Bush's Horse Killers (you know it's stuffing someone's pocket)

http://www.counterpunch.com/brasch03122005.html

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Once protected by federal law, the nation's 3,000 wild burros and 33,000 wild horses, as well as 24,000 horses in short- and long-term sanctuaries, now face Congressionally-approved slaughter.

Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) inserted a rider into the 3,000 page omnibus spending bill of 2005, approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush, that requires the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sell all wild horses and burros which have not been adopted in three attempts or which are 10 years or older. Wild burros have life spans of 25­30 years; domesticated burros can live 45 years; wild horses have life spans of 20­25 years. The animals, according to the legislation, "shall" be sold, and can be butchered. There were no hearings or debate.

The public may not know what forces helped convince Burns to silently insert the rider into the Appropriations Act, but one thing is certain-the beef industry has its brand all over it.

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Prior to the new federal law, the BLM sold "excessive" horses and burros for $125, and then gave full ownership only after a year, during which time the owner had to provide adequate space, shelter, and care. However, the BLM has a long history of neglectful oversight after the animals are sold, and even has a history of willful violation of the law. In 1997, animal rights activists revealed that BLM employees personally profited by selling mustangs and burros for $400­$500 each, and then falsified records. However, under political pressures, the investigation, which had resulted in indictments by a federal grand jury, dissolved.

Even if no horses and burros were slaughtered, and current levels maintained, that still would be too much for the ranchers. The 33,000 horses and burros, apparently, are taking up too much space and are infringing upon forage land of the 4.1 million head of cattle. A statement by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association released about the time of the Congressional appropriations measure declared, "excessive numbers of feral horses and burros continue to cause increasing deterioration of range conditions." Why the cattlemen want more land is a matter of economics as reflected by the AUM. An AUM (animal unit month) is the amount of forage "required to feed an average-size cow and calf per month, or one horse, or five sheep," according to the BLM; currently, an AUM is about 800 pounds of air-dried foliage. The BLM, in its 2005 budget justification report, apparently bowing to rancher concerns, states that removing the horses and burros will "eliminate the need to reduce permitted livestock grazing during a drought."
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if its in the way of profits, kill it and make a profit off the killing.

america is a crime scene

only eat if i put on a good drunk---stupid cow hooves are not good for the land

they like horse meat,why i`ll never know

land and they are objecting to 25,000 or so mustangs and burros.

It's too upsetting. The cattle are bad for the environment too, edging out other species. The few remaining horses, meanwhile, apparently sometimes get in the way of certain extraction industries, coal, gas and oil, that are busily preparing to exploit the range - which, theoretically, belongs to US (or in some cases, to the Native Americans). There used to be about 2 million mustangs, I think, which have been systematically slaughtered since the late 19th century, to make room for the cattlemen.

AAARRGGHHHHHHHHHH.

Thanks for the post.

They want to slaughter the few wild buffalo we have in this country because they claim that they spread disease- even though there has never been a case of a major disease being spread from buffalo to domestic cattle. Still, they kill buffalo or have the Montanan government kill them whenever they wander out of Yellowstone.

They slaughter prairie dogs because of made up shit about the holes of the prairie dogs causing domestic cattle to break their legs. They are lobbying to take away what protections the prairie dogs have.

Now this with the wild horses and burros. Ranchers won't be happy till they kill off every thing wild. Their is nothing tough or romantic about these scumbags.

to maintain the balance.

AAARRGHHHHHHHHH.

The ranchers should have to pay more to graze their cattle on OUR public lands.

When I was in Nevada last fall, I found out that some ranchers even make money on the elk. They are granted "depredation" permits if they claim the elk on their "rented" range eat too much of the grass the cattle could use.

These ranchers sell the permits to the highest bidder, making $8,000 to $10,000 per permit. This also means that the elk that gets shot is likely to be the best trophy bull in the area, therefore depleting the gene pool and lowering the quality of the elk herd.

I was horrified this is allowed.

Those elk belong to all of us. No rancher should be allowed to enrich his own pockets this way.


As for the horses . . . I'm too sad about that to even comment. :cry:

people out west are really ticked about this - who knows, it might help.

There's some legislation in Congress, hopefully outlawing the sale of horses for meat here in the US, but that won't help much even if it passes - make it less profitable, I suppose.

DAMN.

wild horses live 2025 years??? that's amazing!!! :)


looks like the horses will be turned into leather jackets and shoes any day now. (well they already are, but leather prices should go drop)

It is not just the wild horses under attack by Bush and Company.

While many horsemen and horsewomen want horses to have "livestock" status (rather than companion animal or sport animal status), if we allow ANY horses to have the status of "meat" animals, we as horse owners will soon have to contend with a horrible array of regulation, monitoring, and liability.

In the interest of "biosecurity" of the food supply, we will have our "livestock" horses' every move tracked by RFID chip and reported to and recorded by the government. Proposed regulations require that those records be kept for 20 years. By the government and by YOU. There will eventually be heavy penalties for your failure to comply. Even a family keeping one little backyard pony for their kids will have to register with the government as a "livestock premises".

We will lose access to many if not most of our equine care products such as dewormers, fly sprays, vitamins, vaccines, medications, horse shampoos, horse hair conditioners, hoof dressings, and more. It is only a matter of time until some joker in Japan or Belgium or wherever gets sick from (supposedly) eating American horse meat which is "contaminated" with one of the above products, then look out they will be GONE. If you don't believe me, look at how few products are currently "approved" for use on beef animals.

Maybe horses shouldn't be "pet" animals (such as dogs, which require a dog license in most areas), but we need to avoid the "meat animal" label at all costs. Perhaps horses can be classified as "recreation animals" or some sort of hybrid status. Horses should NOT have "meat" status, because I don't want to have to deal will the same regulations meat producers have now!

I am not a bleeding heart animal rights activist. I have actually eaten horse meat. I am a life long farmer. I used to raise beef cattle and my family got out of it. The regulations are horrible on anybody who raises "meat" animals these days.

These wild horses going for slaughter are just the tip of the iceberg. ANY horses classified as a meat animal will open your stable door to the government -- and big-time regulation and monitoring.

I can see the writing on the wall here, and I hope other horse people will too.

three years ago and it's pretty awful.

A lot of the old medication isn't allowed anymore under all cirmcumstances. Most of what's left is still forbidden unless you declare NOW that this horse will never be slaughtered when it's time (meaning you will have a veterinanian put it down). This decision, once made, cannot be altered anymore under any circumstances.

You have to get new horse papers (generally not a bad idea - proof of ownership, horse's identification and proof of vaccination and other medication all in one - the French horse books used to be pretty much like it, worked fine. But now that and more is OBLIGATORY for every horse in EU. The papers cost money, of course.) You have to carry your horse papers with you whenever you move the horse (even go for a one hour ride).

It's really disgusting and a lot of hassle. It's well worth it for you to start fighting this NOW as long as there's still time to rallye the horse owners!

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Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

I don't eat much of it, but I have to admit to the occasional hamburger or steak. That's about to stop for good. It's time we end big cattle in this country. It should be a specialty product at most. They've become far too destructive to continue to exist.

So where in general does the environmental movement stand on cattle? I've been too active in raw politics and have fallen out of the environmental loop. I wanna help!

https://secure2.convio.net/aspca/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=1305&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr001=ntijq8x8h1.app26b

Seriously--a few clicks and you're done.


Cher

edit: thanks NJcher for that link...I have been looking for one. I have already written my congress people about it, but I'm glad someone is doing a campaign like this.

We were protesting this last month. There's already been a new bill introduced to rescind the horse slaughter attachment to the original spending bill, by I believe, someone from WV.
Unfortunately, our good friend Harry Reid, Senate Dem Leader, CO-SPONSORED this original horse slaughter bill with Burns. It really made me lose respect for him.