A lengthy joint resolution in the Wyoming House of Representatives calls on Congress to resume slaughter and processing of horses for markets outside the United States. Wyoming offers the solution as “best management practices” to all those wild mustangs that roam and breed throughout the Cowboy State with little to no effective management.
By offering a solution to Wyoming’s Broncos problems, the usual two sides are lined up. Commissioner Lee Livingston of Park County, Wyoming, considered slaughtering horses “practicable and humane.” Grace Kuhn, speaking on behalf of the American Wild Horse Campaign, said it was “impractical and inhumane”. In 2007, Congress banned the use of public funds to inspect horses that would otherwise be sold for human consumption.
Under the 1971 law protecting wild animals from encroachment, wild horses and donkeys belong to the federal authority “Harass or Die” and “declare that free-roaming wild horses are living symbols of Western history and pioneer spirit ”
Management of wild horses and donkeys in Wyoming and the West falls to the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act
Wyoming’s resolution states that wild horse and donkey populations “excessively encroach on other uses by destroying streambeds and overgrazing limited forage when used, or otherwise cause damage to the infrastructure of other public land-use users.” Since wild horses have no natural predators, numbers Doubling every four to five years.
Wyoming legislators are also concerned that growing populations of wild horses and donkeys will roam unchecked on private property because they are protected. status. The only option for this property rights violation is to file a report with the local BLM or USFS office.
Allows federal agencies to set “appropriate levels of management” for wild horse and donkey populations. Old, sick and lame animals can all be exterminated. After offering others for adoption, they can be “destroyed in the most humane and cost-effective way possible”. Due to the exponential increase in the number of horses and caves on the pasture. “
The resolution points to problems with adoption programs, lack of birth control, and litigation costs resulting in inadequate availability of breeding facilities and increased management. BLM acknowledged in its 2020 report to Congress that “decisive action is required Act to reverse the damage to the western landscape and the wild horses and donkeys that occupy it. “
In addition to the effective ban on the slaughter of horses for human consumption since 2007, the Home Office’s 2020 budget prohibits funding for the destruction of healthy animals to be processed into commercial products.
This allows Wyoming to “continue the exponential growth of its wild horse and donkey population,” the resolution says. A “pragmatic shift” in wild horse and donkey management policy is “important to help address this crisis and achieve a reduction in wild horse and donkey populations in management numbers.” Donkey protection is prudent and necessary. “
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