Cheney Votes Against Ban on Wild Horse Slaughter Amid Growing Wyoming Herds

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming is backing the Trump administration’s request to allow the slaughtering of wild horses for meat in order to control growing herds. Cheney voted against a measure last week that would have barred the Bureau of Land Management from killing healthy horses or selling them to be slaughtered.

Wyoming has the second-highest wild horse population in the country. The herds, which are about twice the size approved by theBLM, have been the subject of litigation between horse advocates andlivestockoperators along the Interstate 80 corridor.

Wyoming currently has 7,144 wild horses compared withthe BLM’s targetof 3,725.

Wyoming Stock Growers Association executive vice president Jim Magagna supported lifting the ban on slaughtering wild horses.

TheBLMhas long struggled to control both the size and location of the herds in Wyoming and across the West. Wild horses and burros are protected under a federal law passed in 1971, and the agency is tasked with maintaining appropriate populations of the animals. When overpopulation occurs, theBLMhas sought to implement various forms of birth control as well as rounding up herds and offering horses for adoption.

But these tactics have failed to appease horse advocates orlivestockoperators. Advocates insist that the population targets set by theBLMare unreasonably low while the agricultural industry argues that the herds are in fact overpopulated and wreaking havoc on the range.

Magagna said that while adoption was a good practice, the total numbers accommodated by the program has flagged in recent years.

Meanwhile, despite the recommendation of an advisory board last year, theBLMhas declined to euthanize healthy wild horses or sell them to be slaughtered because of public opposition. According toa poll sponsored by the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign), which opposes euthanizing the animals, 75 percent of Americans oppose Congress allowing theBLMto kill healthy wild horses. Eighty-six percent of Trump supporters opposed euthanizing the horses.

But in May, the Trump administration unveiled a proposed budget that wouldslash $10 million and 29 positions from the Interior Department’s wild horse programalong with cutting funding for birth control and requesting that theBLMbe allowed to sell wild horses to be killed for meat.

Change in policy

AWHC directorSuzanne Roysaid that while the idea has been considered in the past, this was the first year that an administration actually requested that the ban be lifted.

Roy and her organization advocate for birth control as a way to manage herd size and also argue that the population goals set by theBLMare outdated and unrealistic.

Roy said the administration’s request and the agreement of Republicans inCongressis the culmination of a campaign by thelivestockand agriculture industry to allow for the slaughter of wild horses.

But Dave Duquette, equine representative for the hardline animal agricultureadvocacygroup Protect the Harvest, said that Roy and others with similar views want to prevent theBLMfrom taking any action to manage wild horse herds.

Duquette said that all options, including euthanasia and selling wild horses for meat, need to be on the table. He said Protect the Harvest is “100 percent supportive” of Cheney’s stance.

(The organization is funded largely by Lucas Oil Products. CEO Forrest Lucas was floated as a potential pick to lead the Interior secretary and has described himself as an opponent of “radical” animal rights groups.)

Duquette said that wild horses damage land to the point that sheep and cattle are unable to adequately graze. Even removinglivestockfrompublic landswould not allow the range to support growing wild horse herds, he said.

According to theBLM, wild horse herds double in size every four to five years because they have no natural predators.

Roy believes that groups like Protect the Harvest want to reintroduce horse slaughter on a large scale for economic reasons. But she said there is a second factor: Horse advocates and those in thelivestockindustry tend to have different views of the animals.

Cheney’s vote

Cheney sits on the powerful House Rules Committee, which has significant control over what measures are voted on by the full House. Cheney voted with the Republican majority on the committee last week to bar consideration of an amendment with bipartisan sponsors that would have renewed the ban on allowing healthy wild horses to be slaughtered.

Rep. Jared Polis, a Democrat representing the Front Range in Colorado, said that this was the committee’s last chance to stop wild horses from being killed.

Another Democratic representative, Alcee Hastings of Florida, said that Republicans on the Rules Committee were refusing to allow the slaughter ban amendment to reach the full House for a vote because they knew it would pass with bipartisan support.

Cheney did not speak during the debate.

TheSenatemust still approve the measure grantingBLMthe ability to euthanize wild horses and sell them to be slaughtered for meat.

Originally posted by Casper Star Tribune