A total of 41 mustangs, previously protected by the Wild Horse and Burro Act, have been slaughtered in a DeKalb IL processing plant. This was made possible by a rider attached to a spending bill passed last December that changed the 34 year policy of banning the slaughter of such animals. We have Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana (R) to thank for this awful, and unnecessary, change in the law.
Last week, six mustangs were purchased by an Oklahoma man who claimed to be using the horses for a church youth group. He bought them for $300 out in Colorado and then sold them for $2,000 to the Cavel Corp where they were slaughtered and processed for human consumption overseas.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-horses22apr22,1,2327410.story
In a separate incident, 35 more mustangs were slaughtered in Dekalb that were sold by the BLM to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/25/AR2005042501
Close to 1,000 wild horses have been sold since the Burns Amendment passed last December. In light of the slaughter of these 41 horses, the BLM has put a stop to the sale of about 950 more until they can better gauge what is happening to those horses already sold.
Several animal rights groups are fighting to save these beautiful animals. Simple greed is behind this change in the law. Ranchers have roughly 4.5 million head of cattle, 1.7 million head of sheep on the western range. Yet somehow they have managed to convince the BLM and Interior Departments that 39,000 head of wild horses is something the range cannot support. They want to reduce the wild herds by 9,000 head and they don't care how they do it...even if these innocent animals are sent to a grisly death in a meat processing plant. If you are as offended by this change in the law as I am, please visit these sites and find out what more you can do to put a stop to the insanity.
http://www.saplonline.org/
http://www.hsus.org/
http://www.ahdf.org/main.htm
http://www.habitatforhorses.org/index.html
There are lawmakers on the state and federal level trying to put a stop to all horse slaughter.
Bills pending are:
Federal: HR 503 and HR 297, S 576
State:
NY A. 3584
IL HB 1171
Please write your federal and state reps (where applicable) and ask them to co-sponsor and vote for these measures. I could give you lots more to think about, but if you are interested, the links are here to read more. Thanks for taking an interest!!!