BLM director says no to abattoirs for wild horses

We've been following the push to reopen horse slaughterhouses in the U.S., most recently here, but now the head of the Bureau of Land Management says that strategy is not a viable option for reducing wild herds throughout the West. "Instead, the agency plans to give mares birth control in hopes of diminishing the need for controversial horse roundups," Ashley Powers of the Los Angeles Times reports. Bob Abbey, director of the BLM, told supporters of horse processing plants at a conference on Tuesday the agency also plans to "continue promoting adoption and seeking locations to place captured horses other than its holding pens," Powers writes.

"Make no mistake, they deserve to be treated the best way that we can treat them," Abbey told dozens of people who support the opening of a horse processing plant in Wyoming. Horse trainer Dave Duquette, the president of conference sponsor United Horsemen, told Powers the BLM's view was shortsighted and a waste of government dollars. "What's palatable to public opinion and what needs to happen are two different things," he said.

"In a sign of how touchy the long-running debate has become, Abbey's presence at what critics called the 'horse slaughter summit' incensed activists who laud the animals as icons of the American West," Powers writes. Abbey noted the BLM is obligated to talk to all stakeholders in the debate, including those who like many at the conference are suspicious of the agency.  In 2008, the BLM considered euthanasia as a possible remedy for wild horse overpopulation, but later backed off amid public outrage. Wild-horse advocates were quick to discredit horse slaughterhouse. Those who "wish to profit from the butchering of America's horses must find another way to earn a living," said Suzanne Roy of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign in a statement. (Read more)