Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Bill may not help wild horses after all

WASHINGTON -- Animal activists are concerned that a bill aimed at helping wild horses stay out of slaughterhouses will instead get them there quicker.

Nevada lawmakers introduced identical bills in the House and Senate Monday aiming to make it easier for people to adopt wild horses from the Bureau of Land Management. The lawmakers say the bills add more protection for horses bought through the new wild horse sale program.

The legislation would reduce the adoption fee from $125 to $25 per horse and would allow people to adopt as many horses as they want. The bill would also establish a one-year waiting period for buyers to receive title to the horses so there wouldn't be quick sales after the adoptions.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in the Senate and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., in the house, would allow the Bureau of Land Management to sell all its excess wild horses that are not suitable for adoption.

"This legislation will support our wild horse adoption program by reducing the obstacles many face in adopting a horse, while also providing additional safeguards to the new sale authority," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who signed on as a co-sponsor along with Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. "As we work to better manage our ranges, our goal always has and always will be to provide our wild horses with caring homes where they can live in a healthy and safe environment."

But Nancy Perry, vice president of government affairs for the Humane Society of the United States, said the bill "creates a very bad situation."

Perry said the year-long waiting period will provide a "buffer" for people to wait before they would sell a horse to a slaughterhouse. She said the other provisions will just flood the market with former wild horses.

"Any good that would have done by this bill will be counteracted," Perry said.

Lifting the annual limit of four horse titles, which was established after a court ruling, and lowering the price will let people adopt large numbers of horses inexpensively and then turn around and sell them to slaugterhouses for even bigger profits, Perry said.

Perry said there needs to be a ban on horse slaughter for food. The House has already passed such a ban.

Chris Heyde, policy analyst for the Society for Animal Protective Legislation, share's Perry's concerns about the bill. He called the legislation "irresponsible."

"This is a tremendously misguided measure," Heyde said. "I am shocked they would do something like this."

Heyde said the bill makes it easier for buyers to get large numbers of horses that could end up in slaughterhouses. He said the bill does not address the practice of buying wild horse for slaughter.

"Even through the adoption process, horses are being slaughtered," Heyde said.

Horses sold through a program created last year by an amendment authored by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., ended up in slaughterhouses earlier this year, forcing the BLM to temporarily suspend sales. The Burns amendment requires the BLM to sell wild horses and burros that are more than 10 years old or have been passed over for adoption three times.

Monday's bill would increase the types of horses BLM could sell. Porter spokesman T.J. Crawford said the provision would cover the 22,000 horses in long holding areas now being cared for at taxpayer expense. Unlike the Burns amendment, the extension does not mandate the excess horses automatically be sold but gives BLM the option. The provision still protects the horses because they can be sold to those wiling to care for them, Crawford said, and as an added bonus saves about $465 a year per horse, in tax money needed to pay for the care of a wild horse.

Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said rather than have the horse go through three adoption attempts before it can be sold, the law allows BLM to do it once a horse is rounded up as "excess."

"The motivation is to have them go to good homes where people can care for them," Hafen said.

The BLM believes the public land controlled by the federal government can hold 28,000 free roaming horses annually, said agency spokesman Tom Gorey. They round up horses above that number and place them in short-term holding ranges. Those under five years old are usually put up for adoption but older horses have trouble being adopted and can go to a long-term ranges.

Once it resumed sales last month under the Burns amendment, BLM established tougher consequences for those who buy the horses without the intention of caring for them. A new bill of sale forbids selling the horse to anyone that would process them into commercial products.

But Heyde said BLM those protections do not really exist because it is not in the law and the agency does not have the power to create those kind of rules.

Perry said the entire protection rests on proving the intents of a third party, which a judge is unlikely going to do.

Gorey said there is "no question there is a high standard of proof," on the bill of sale, because it needs to prove intent. However, he said is does have a deterrent effect and underscores to the buyer that BLM's goal is for the long-term care of the horses.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., was going to be an original co-sponsor of the bill, but he is now still reviewing it, spokesman Jack Finn said. He could introduce a separate bill this week banning horse slaughter.

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