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WHE Take ACTION 

WHE (Wild Horse Education) invites you to participate in action items to save the wild horses and burros.  We will post actions on our website and Facebook page. When we ask you to do a written response to an individual or agency, we will give you the points to make and ask you to write your own response. Or we may ask you to “sign on” to an Action. Or we may request that you FAX or call your Representatives and will provide you the needed information. Each action will depend on the specific circumstances surrounding each issue.

WHE thought this would be a user-friendly way for you to get involved each week in saving our wild horses and burros. We hope you like the idea and will join in us and ACT to help our wild horses and burros! To make sure you get the weekly notice, go to our Facebook page   https://www.facebook.com/WildHorseEducation   Or go to our website http://wildhorseeducation.org/   and sign up to “follow”, if you have not already done so).

FOUR Separate Actions are listed.

1) Action item to begin the process of Repealing the “Burns Amendment”

2) Action on the SAFE Act to prevent US horses from going to slaughter

3) Action item to gain a humane handling policy for the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program. (updated)

4) Drought Action Item

Please take ALL actions.

1) Let’s Get the Burn’s Amendment Repealed

In 1971 the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act was passed. The Act protected wild horses and burros from “capture, branding, harassment and death” to essentially put a stop to the practice of “mustanging” that was creating a “fast disappearing” population of wild horses in the American West. Mustanging was the practice of running down wild horses in the desert, hog tying them to await the “kill” truck and then grinding them up for fertilizer, chicken feed and dog food.

The resentment over the federal government taking jurisdiction over wild horses was immense. Immediately those that had profited from the destruction of wild horses began to undercut the law.

The most despicable action was an amendment to an omnibus spending bill, the night before the deadline, introduced by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. The amendment allowed the BLM for the first time in the agency’s history to sell wild horses to anyone, including horse traders looking to make a quick buck by selling the previously protected animals to slaughterhouses

Conrad Burns inserted his one-page rider into a 3,300-page omnibus spending bill right at the congressional deadline, and there would be no opportunity for either public or legislative debate. Even with protests from Congressman themselves, President Bush signed the bill without removing the Rider. In May of 2005 the House created a bi-partisan bill to remove the Rider. But like any legislation it had to run through a committee and the Chairman of that committee was Conrad Burns.

Let’s “resurrect” that bi-partisan bill.

The original text:

109TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 297

To restore the prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Mr. RAHALL (for himself and Mr. WHITFIELD) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on _________________
A BILL

To restore the prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SALE OF WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES AND BURROS.

(a) IN GENERAL – Section 3(d)(5) of Public Law 92-195 (16 U.S.C. 1333(d)(5)) is amended –
(1) by striking the period and inserting the following: “Provided, That no wild free-roaming horse or burro or its remains may be sold or transferred for consideration for processing into commercial products.”; and
(2) by striking subsection (e).
(b) CRIMINAL PROVISIONS.—Section (8)(a)(4) of Public Law 92-195 (16 U.S.C. 1338(a)(4)) is amended by striking “except as provided in section 3(e),”

What the bill means:

Prohibit sales of BLM wild horses and burros for purposes of rendering into any commercial products (e.g., they can’t be sold for slaughter.)
Repeal the section in the Burns rider that exempts the older animals and “three strikes” animals from the protection of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. (Those protections would again be in force.)
Repeal language eliminating criminal penalties for using wild horses and burros for unlawful commercial purposes.

Wild Horse Education will send a letter to every member of the Senate and House running for election this midterm. We will ask if they are willing to introduce or sponsor a bill to repeal the Burn’s “debacle” once and for all.

If you would like to add your name to the letter, and be on the mailing list to gather appointments in each district, sign on below.

Let’s shut this down for good!

Diamond stallions went “sale authority”

2) TAKE ACTION against the Slaughter of US horses:

We must shut down transport for export to stop our US horses from being slaughtered abroad. Over 100,000 US horses meet this horrific end each year, with 140,000 in 2014 alone. The practice is “predatory” in nature and creates a literally hostage situation where “kill buyers” and their brokers engage in the an extortion of sorts by screaming “the truck is coming” and charging as much as ten times market rate for horses they label “slaughter bound.” American horses are not an agricultural product and are given a variety of drugs rendering them unsafe for human consumption. The practice of killing and eating horses is not acceptable to over 80% of US citizens.

We must stop this horror once and for all.

The Time is NOW!

Please take a moment to send a polite email to your federal legislators in Congress and urge them to cosponsor the SAFE Act (H.R. 1942), a bill to ban the slaughter of American horses for human consumption.

Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2015 – Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to prohibit the sale or transport of equines (horses and other members of the equidae family) or their parts (including flesh, meat, and viscera), or the importing or exporting of equines or their parts into or out of the United States, by any person who knows or should have known that such equines are to be slaughtered for human consumption as food.

Take Action (you can track the bill here: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr1942

Please remember this is an election year. All of the seats in the House and 48 in the Senate are up for reelection.

1. Call your Representative and talk to them about this bill.

“Hello, I am a constituent of (your Representative or Senator’s name). I am calling to ask that you co-sponsor the Safeguard American Food Exports Act, H.R. 1942. Horse slaughter is an unacceptable practice opposed by the vast majority of Americans. Horses are not raised for food in the U.S. and are given a variety of drugs, horse meat is unsafe for human consumption.”

2. Follow up your telephone call by sending an email.

Find your Representative in the House: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

ACTION ITEM

ONGOING 

3) Take action to gain a Humane Handling Policy for the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program (There IS a policy included this year, 2015, in roundup contracts. We are now working to extend the policy into holding facilities and fighting to enforce and refine the roundup policy)

So far Wild Horse Education has collected over 8,000 Pledges from individuals committed to working toward gaining a humane care policy for the BLM wild horse and burro program. The “Pledge” for Humane care has been added to our six point “Challenge to the BLM” for programmatic changes to the entire program.

The goal of the challenge is to create a sane management plan that keeps wild horses on the range. However we will see removals begin again this year in several areas that the BLM is monitoring for “drought.” We hope to have resources to again collect data to present that has the welfare of wild horses in mind as we did last year at the Snowstorm HMA (part of the Owyhee Complex) where we challenged a removal decision based on site specific data, and the operation was cancelled.

We now need to push for horses in holding and to enforce CAWP (Comprehensive Animal Welfare Policy).

Wild Horse Education has the most inclusive, consecutive, library of documentation from range through holding than exists anywhere in the world. Based on that documentation and our litigation that has gained court orders against BLM conduct at roundups.

We thank every one of you that has helped us get this far. More alerts will be coming!

1. Add your name to the Pledge here: http://wildhorseeducation.org/whe-pledge/

2. Add your name to the 6 point challenge to the BLM here: http://wildhorseeducation.org/2014/03/18/whe-challenges-blm/

 SPECIAL ACTION: Drought

Please click link to go to drought action item http://wildhorseeducation.org/2015/04/19/drought-take-action/