Sale of Wild Horses to Slaughter LegalizedWednesday, December 8, 2004
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Wild horses and burros could be bought or sold for slaughter under a provision in the $388 billion spending bill that President Bush (news - web sites) signed into law on Wednesday.
The new law lets the animals be sold, potentially for use as meat in foreign markets, if they are more than 10 years old or, if younger, after they have been offered unsuccessfully for adoption three times. It also requires any money from sales to go to the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (news - web sites) adoption program for wild horses and burros.
Sen. Conrad Burns (news, bio, voting record), R-Mont., who sponsored the amendment to the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, said he believed most horses would wind up being adopted, not slaughtered, but his intent was to spur the BLM to get serious about its adoption program.
"These animals live in poor conditions that often lead to their deaths, and without proper management this will continue to happen," Burns said Wednesday.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&e=2&u=/ap/20041209/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/wild_horsesWell, this is certainly an inventive solution to wildlife management problems: just butcher 'em and sell 'em for dogfood! Brings a whole new meaning to wildlife preservation - in cans. I love that remark from Burns that these animals live in poor conditions and could lead to their deaths. Far better to eliminate any doubt and just kill 'em right off the bat, that's the only way to be sure. Leave it to Repukes to cast commercial slaughter as some sort of perverted act of humanity.