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Nevadans respect and protect their horses but our government sends them to Slaughter.
IS THIS BEHAVIOR ACCEPTABLE?
Governor Brian Sandoval and the Nevada Department of Agriculture are engaged in an all-out assault on Nevada's historic Virginia Range horses. In the words of a local County Commissioner, "Wild horses are under assault on the federal, state and even the county level."
The Virginia Range horses fall under the control of the Nevada Department of Agriculture - an agency that has vowed to remove the horses "as rapidly as possible," baiting and trapping them, and sending them to the livestock sale where the slaughter buyers ply their trade.
The state's agenda is crystal clear. One call from a citizen or a developer
can result in the state setting up a trap and taking more horses off the
range - even if the majority of citizens oppose such actions. Most people
agree that these horses need to be managed but should that management
include trips to the slaughterhouse?
Virginia Range horses in a sale yard pen
The wild horse advocates have been able to recover most of these horses and keep them out of the hands of the slaughter buyers but at the rate that Sandoval's people are eradicating horses, a losing battle is ahead. The Governor must end these "trap and toss" tactics and reinstate the system for managing these horses that the State Legislature designed. The horses and the advocates need your help!
- Express your opinion, concerns, outrage - however you feel.
- Contact Governor Brian Sandoval
775-684-5670 (Carson City office)
702-486-2500 (Las Vegas office)
eMail (web form)
(Note: Don't let the Governor Sandoval's staff push you off to voice mail at the Nevada Department of Agriculture. Why would you want to talk to the department you are calling to complain about? You have the right to demand that the governor's office record your name, contact information and complaint. They may not want to hear from you but you have the right to be heard!)
- Contact Agriculture Director Jim Barbee
775-353-3613
[email protected]
- Contact Assemblyman Tom Grady
775-463-2612
[email protected]
(Talking Points)
- Stop the NDoA from picking up horses that are not deemed to be a nuisance
We want a review committee to be formed that would be empowered to determine if a horse(s) should be removed from the range. The committee should be made up of 2/3 wild horse advocates and include representatives from local law enforcement.
We want to establish equitable and valid criteria that would be used in determining which horses should be removed from the range.
We want to reinstate the option to relocate horses to another area of the Virginia Range as an alternative to removal.
- Stop feeding our wild horses in and around streets, highways, and residential areas
Feeding in and around our neighborhoods desensitizes our horses to human contact and the dangers vehicles present. A dark horse on a dark road is a tragedy waiting to happen.
Feeding in the streets and residential areas puts our horses at risk of being trapped and permanently removed from the range by the NDoA.
Horses and residential neighborhoods don't mix. Be considerate of your neighbors. Stopping the hand-outs will help to reduce the number of horses being drawn close to congested roads and highways, reduce property damage, and help to eliminate horses being killed by vehicles.
- Our Virginia Range horses do go to slaughter
The Nevada Department of Agriculture has sold our horses to slaughter buyers before. Their current policies are putting even more of our horses at risk of ending up on a nightmare ride to a horrible end at a slaughterhouse in Canada or Mexico. Horses were one of the first victims of our failing economy in 2008. Other than the wild horse advocates, the only "market" for these horses is the slaughter industry.
The majority of horses sold at the livestock auctions are bought by 'kill buyers' who cram horses into large livestock transports headed either north or south to their deaths. They are inhumanely and cruelly killed and the meat is sold at top dollar prices to European and other international markets.
We want the NDoA to follow the law and give wild horse advocate groups first opportunity at ownership to horses removed from the range.
- Support your local wild horse advocates.
(Listed in alphabetical order)
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GOVERNOR BRIAN SANDOVAL
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Sending our Western heritage
to European diners.
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Don't blame the horses. Blame the governor.
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Once free-roaming horses caught in one of the state's horse traps.
Unless "We the People" speak, our horses will turned into meat.
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