WASHINGTON (March 7, 2007) – Legislation to outlaw the commercial sale and slaughter of America’s wild horses was passed today out of the House Natural Resources Committee. H.R. 249 seeks to restore permanent federal protections for wild horses and burros from sale and slaughter for human consumption overseas. The longstanding protections were removed by a controversial rider slipped into an omnibus spending bill by former U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) in late 2004.  

In the 109th Congress, an amendment to protect wild horses was shepherded through by U.S. Reps. Nick Rahall (D-W. Va.) and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) and passed in a landslide, bipartisan 249-159 vote. Reps. Rahall and Whitfield introduced H.R. 249 in January 2007 to reinstate protections permanently.   

“The time has passed to restore protections for wild free-roaming horses and burros. I urge my colleagues to heed the will of the American public and respond to common decency by supporting this legislation,” Rep. Rahall said. “Horses are an integral part of the tapestry of this country, and we owe no less to these living symbols of the American West.”

Jerry Finch
http://www.habitatforhorses.org/