Lawmakers hope to save wild horses

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The recent slaughter of wild horses sold by the federal government should give momentum to new legislation that would halt the killing of animals that many consider to be an icon of the American West, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said.

Nevada has the most wild horses of any state, roughly 19,000, according to the Bureau of Land Management. That's more than half of roughly 37,000 total in the West, according to the BLM's February 2004 estimate.

Ensign next month plans to introduce a bill that would ban slaughter of horses for human consumption, Ensign said. A similar bill has been introduced in the House.

"The love affair that I have with horses is the same as a lot of Americans have had since the beginning of this country," said Ensign, a veterinarian who as a boy rode horses in the Lake Tahoe meadow where the opening credits of the longtime television show "Bonanza" were filmed.

The Humane Society of the United States has been flooded with calls, pleading with the group to save the wild horses, said Nancy Perry, vice president of governmental affairs.

"This has been an un-American experience these last few weeks, few months," Perry said today. "Our deep concern has turned to outrage and frustration."

Another House bill would essentially repeal legislation passed in November. That legislation, championed by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., directed the Bureau of Land Management to sell horses that are at least 10 years old or horses that were not being adopted. That left open the possibility that horses could end up in one of three U.S. slaughter houses where animals are killed for meat that is shipped overseas.

Bureau of Land Management officials this week announced that 35 horses sold by the BLM under the new law had been slaughtered at the Cavel International Inc. plant in Illinois. Another six were slaughtered at the same plant earlier this month.

"This is what people were fearing would happen," Ensign said.

The Interior Department this week halted the delivery of horses to buyers, pending a review of federal rules that requires the department to treat the animals humanely.

Now lawmakers are seeking to fast-track legislation to stop horse slaughter.

"When Americans picture the West, I hardly think they envision wild horses being rounded up and sent to commercial slaughterhouses to be processed into cuisine for foreign countries," Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.V., a sponsor of a bill that would remove the Burns provision enacted last year from federal law, said today at a Capitol Hill press conference.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., is a co-sponsor of the bill, as well as the legislation that would ban the slaughtering of horses for human consumption. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., was unavailable for comment. He is not a co-sponsor on the bills.

Neither is Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who supported the Burns legislation. Gibbons intends to consider support for the bill that would ban sales for slaughter for human consumption, spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer said. Gibbons also favors more funding for the BLM's horse adoption program, she said.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has not yet reviewed the Ensign legislation, spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. Reid was "frustrated and disappointed" to learn that horses had been slaughtered this month, she said.

Burns' provision was a response to ranchers who have said federal lands are over-populated with horses and that the animals were trampling their lands. Animal rights advocates say there is plenty of room on U.S. rangelands for both wild horses and cattle -- and that wild horse populations are dropping.

The BLM has estimated that roughly 37,000 wild horses roam public lands, although animal activists say the population has fallen to more like 30,000 or even 25,0000. There were roughly 60,000 in 1974 when the BLM's first census took place, according to the American Horse Defense Fund.