The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee has stripped language from the Department of Interior's 2018 budged that prohibits the slaughter of America's federally protected wild horses and burros.

Free roaming wild horses

The House Appropriations Committee has passed a bill that will send wild horses to slaughter against the will of the American people.
© 2017 by Kersti Nebelsiek

The amendment, put forth by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) and passed on a voice vote, allows for the destruction of healthy wild horses and burros that Interior Department bureaucrats deem to be surplus.

The removal of the protections would result in wild herds across the West being slaughtered on a mass scale. Captured wild horses and burros in government holding facilities would also be subject to being killed en masse.

Suzanne Roy, executive director of The American Wild Horse Campaign, the nation’s leading wild horse advocacy organization, issued a strong statement condemning the Committee’s vote.

"Let’s be clear: House Appropriations Committee members just signed a death warrant for America's mustangs and it will lead to the wholesale destruction of these irreplaceable national treasures,'' Ms. Roy said. "The Stewart amendment is a mass slaughter amendment, and its proponents are trying to hide that fact from the American public."

"We will hold these Members of Congress to account for this public deception and unacceptable assault on our wild mustangs,'' Ms. Roy said.

Recent public opinion polls and previous polls consistently show that 80% of Americans support protecting wild horses and burros from slaughter, and the vast majority support the use of humane birth control rather than slaughter to manage our nation’s wild horse herds.

The bill now moves onto the full House for a vote. The Senate is expected to take up the issue after the August recess.

The American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) (formerly known as the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign) is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage. Its grassroots mission is endorsed by a coalition of more than 60 horse advocacy, humane and public interest organizations.