Avocates blast $21 million increase in wild horse budget

Two national horse protection organizations today blasted Congress’ decision to increase the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program budget by $21 million budget to accelerate the roundup and removal of federally-protected wild horses and burros from public lands. In doing so, appropriators ignored requests by Congressman Raul Grijalva, Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee and 11 of his House colleagues, to restrict funding to humane population management with scientifically-recommended fertility control instead of roundups. The funding is part of the final omnibus FY 2020 spending package unveiled by Congressional appropriators today and set to be voted on later this week. “The $21 million deal cut in the swamp today by the Humane Society, ASPCA, and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, is the greatest threat our iconic American wild horses have faced in half a century,” said Marty Irby, a lifelong horseman and executive director at Animal Wellness Action. “It’s a draconian experiment that will ensure mass roundups and incarcerations, surgical sterilizations amidst the hot desert sun, and has paved the road back to horse slaughter on the American taxpayer’s dime.” “Congress just unleashed a catastrophic assault on America’s cherished wild horses and burros, turning back the clock 50 years to a time when these iconic animals were almost extinct and Congress acted unanimously to protect them,” said Suzanne Roy, Executive Director of the American Wild Horse Campaign, the nation’s largest wild horse protection organization. “The BLM will now use tens of millions of tax dollars to round up 20,000 horses a year to achieve population levels that the National Academy of Sciences ‘not supported by scientific information’, and ‘not transparent to stakeholders.’”...MORE