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Managing America: Environment and Resources

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Week Ending April 27, 2006

H.R.249 To restore the prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros.

The bill would reverse an amendment to a 2005 bill that allowed for the commercial sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros. The 2005 law also provided, and this bill would prohibit, that animals over ten years old or that have been unsuccessfully offered for adoption three times must be sold with no limitations on number. This bill reports that since the 2005 bill 50 horses have been slaughtered and provides that a person who processed the remains of the equines would be excluded from criminal fines and jail.

Under a 1971 law “wild and free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment and death due to their ‘integral part of the natural system of the public lands. The 1971 bill includes the provision that ‘no wild free-roaming horse or burros (sic) or its remains may be sold or transferred for consideration for process into commercial products.’

The bill report, however, notes that the Bureau of Land Management, charged with carrying out the 1971 law did not do so successfully resulting in numerous media reported incidents sending hundreds of those animals to commercial slaughtering houses in 1990 alone. The BLM has options other than slaughter which include adoption, sterilization, relocation and placement with qualified individuals and organizations.

BLM rounds up horses and burros for adoption when necessary but it has followed the practice of rounding up more animals than it can get adopted and then finding out it can not afford to care for and feed the remaining animals. BLM has approximately 31,000 horses and burros in holding facilities and their care and feeding is reportedly half the BLM budget.

The 2005 bill stated overpopulation as justification for the BLM over-roundup but this bill notes that there are ‘significantly fewer of those animals than 25 years back. In 1980 there were 62,638 and by February 2007 there were 28,500. Nevertheless the BLM continues to round up more than can be adopted

Sponsor:  Rep Nick J. Rahall II (D-WV-3^rd)

Vote: Passed House 277 to 137 April 26, 2007 (RC 269). A motion to recommit the bill failed 182 to 234 April 26, 2007 (RC 268)

Cost to the taxpayers: “Based on information from BLM about the number of animals sold and the cost ­to care for them, CBO estimates that the resulting net changes in discretionary spending under H.R. 249 would not exceed $500,000 annually”

Earmark Certification:   “H.R. 249 does not contain any congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined in clause 9(d), 9(e) or (f) of rule XXI. ”

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