Editorial: Stop killing wild horses

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 | 9:17 a.m.

The slaughter of 41 wild horses last month is the result of an amendment quietly slipped into the 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Bill last November by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. The amendment authorized the Bureau of Land Management to sell any captured wild horse more than 10 years old, and also to sell any horse that had been passed up for adoption three times. The appropriations bill, along with Burns' amendment, was passed by Congress and signed by President Bush.

The amendment ended the federal protection that had been extended to wild horses since Congress in 1971 passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. That legislation protected all wild horses that were rounded up to preserve their habitat. They were to be kept in open-range sanctuaries or adopted out to caring families. This was in keeping with the national image of wild horses as a symbol of America, particularly the West.

Under the Burns amendment, however, horses can be sold cheaply and "without limitation" at livestock auctions. Without limitation means that the buyer can be a slaughterhouse. And once horses are sold at such auctions, they lose all federal protections, as they are "no longer considered to be a wild free-roaming horse or burro," according to the amendment. The 41 wild horses slaughtered last month could be the first of thousands of wild horses fated to be shot and their skins and meat readied for overseas markets. Supporters of the amendment include cattle ranchers, who see the horses as threats to their federal grazing lands.

We are outraged at the Burns amendment, especially since it was slipped into a massive appropriations bill without any national debate. There are other options for captured wild horses, including stepped-up sanctuary and adoption programs, and giving captured horses birth-control shots. We support legislation pending in Congress that would overturn the Burns' amendment. We also support Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., in his effort to get a bill passed that would ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption.