Ride Herd on Congress

Chicago Sun Times
April 29, 2005

On Friday, April 15, [2005], a man walked into a Bureau of Land Management facility and under false pretense, purchased six wild mustangs for a paltry fee of $300 ($50 each). On Monday, April 18, these living symbols of American spirit and freedom were sold to and slaughtered at the Cavel International horse slaughter plant in DeKalb. The man made a $1,500 profit.

The trouble is that he made his dirty profit at the expense of not only these once free and majestic wild mustangs, but also from you and me: American taxpayers! It is our tax dollars that pay the bureau to manage the mustang herds for the benefit of all Americans -- not for the benefit of any individual or individuals to derive profit from, particularly at the expense of the animals lives. The wild mustangs belong to all of us, to all Americans. How dare the government sell these animals against the will of the majority, for the profit of one man!

Decades ago, the American people spoke by the millions to the issue of the brutal slaughter of our wild horses and burros. The result was unanimous passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, which protected our wild horses from would-be commercial exploitation.

Tragically, last December, an undebated last-minute rider was inserted into the massive 2005 appropriations bill by Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Montana), which removed this longstanding federal protection. With the protection now gone, the door has opened for anyone to purchase wild horses and do with them whatever they like, including selling them to slaughter.

The vast majority of Americans want this protection to be immediately restored. Please stand with us and urge your congressmen to co-sponsor H.R. 297 and S. 576, which will restore this much-needed protection for our wild horse and burro herds. We owe it to our children to leave this planet the way that we found it, including the continued opportunity to witness the beauty and magnificence of wild horses running free across America's fruited plains.

Gail Vacca, Illinois coordinator,
National Horse Protection Coalition, DeKalb
www.horse-protection.org

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