Fillies (TRIPLE B HMA) at Palomino Valley Center August 2011
photo ©2011 afroditi katsikis
Representative Chris Stewart introduced this bill yesterday, July 10:
This bill may also be cited as “Wild Horse Oversight Act” This is mid July and the 113th Congress ends in early January 2015. The House has 5 months to get this bill passed and we have 5 months to stop this bill from passing. The Cosponsors are: Representatives Rob Bishop [R-UT-1] and Tom McClintock [R-CA-4] This bill was referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
The politicians in the western states are biased against the wild horses and burros as a result of the cash flowing into their pockets from the cattle and sheep ranchers who continually scapegoat the wild horses and burros as the ones ruining our federal land! These national treasures should not be managed by states interests which surely will result in destroying the herds to please the ranchers.
PRESS RELEASE:
Rep. Chris Stewart Introduces Bill Giving States the Ability to Manage Wild Horses and Burros
Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) introduced legislation that would give states and Indian Tribes the option to take over the management of wild horses and burros. The Wild Horse Oversight Act of 2014 would preserve all protections under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, and simply allow states to implement horse and burro management plans that address the specific needs of their own state.
“The federal government has never been able to properly manage the horses and burros in the west,” Stewart said. “Every state faces different challenges, which is why it’s important that they have the ability to manage their own wildlife.”
In the 43 years that the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act has been in place, the ranges have been overused, pushing cattle off the ranges and leading to the destruction of important habitat for native species.
“States and tribes already successfully manage large quantities of wildlife within their borders,” Stewart said. “If horses and burros were under that same jurisdiction, I’m confident that new ideas and opportunities would be developed to manage the herds more successfully than the federal government.”
This bill would allow states to form cooperative agreements to manage herds that cross over borders, and the federal government would continue to inventory the horses and burros to ensure that the population numbers as prescribed by the 1971 Act are maintained.
“In an era of fiscal crisis, the federal government just doesn’t have the money to manage these programs.”
Read the text of the bill at:
Hippies for Horses 
really scary! I shared with a bunch of people and told them to vote NO!
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I voted NO and shared.
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It is outrageous to even consider that states could or would actually protect these wild horses & burros. They are protected by the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse Act & the DOI via the BLM which is tasked with managing and protecting them for the benefit of all Americans & future generations.
As it is, the BLM has decimated 40% of their herd areas and reduced their numbers by about the same amount since the 1971 Act took effect. However they are still required by law to maintain some population and they are required to work with Native American tribes and states in places where the herds roam on all 3 types of land.
Here in AZ, our state is NOT interested in maintaining wild places or wild life and shows this by action. During the recent recession, the state diverted 50% of the funding citizens stipulated (at the polls) for use in our State parks to the general fund and still have not restored that money to use for parks as intended. Many parks were shuttered. Only through local chambers, organizations & small towns stepping up to preserve their tourism economies did these parks survive.
AZ Game & Fish has been responsible for vast cullings and deaths of predators, “nuisance” and other wildlife in their mad desire to improve hunting. They simply have no interest in America’s native wild horses & burros except to get the horses’ forage and habitat so they can build up populations of hunted species and foster yet more hunting. Furthermore, AZ Game & Fish has written to BLM in the past, beseeching them to slaughter all wild horses & burros, calling them “feral” rather than the natives they really are here in North America. This alone tells exactly what would happen to wild horses under the “care” of states!
While BLM is not the best steward for our precious wild horses, they FAR SURPASS any “caretaker” agency that would be part of any state or tribal government. We have a duty to protect these wild horse populations for future generations. They are a source of national inspiration, pride, and an economic benefit via tourism. Sure, we sorely need to improve what is done via BLM and I beg Congress to work on that as well. But we must NOT approve this proposed law H.R. 5058 which will let states control them or we may as well kiss the wild horse & burro goodbye forever.
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The BLM has absolutely no interest in saving any wild horse or burro. they want the all gone from the range so the welfare ranchers can over run it with their huge herds of cattle and sheep. But a lot of us are o to the BLM. We will fight them with every breath we have.
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Reblogged this on Pass the SAFE Act! and commented:
Please vote NO!
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Reblogged this on "OUR WORLD".
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