wild horses facing slaughter

It opens, "Corraled in a federal holding pen at Palomino Valley, Nev., a buckskin mare with the number 9598 cold-branded in code on its neck suddenly faces an uncertain future. When the 12-year-old was rounded up in November as part of a federal program to humanely control the mustang population in the West, it looked as if it would be relocated to a grassy farm in Oklahoma or Kansas. But that all changed weeks later. Thanks to a controversial revision of the 1971 law protecting wild horses and burros, the mare could be sold, killed and butchered....The revision forces the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sell 'without limitation' every captured horse that is 10 or older or has proved unadoptable. The new rule applies to 8,400 horses in captivity, and many more in the future."

We read: "About 50,000 domestic horses are killed every year at three U.S. slaughterhouses, mostly to be shipped to France and other countries where horse meat is socially acceptable food. A bill that would ban the slaughter of any horse in the United States for human consumption will be introduced in Congress this week."

You can learn more about the Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, get numbers to call to support it, and send letters in support, at: http://hsus.ga4.org/campaign/FED_2004_wild_horses/explanation

The Newsweek article lets us know the basis for the distressing revision -- the power of the cattle industry:
"The mustangs' current troubles come thanks in part to another Western icon: cattle ranchers. There are currently 37,000 mustangs sharing public rangelands with several million head of cattle. The result has been overgrazing, exacerbated by six years of drought. To restore the land, the BLM has cut the number of cattle allowed, and ranchers say the horses and burros have to be pared substantially."

You can read the whole article on line at: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6884764/site/newsweek/

It presents a great opportunity for letters to the editor on any aspect of the way our society treats members of other species.

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. If you reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)