Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Oh Yes They Can: Bureau of Land Management Can Legally Kill Healthy Mustangs

Wild horse foal on scale at slaughter auction. Her live weight is 170 pounds.

It's tempting to think the headlines are just Internet hoopla. 

Is the West's Wild Horse Crisis So Bad Only Euthanasia Can Fix It?

US govt will slaughter 45,000 wild horses, making room for cattle 

BLM Wild Horse Advisory Board Proposes Euthanasia of Mustangs

Isn't it lucky you're smart enough to just roll your eyes and feel a twinge of pity (or superiority) because animal nuts are allowing their bleeding hearts to be broken by yet another hoax?   

Not this time.  

Fact: The Bureau of Land Management's advisory board voted 7-1 to dispose of thousands of wild horses and burros which have been rounded up, then warehoused in pens around the U.S.

But they can't do that, can they? Don't they need Congressional approval?

Fact: They already have it.




I added the asterisk because of the creative writing used in defining "excess." Part (1) of Section 2 is a true Catch 22. If a wild horse is rounded up, she becomes "excess." 

Section 2 f  
"excess animals" means wild free-roaming horses or burros (1) which have been removed from an area by the Secretary pursuant to application law or, (2) which must be removed from an area in order to preserve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship in that area."
http://www.wildhorseandburro.blm.gov/92-195.htm 

Another section says wild horses can be sold "without limitation." That's a shortcut to slaughter.
The wild mare Ghost Dancer came to me that way, so I've read her BLM paperwork. It says I'm discouraged from reselling her for commercial (meat) purposes, but I am not forbidden to do so.

And neither is BLM. 

If you disagree with the advisory board which speaks for you, as a member of the public, email these BLM administrators:  Neil Kornze nkornze@blm.gov, 
 Dean Bolstad  dbolstad@blm.gov

photo by Kimerlee Curyl

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Posted by Terri Farley @ 1:20 PM

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Comments: Thanks for the newsletter! I missed Sam's blog, are you going to do it this month? And would you ever come to the UK for fans here?
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