Washington – The House voted Thursday to prevent the government from selling off for slaughter any wild horses and burros that roam public lands in the West.
The 277-137 vote would restore a 1971 law preventing the Bureau of Land Management from selling the animals for commercial processing. The protection was removed in 2004 when former Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., inserted a measure in a spending bill allowing their sale.
“These animals were earmarked for death,” said the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.
Supporters described the wild animals as American icons and said they are ending up on the plates of diners in France and Japan. The House voted last year and in 2005 to end the sales; the Senate never took up the issue.
“This is the latest overwhelming vote to stop the barbaric practice of horse slaughter, and it’s now time for the entire Congress to finish the job,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States.
In the Colorado delegation, Republican Reps. Tom Tancredo of Littleton, Marilyn Musgrave of Fort Morgan and Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs voted against the bill. Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette of Denver, Mark Udall of Eldorado Springs and Ed Perlmutter of Golden voted for the bill.
Rep. John Salazar of Manassa was the sole Democrat in the delegation to vote against the bill – one of 24 in the House who voted against the measure.
Salazar, a rancher, said that “while there is no easy answer,” the elimination of slaughter as “a management option poses a risk to horse welfare.”
“It would cost $1,900 per year to house each unwanted and abandoned horse, not including veterinary or farrier services,” Salazar said, adding that the total cost to taxpayers in the first year would be $127 million.
About 29,000 wild horses and burros were on public lands as of February, and the number should grow by a couple thousand with births of foals this year, said Lili Thomas, a national wild horse and burro specialist at the Bureau of Land Management.
Thomas said the agency wants the number at about 27,000 to 28,000. On average, the agency removes 10,000 wild horses and burros a year.
Denver Post staff writer Anne C. Mulkern contributed to this report.
