Elected representatives in D.C. have pushed forward with full funding for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) wild horse plan which calls for massive roundups, and an agenda to kill off wild horses via dangerous and controversial surgical sterilization methods.
Right now, America’s wild horses are being chased down by helicopters for miles in summer’s scorching heat. Frantic mares have been cruelly separated from their terrified foals as they are roughly captured, then held for hours without food.
On July 10, the House Appropriations Committee passed the Fiscal Year 2021 budget of $122.6 million for the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program, even though the agency did not have a “well-defined action plan.” This is more than a 25% budget increase over FY20’s budget. The bill does include a prohibition on killing healthy horses, but there is no guarantee that the horses will not continue ending up at low-end slaughter auctions.
The House did take a stand to ensure that the BLM will no longer proceed spending zero percent of its budget on humane fertility control, while spending two-thirds on cruel roundups and removal of wild horses from taxpayer funded public lands only to warehouse tens of thousands of them for life at taxpayer expense.
Meanwhile the U.S. Senate must now review the BLM’s Fiscal Year 2021 Wild Horse and Burro Program budget. It is critical for the Senate to include provisions to ensure any additional funding requested is used for humane on-the-range management.
The Senate must be convinced to protect wild horses and ensure that extra money allocated to the BLM’s wild horse and burro budget is dedicated to humane on-the-range management.
Reach your Senators through www.senate.gov to speak up for America’s endangered wild horses and burros.