Victory! Wild Horses and Burros Get a Reprieve From Slaughter

Animal advocates are celebrating a major victory asCongresshas protected wild horses and burros from roundups and slaughter with the 2018 spending bill. This marks a significant win in the ongoing battle to safeguard these iconic animals onpublic lands.

Despite the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971, which protects wild horses from capture, branding, harassment, or death, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has continued to remove and warehouse thousands of wild horses at taxpayers' expense. The majority of Americans strongly oppose the agency's cruel and wasteful mismanagement of these American icons.

Advocates have persistently pushed for measures to protect them onpublic lands, but the agency has increasingly catered to special interests that want them gone.

Last year, the House Appropriations Committee passed the spending bill with the Stewart Amendment, which would have allowed the BLM to kill 92,000 healthy wild horses currently in holding, as well as those deemed excess on the range.

The backlash was swift. Hundreds of thousands of people called their representatives, wrote letters, and signed petitions in opposition. More than 163,000 people signed a Care2 petition alone, urgingCongressto protect wild horses and burros fromroundupsand slaughter.

Now, everyone who spoke out can celebrate a win with news thatCongresshas maintained prohibitions on destroying or slaughtering healthy wild horses and burros.

The latest budget passed by the House also prohibits government funding for horse slaughter inspections, effectively preventing horse slaughter operations from resuming on U.S. soil.

While this is a major victory, the bill expires in September, and the 2019 budget request is again calling for the bans on the killing and slaughter of mustangs and burros to be lifted. As the battle continues, wild horse advocates will work to oppose any measures allowing slaughter and support humane management on the range.

You can help right now by signing and sharing the petition urgingCongressto pass the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, which will permanently ban horse slaughter in the U.S. and ensure that horses are not shipped across the border for that purpose.

Originally posted by Care2