WILD HORSE AND BURRO ACT

Introduction

On February 12, 2009, Representative Rahall (WV-D) introduced “a bill to amend the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act to improve the management and long-term health of wild free-roaming horses and burros” (H.R. 1018).

Background

In the 108th Congress a provision of the 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Bill lifted the prohibition on the sale of wild horses and burros for commercial purposes and authorized the Secretary of Interior to sell excess animals at public sales “without limitation” on their use.  The concerned a number of groups that feared these horses could be sold for slaughter.

House Bill

The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros bill introduced by Representative Rahall would restore the federal prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros. It would also bar the Secretary of Interior from euthanizing any wild free-roaming horses or burros unless an animal is terminally ill. Representative Rahall introduced similar legislation in the last Congress. 

Additionally, this bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to maintain an inventory of wild horses and burros on public lands, to protect and manage the population in an ecologically balanced manner and to designate and maintain specific ranges on public lands as sanctuaries for their protection and preservation. This would include identifying new, “rangelands for wild free-roaming horses and burros, including use of land acquisitions, exchanges, conservation easements, and voluntary grazing buyouts, and negotiate with private landowners to allow for the federally supervised protection of wild horses and burros on private lands.”  

House Action

This bill was been referred to the House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands. Representative Rahall is Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee.

Hearings were held in March and on April 29; the Committee considered the bill and reported it to the full House of Representatives for consideration.

On July 17, the House of Representatives passed the Restore Our American Mustangs Act.

AHC Position

The AHC has no position on this legislation.