Congress pushes legislation to end wild horse slaughter and improve roundups

Following a high-profile report on wild horses being funneled to meat markets, members of Congress are pressing for permanent federal safeguards. Representative Dina Titus, who leads the Congressional Wild Horse Caucus and represents Nevada, the state with the nation’s largest wild horse herd, highlighted the symbolic value of mustangs and the gaps that let adopted animals end up in slaughter pipelines. Republican Representative Vern Buchanan has sponsored the Save America’s Forgotten Equines Act, a bill that would prohibit slaughter, sale, transport and export of horses for human consumption.

An amendment sponsored by Titus and Representative Jeff Van Drew was added to the House surface-transportation reauthorization bill, echoing many of the same provisions. Advocates also call for the Bureau of Land Management to allocate a larger share of its budget to fertility-control tools such as the PZP vaccine and to limit the monopoly of a few helicopter firms used in roundups, which they describe as inhumane. While the House has passed funding measures that retain language barring agencies from destroying excess horses, the Senate’s multiple committees still need to act, and the outcome may hinge on post-election dynamics.