WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously agreed to accept an amendment, championed by U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), to the Fiscal Year 2007 Department of the Interior appropriations bill to stop the sale for slaughter of wild horses and burros roaming Federal lands. Last year, the amendment was adopted, after a floor debate, with 249 votes in support; this year, it faced no opposition on the floor and was unanimously accepted. Background information attached and Rahall’s floor remarks, submitted for the record, follow:
Mr. Chairman, last year the House voted 249 to 159 to adopt my amendment to end the sale and slaughter of wild horses and burros. I ask the House today to reaffirm the stand it took to protect these icons of America’s western heritage.
Earlier this year the Nevada State Quarter was issued by the U.S. Mint. Now, Nevada is known as the "Silver State." However, if you look on the back of the quarter, you will not see a picture of a silver mine. No, what the good people of Nevada chose as the representation of their state was a wild horse.
Nevadans are rightly proud of the heritage of their wild horses. It is unfortunately a heritage at risk because of a legislative rider inserted into an Appropriations bill in the dead of night in late 2004 that puts thousands of wild horses and burros in danger of ending up on dining tables overseas.
We need to stop the slaughter of wild horses and burros not only because it is morally wrong but also because the program itself is a failure. As a result of this failure, 41 wild horses have been slaughtered and thousands more face an uncertain fate. While the Bureau of Land Management may have good intentions to prevent sales for slaughter, the legislative rider that created this problem in the first place severely handicaps any such effort.
Make no mistake about it, more wild horses and burros will end up slaughtered. After all, if the purpose of the legislative rider was to only sell off these animals to good homes, why was the long-standing prohibition on slaughter removed from the law?
According to the BLM’s own statistics, the agency has approximately the same number of wild horse and burros in the sale program today as when the program started. For each one the agency has sold, another one has been added to take its place.
BLM has resorted to sending out letters to public land ranchers pleading with them to buy a horse. It has teamed up with a private entity to offer limited financial incentives to purchasers. These are not the actions of a sound program but the desperate attempts to implement and unwise and unsound policy.
Mr. Chairman, the wild horse and burro program is a failure both morally and administratively. We can and must do a better job of protecting these magnificent creatures. It is time to sheath the sword that hangs over these animals. I urge the adoption of my amendment.
![[New for the Democrats - Committee on Resources - U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, Ranking Democrat - 1329 Longworth HOB - Washington, DC 20015]](news_banner.gif)
