House committee rejects Trump effort to allow slaughter of wild horses

Envato stock image WASHINGTON (Nevada Current) — President Donald Trump’s effort to eliminate longstanding protections preventing the slaughter of America’s wild horses hit a snag this week when the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations included language in an Interior Dept. funding bill that reaffirmed the protections.  Trump’s budget proposal to slash funding for the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro program by 25% would have allowed the slaughter of some 64,000 federally protected wild horses in government holding facilities.  “The action by the House Appropriations Committee, in response to our June 11, 2025, letter, to again prohibit the slaughter of wild horses corrects an omission in the President’s Budget Request,” U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, a Democrat from Nevada, said in a statement to the Current.  Trump’s proposal “would have also allowed for the large-scale transfer of wild horses and burros to foreign countries such as Canada and Mexico, where horse slaughter facilities continue to operate,” the American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC) said in a news release.  RELATED | Trainers showcase their work with wild horses in Branded Bonanza RELATED | BLM gathered nearly 300 wild horses from Central Idaho in effort to trim population The effort mirrored Trump’s 2017 budget, which initially called for a 30% cut to the program’s funding and the elimination of protections against slaughter. Congress restored the protections against killing the animals and augmented funding.  The House bill appropriates $144 million to the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program.  The measure “reaffirms Congressional intent to prohibit slaughter and reflects the values of the American people,” Suzanne Roy, executive director of AWHC, said in a news release.  Legislation introduced by Titus last week calls for the BLM to employ humane roundup techniques.  “Wild horses need to be protected from slaughter but also from helicopter roundups that can injure and kill them,” Titus said. “What is needed now is action by Congress on my legislation to eliminate the use of helicopters in BLM wild horse roundups and require a report to explore the benefits of alternative methods for humanely gathering horses, such as employing traditional cowboys.”  In the last five years, the government has spent at least $36.7 million on roundups, according to Titus, including more than $6 million paid in one year to helicopter roundup contractors.  “Scientific research has shown that more humane and cost-effective alternatives, like fertility control, are equally effective in controlling equine populations,” Titus said in a news release. “The BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program, however, currently spends less than four percent of its budget on these methods.”  RELATED | Lawsuit filed to stop ‘inhumane’ government project that would sterilize 100 wild horses Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: info@nevadacurrent.com.The post House committee rejects Trump effort to allow slaughter of wild horses appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com