about 10%, whereas the diet of cattle overlaps with those of horses, deer, and others.

I agree that efforts must be taken to control the spread of horses, since there are few natural predators to do so. However, slaughtering these creatures is not the answer. It opens the door to the kinds of abuses they suffered before protective legislation was passed in the 70's, when they were virtually exterminated, in the same way as buffalo, wolves, and prairie dogs.

On edit: I also thought I'd mention that 10 is hardly old for a horse. Most live to at least 20, and many live to 30 or longer.

[Tony_Illinois]

18. Amen. . . This Has to be Stopped Before it Starts

You know the Senator is hiding something when he sneaks a quick line in a bill in the dark of night--fuck the people as well as these animals, as we won't even allow this issue to be discussed.

[antigone382]

27. A mighty mustang kick

:kick:

[jdj]

22. Montgomery Pass herd is not regulated

no gov't intervention and horse pop #s stay pretty constant.

IMHO when it comes to animals the gov't fucks up just about everything it touches, especially repuke admins.

[antigone382]

28. Yeah, the winters are so severe where these horses are...

...that only the stoutest horses can survive them.

I've been to the Pryor mountains, which is home to one of the larger mustang populations. The land is not severely overtaxed where the horses are: when I went there was plenty of green grass, and gorgeous purple and yellow flowers. The problem is NOT the mustangs, it's the cattle.

Edited for spelling.

[jdj]

19. when all the white people leave america, then you can bitch

about "non-native introduced species"

By the way, horses have been here longer than we have.

[Tony_Illinois]

21. I like your thinking, JDJ

[Stephanjnj]

24. You're absolutely correct

Wild horses and burros occupy environmental niches better served with the presence of native species. Protected, they reproduce at exponential rates and consume copious amounts of native vegetation, further throwing ecosytems out of balance. It would be great to relocate them but that's costly and merely transports the problem elsewhere. Feral pigs and goats, zebra mussels, nutrias, mongooses -- I'm sure all of these are candidates for PETA protection campaigns, but for once the infamous Sen. Burns is correct and we should applaud him. Now excuse me while I go back to being a liberal.

[jdj]

25. bullshit. move your ass out of this country if you want to

benefit our environment.

this is a land grab for republicans, and you well know it.

[C.C.D.]

31. No. Its about ranchers and range cattle. Period. (m)

10 is not an "old horse"

Ironically, the wild horses counteract the damage range cattle do to the local environment, ie stream bed erosion, but not too many care about the pesky ol' environment...

[skygazer]

33. Introduced about 400 years ago

How long is it before a species is considered "native"?

Shit, on that theory, we ought to kill all the humans of European descent who live here. We're not native either.

[McKenzie]

3. is killing them absolutely necessary?

I am generally pro-hunting but I find the idea of slaughtering highly intelligent creatures such as horses pretty sickening. Like dogs, and cats, horses have a close affinity with humans and are somehow "special". (I know that's not a particularly good word to use) Is there some pressing agricultural, or other, reason?

Please don't flame me for creating a hierarchical ranking of animals...Dennis Leary has already covered that in his hilarious restaurant sketch...

[RebelOne]

10. Believe me, deer are not stupid.

And rabbits, which are hunted, are just as intelligent as dogs. I know, because I have had them as pets. In my opinion, slaughtering any animal is sickening. And yes, I am a vegetarian.

[Tony_Illinois]

23. Of Course Not . . .

This is a convenient way for Senator Burns to appease the cattlemen who have the $$$ that these poor horses--without lobbyists who dole out the dough--do not have. These are wild animals who have roamed the west for hundreds of years. And guess what--eventually they will die all by themselves.

[C.C.D.]

7. This has come up more than once in the past few years up here (MT) (m)

and for those who asked, there ARE adoption programs for the wild horses but they are not huge. They have fairly strict guidelines as to the adoptive home that may bar many potential homes. Also, I mean, you do have to have land to adopt them and many of the people who would care don't have that land. Farmers and ranchers who do have that land are more likely to support killing of the horses as they could interfere with their profits.

MT likes to kill off "problem" animals, then reintroduce them later...didn't y'all hear about the wolves???

[LaBanty]

9. Burns said, "Why not?"

The fact is, cattle on the ranges - the kind cattle ranchers pay something like $1.47 per animal per month for "grazing rights" - outnumber horses on these delicate ranges 150 to 1.

If you're concerned about erosion, pollution, water shortages, or forage on the range - call the cattle ranchers. 1 horse to 150 cattle? Which does more damage? The math is easy.

There have been several programs tested, successfully, to reduce wild horse herd numbers by birth control methods. However, its implementation is not widespread enough to have the type of impact we are looking for in the future.

Regardless, it's the slaughter process itself people have a problem with. Now these horses have no protection from it, and it's only a short time before thousands are going to leave the range crammed in cattle trucks where they can be shot in the skull with a captive bolt gun, hung from the hind leg, and have their throats slit so they can be bled out to feed both foreign business and high-dollar appetites (France, Italy, Belgium), since we don't eat horses here any more than we eat dogs or cats.

Yeah, thank Burns for this one. More than that, I'm going to thank the Republicans for this one. This has been a recurring theme with plenty of Republicans: kill it, and make money off it. (Shhh - but don't tell anyone what you're doing until it's too late.)

Video regarding Burns and this bill is posted online at CBS News.

[newyawker99]

11. Hi LaBanty!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[LaBanty]

12. Thanks!

It's a pretty cool place you have around here (DU).

[antigone382]

16. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

Have you read Mustang? It's by a woman named Sharon Curtin. It isn't very long, but it goes into a lot of detail about the way feral horses live, and their history in America.

Plus it's full of beautiful photos taken by a couple named John Eastcott and Yva Mamatiuk (sp?)--I actually got to meet them when they were taking some photos of the Pryor mustangs.

It's a short book, but I highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about America's mustangs.

[Lizzie Borden]

17. This has almost nothing to do with horses and everthing to do with cattle.

The ranchers want to have more room for their cattle, and to do that they have to take it from the horses because there is a finite amount of land available. I'll get all the cattle people pissed at me but I'm going to say that they are being very greedy and are only interested in higher profits. When something doesn't make sense look for the money. They think this is the time to push because they can probably get what they want with bush still in the white house and a gain in Congressional seats. If you want to stop it, tell your Congressional representatives. It's all about profit.

[cattleman22]

30. I disagree

My family raises cattle in VA. If more federal land is used for grazing cattle then the profits of cattle farming will decrease for most cattle farmers. However, I still support the option of slaughtering old unadoptable horses for meat.

[Tsiyu]

29. Those mustangs mean more than you know

I have seen them in the wild, up close and personal. They represent the freedom and grace this nation USED to hold.

To see them for yourselves, I suggest a book by John Eastcott and Yva Momatiuk titled simply "Mustang."

I had the good fortune to meet Mr. Eastcott and Ms Momatiuk while they were doing some of the work for the book in Montana, at the mustangs' summer range - the Alpine meadows in the Pryor mountains.

The photos in this book are stunning. Shortly after I purchased the book for my daughter, a sister was falsely committed to a Georgia Mental health dungeon. It was hell to get her out. When i visited with her, I would speak of beautiful places to cheer her up, and brought her the book to peruse while she waited to be released.

Two days later, she told me that even the most psychotic woman on the floor would sit silent and in awe while studying the horses' portraits. Their freedom and beauty touched those folks and calmed them in ways nothing else could.

My sister's words were the inspiration for my greatest dream- to have a horse camp for folks with PTSD and other emotional and mental troubles. The work I have done with children and horses has shown me that they are animals with the ability to heal people.

I could give you so many examples. How I wish my rich uncle would get out of the poorhouse because I would adopt as many of those magnificent creatures as I could. This whole thing just saddens me beyond belief. This nation has become a cesspool of greed and bloodshed. I am so ashamed to be an American.

[MaryH]

32. This provision was slipped into the Budget -

Congress didn't even know it was there - because none of them read the budget they voted on.

The argument is that Montana has too many wild horses and it costs too much to take care of them.

Maybe or maybe not. But a decision like that should be decided by the people of Montana - and not by some sleazy politician who wanted it his way and didn't want any opposition.