Proposal banning sales of wild horses to slaughterhouses dies

Suzanne Struglinski

Friday, July 29, 2005 | 9:39 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Bureau of Land Management will continue to be able to sell wild horses and burros under a controversial federal program created last year which allowed some of the animals to be sent to slaughterhouses.

A proposed ban of the sales was approved by the House in May but did not make it into the final Interior Department spending bill passed Thursday. Nevada's representatives, Republicans Jon Porter and Jim Gibbons as well as Democrat Shelley Berkley, all voted for the final bill.

The Senate is expected to vote on the bill later today.

Congress passed a law in December that requires the agency to sell wild horses and burros that are more than 10 years old or have been passed over for adoption three times.

The House opted to reverse that program after horses sold through it wound up in slaughterhouses earlier this year to be sold as meat to foreign countries.

The BLM added new rules just before the House voted on the ban, saying it would hold potential buyers to stricter scrutiny when looking to purchase horses and have tougher consequences for those who sell wild horses for slaughter.

Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., created the horse sale program. He heads the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that writes the Interior spending bill. He strongly opposed the House provision, saying he would "fight it to the ground."

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., announced Wednesday that they have arranged for a pilot program between BLM and the National Wild Horse Association to help improve and expand wild horse adoptions.

Whatever program BLM and the association develop will be implemented in Nevada first, according to Reid's office.

Meanwhile, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she secured $540,000 to help restore the historic post office located in downtown Las Vegas.