U.S. House Passes Animal Wellness-Led Amendments to Protect Wild Horses and Burros and to Combat Animal Fighting and Horse Soring
For Immediate Release:
July 30, 2020
Contact:
Marty Irby • 202-821-5686
marty@animalwellnessaction.org
Amendments Taking Up for Massive 2021 Spending Bill
Washington, D.C. — Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed three key animal protection amendments conceived and advocated for by Animal Wellness Action and the Animal Wellness Foundation. The measures will be included in the full spending package: H.R. 7608, the State, Foreign Operations, Agriculture, Rural Development, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, for fiscal year 2021, that is set to pass the U.S. House tomorrow. The Senate will take up its own spending bill in the coming weeks or months.
“The BLM and USDA’s horse related programs have long been considered ineffective and unsuccessful and we’re sick and tired of inept and lazy bureaucrats in the swamp failing to protect our iconic American horses,” said Marty Irby, a lifelong horseman and executive director at Animal Wellness Action. Rep. Steve Cohen is laser-focused on getting the Bureau of the Land Management and the Agriculture Department to stop their nonsense and do better when it comes to protecting horses.”
“Enforcing laws against animal cruelty is as crucial as enacting them in the first place,” said Holly Gann, director of federal affairs for Animal Wellness Foundation. “Active enforcement of animal welfare laws by USDA OIG is needed to put a stop to widespread animal fighting and other forms of heinous animal cruelty for the protection of both animals and our communities.”
“I’m pleased this provision will force the Bureau of Land Management to move away from cruel and costly helicopter roundups toward humane management of these national symbols of our wild lands,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN). “It requires the Bureau of Land Management to utilize $11 million of its Wild Horse and Burro Program budget to implement PZP — a humane and reversible fertility control vaccine to manage wild horse populations.”
The amendment details are as follows:
Amendment #69 (Interior Appropriations) — Sponsored by Reps. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Dina Titus (D-NV), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Joe Neguse (D-CO), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), David Schweikert (R-AZ), David Price (D-NC), Peter King (R-NY), Deb Haaland (D-NM), John Katko (R-NY), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Ben McAdams (D-UT). This amendment would require the Bureau of Land Management to utilize $11,000,000 of its allocated Wild Horse and Burro Program budget to implement PZP humane, reversible fertility control to manage wild horse populations – nearly 11% of its wild horse budget.
Amendment #50 (Agriculture Appropriations) — Sponsored by Reps. Joe Neguse (D-CO), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Bill Posey (R-FL), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Tim Burchett (R-TN), Ron Estes (R-KS), Tony Cardenas (D-CA), Peter King (R-NY), Ann Kuster (D-NH), and Ben McAdams (D-UT). This amendment would provide $1 million to USDA OIG for enforcement of animal fighting laws. An identical amendment also passed the House en bloc in 2019. Animal Wellness Action recently completed investigations in Oklahoma, Alabama, and Tennessee that clearly proved cockfighting runs rampant in those and other states, and that gamecocks are being illegally shipped from those states to Guam, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. Territories where cockfighting is also illegal.
Amendment 38 (Agriculture Appropriations) — Sponsored by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Kurt Schrader (D-OR), Ron Estes (R-KS), Steve Chabot (R-OH), and Peter King (R-NY), and Tony Cardenas (D-CA). This amendment would provide $750,000 in funding for the USDA’s Office of Inspector General to complete an audit report of the USDA’s Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service’s Administration of the Horse Protection Program, Enforcement of the Horse Protection Act, and the Slaughter Horse Transport Program no later than July 31st, 2021. The last audit was completed in 2010 and clearly detailed the ineffectiveness of the USDA’s Horse Protection Program that has failed to end the practice of soring — the intentional infliction of pain to Tennessee Walking, Racking, and Spotted Saddle horses feet and limbs to achieve an artificial high-step known as the “big lick” that’s rewarded at prized events in Tennessee and throughout the Southeastern U.S. The amendment provides funding over and above the $2,000,000 Horse Protection Program funding provided for in the base bill.