Senate Appropriations Committee to Vote Next Week on Wild Horses!

This is not a drill!

We need all the calls to Congress that we can get RIGHT NOW.

The U.S. Senate Interior Subcommittee is set to mark up the Interior Appropriations bill on TUESDAY, Oct. 17, with the full Appropriations Committee to vote two days later, on THURSDAY, Oct. 19. The bill includes the funding for the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse & Burro Program.

At this point, we do not believe that the bill will include language that will allow BLM to “euthanize” – kill – healthy unadopted wild horses and burros, but we cannot take any chances – not with the lives of tens of thousands of animals at stake.

We need to send a strong message to the Senate that threatening provisions must not be included, and that senators should stand with wild horses if any amendment is offered.

In July, the House Appropriations Committee voted to adopt an amendment to its version of the Interior Appropriations bill that removed protective language for wild horses. If a bill is signed into law without protective language, the door would be thrown open to the mass killing of wild horses and burros, beginning with 46,000 wild horses and burros in government corrals and pastures.

Call your senators today. And please spread the word. You can find a graphic with the Capitol Switchboard phone number and talking points, like the one above, pinned to the top of RTF’s Facebook page and Twitter feed – please share it.

Now is the time to step forward and make your voice heard. Be positive – but be relentless.

An Important Point

Please note: To Congress, "slaughter" and "euthanasia" are different subjects. Debates about horse slaughter center around slaughtering horses for meat. Provisions related to horse slaughter are part of the Agriculture Appropriations process and affect both wild and domestic horses. The debate over whether to allow the Bureau of Land Management to "euthanize" -- shoot -- wild horses and burros falls under the Interior Appropriations process. We use "kill" in our suggested talking points because when Congressional staffers take calls, we don't want them to miss the point that we oppose government mass killing of wild horses -- as well as anyone slaughtering horses.

Still Time to Comment: Advisory Board to Meet Oct. 18-19

The National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board will meet Oct. 18-19 in Grand Junction, Colorado — the board’s first meeting since recommending that the Bureau of Land Management euthanize captive wild horses and burros.

In September 2016, members of the Advisory Board attracted national headlines — and an outraged response from wild horse supporters — for voting to recommend that the BLM use euthanasia to reduce the number of so-called “unadoptable” wild horses and burros in long-term holding facilities. The independent board does not control BLM policy, but is tasked with providing advice to the agency.

Public comments may be submitted to the Advisory Board at whbadvisoryboard@blm.gov. Please include “Advisory Board Comment” in the subject line of the e-mail. For suggested talking points, see our Wild on the Range Campaign petition by clicking here.

Your support enables RTF to work diligently on policy reform and on the range. Please donate to our Wild Horse Defense Fund, which fuels our advocacy, selective litigation and humane witnesses during roundups.