COMMUNITY VIEWPOINT: Wild horses still being slaughtered, too many to adopt out

In 1971 it was written that the wild horses and burros of America are to be protected from harassment, abuse, torture and death.

This is not the case and hasn’t been. Now, NACO, Nevada Association of Counties, ranchers of Northern Nevada, have put it on themselves to determine what animal can roam free and have water.

The Commissioner of Tonopah, Lorinda Wichman, is pushing the BLM to round up horses from the Little Fish Lake Valley, claiming that there are far too many for the area. Also, the horses are destroying the water sources. There is a solution, not a .25 cent bullet, or rounding them up by helicopter, (which she claims she disliked) separating family bands. She also claims it is not to send horses to slaughter. But in a file sent in to U.S. District Court, Dec. 30, 2013, Page 48, Sec. C: “Immediately, upon the filing of the Order, cease the long term warehousing of animals removed from excess populations of animals on public lands in Nevada and to instead promptly and without delay, proceed to auction, sell and otherwise properly dispose of such animals in accordance with the Act’s provisions establishing the actions and their priorities.” If this is not sending horses to slaughter then what is?

Page 49, Sec. E (part of) recognizing that free roaming horses and burros have no water rights in Nevada, unlike indigenous wildlife whose presence predates the acquisition of water rights in Nevada law.

In Nevada law, where does it say that NACO can play “God” and decide which animal has the right to roam free and drink water in the State of Nevada? These ranchers claim that these horses are all feral. If 2 feral horses have a foal in the wild, this would make this horse wild. (CORRECT.) How many of these so-called feral horses were born wild? If you claim the population exceeds each year with new life, then they can’t be feral.

With the economy as it is, not good, we are not going to be able to adopt out these horses. We have already 50,000 plus animals in holding facilities and the BLM plans to gather more. In 2011, the estimated spending was 47.8 million. There is a three strikes you’re gone, if the horse is not adopted out by the third try, they won’t be sent to long-term holding. They would be sent to auction for basically kill buyers to buy out at a cheap price, then sent to slaughter (not by the BLM directly). These horses are very healthy!

Yes, there are no horse slaughter plants in the U.S. And according to the latest release, May 23, 2014, there won’t be any horse slaughter plants opening soon in the U.S., (Congress funding bill for 2014), but we send 170,000 healthy horses to slaughter each year across our borders. The hideous way of death is indescribable. These animals were not raised for food. Too many are still alive before they start cutting on them. The drugs are another issue, they are not safe for human consumption nor for animals, (dog food), traces of different drugs have been found in dog food and human food.

When and where does the killing stop? If the BLM has been using the PZP as planned, there wouldn’t be an (so-called) over-population. The solution is not killing them to extinction.

Help pass the Safe Act now! Safeguard American food exports and stop the slaughter of our horses, (HR 1094 and 5541.)

As of May 23, 2014, the funding for 2014-2015, there is not going to be any funding for horse slaughter in the U.S.