Press Release
- For Immediate Release:
- Contact
- Grace Kuhn • 804-218-4252
- grace@americanwildhorsecampaign.org
- Contact
- Marty Irby
- marty@animalwellnessaction.org
Wild Horse Amendment Clears Rules Committee: Headed to House Floor
Groups Applaud Bipartisan Team of Lawmakers for Leadership to Protect America’s Wild Horses & Burros
Washington, D.C. – The American Wild Horse Campaign, Animal Wellness Action, and the Animal Wellness Foundation applauded the House Rules Committee for advancing a bipartisan amendment, championed by U.S. Representatives Steve Cohen (D-TN), Dina Titus (D-NV), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Joe Neguse (D-CO), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), David Schweikert (R-AZ), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), David Price (D-NC), Peter King (R-NY), Deb Haaland (D-NM), Ben McAdams (D-UT), and John Katko (R-NY), that directs the Bureau of Land Management to implement a substantial humane fertility control program to manage wild horses and burros on Western public lands.
The amendment, “Requires the Bureau of Land Management to utilize $11,000,000 of its Wild Horse and Burro Program budget to implement PZP humane, reversible fertility control to manage wild horse populations.”
“We’re deeply grateful to U.S. Reps. Cohen, Grijalva, Titus, and the other representatives for supporting this amendment and forcing BLM to finally use humane fertility control and standing up for wild horses that 80 percent of Americans want protected,” said Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Campaign. “The bipartisan co-sponsors of the wild horse amendment are providing badly needed leadership to force the Bureau of Land Management to move away from cruel and costly helicopter roundups toward humane management of these national icons in the wild. We urge every member of the House to support this important amendment.”
“We applaud Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern for advancing this crucial measure to protect our iconic American wild horses and burros, and Reps. Cohen, Titus, Grijalva, and other cosponsors for their tremendous leadership,” said Marty Irby, a lifelong horseman and executive director at Animal Wellness Action. “We call on the full House to pass this common-sense amendment that strategically addresses the BLM’s swampy bureaucratic refusal to use PZP birth control, and instead implements a long-term solution to protect our wild horses; saving billions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars in the long run.”
In her statement, Congresswoman Titus recounted the recent horrific death of a young wild mustang who crashed into a panel, broke her neck, and was dragged away in chains at a BLM helicopter roundup in Utah.
The amendment will be considered when H.R. 7608 moves to the full House for a vote, which is expected to occur this week.
Animal Wellness Action (Action) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) organization with a mission of helping animals by promoting legal standards forbidding cruelty. We champion causes that alleviate the suffering of companion animals, farm animals, and wildlife. We advocate for policies to stop dogfighting and cockfighting and other forms of malicious cruelty and to confront factory farming and other systemic forms of animal exploitation. To prevent cruelty, we promote enacting good public policies and we work to enforce those policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and that’s why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones don’t. We believe helping animals helps us all.
The American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) is the nation’s leading wild horse protection organization, with more than 700,000 supporters and followers nationwide. AWHC is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage.
It is an american travesty to take wild horses and burros in their natural habitat and inhumanely run them by helicopters maiming and killing them. The BLM gets billions of dollars to do this atrocity every year and plan is 25000 a year over next 5 years . Plan is to put them in holding pens and adopt some out but most end up being sold to kill buyers and sent for slaughter. This is a money making operation and nothing is done to solve this problem. Using birth control to manage population should have been done years ago. Allowing them land to rightfully run free and not give in to the Cattlemans Association who wants the land for beef cattle grazing as well as developers who are chomping at the bit. This is a nightmare for these animals and needs stopped. The government and BLM dont want it to stop that is problem. Call your legislators.