Earlier this year the U.S. House of Representatives voted 277-137 to pass H.R. 249 to restore protections for wild horses and burros under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Basically, the bill saves wild horses and burros from slaughter.

This bill is now pending, or maybe stuck is a better word, in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.  Click here to find members of the Committee. Call or write (faxes are better than email) and urge them to pass this bill now.

It's up to the Senate to approve the measure before it can become law. Write or call your U.S. Senators and urge them to vote yes on this important legislation to save wild horses and burros! Click here to find your senators and how you can write or call them and urge them to support this Act.

The protections of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 were gutted in 2004 for many thousands of horses, leaving them at risk of sale and slaughter. That Act, 16 U.S.C. §1331, et seq., declares, "It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands."

In 2004 then Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) buried an amendment to this Act in a 3,300 page appropriations bill. That infamous amendment opened the door to the slaughter of thousands of horses. Basically under the Act there are certain horses and burros defined as excess animals. These are animals the [Bureau of Land Management] "BLM" has removed from an area "to preserve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship in that area" or for some other legal reason. See 16 USC §1332(f).

Under Burns Amendment, these "excess" horses "shall be sold...if the excess animal is more than 10 years of age; or ... has been offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least 3 times." 16 U.S.C. §1333. Any horse sold under this provision is no longer subject to the protections of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. 16 U.S.C.§1333. Since this amendment became effective, thousands of horses have been slaughtered for human consumption.

H.R. 249 reverses the Burns Amendment. Though recent federal court rulings have shut down horse slaughter for human consumption in the U.S., for now, American horses are still be shipped to other countries for slaughter for their horse meat consumed primarily in Europe and Japan.

This bill will at least protect wild horses and burros from this fate. As conceived and mandated under the 1971 Act, this bill, H.R. 249 provides "no wild free-roaming horse or burro or its remains may be sold or transferred for consideration for processing into commercial products."

The bill, H.R. 249, was introduced by Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-W.Va.). Click here for a copy of the bill.