FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 26, 2010

Contact: Sue Wallis: Executive Director, United Organizations of the Horse 307-685-8248

Dave Duquette: Executive Director, United Horsemen's Front 541-571-7588

Katherine Minthorn Good Luck: Tribal Horse Coalition  406-670-7566

Tribes join UOH in call for restoration of humane and regulated horse processing in the United States

CHEYENNE, WY-Free-roaming horses have been a part of the landscape in the West since the Spanish brought the species to what is now the United States.  However, because the rangeland areas where these animals now roam are home to almost no apex predators and no viable market exists for selling them, the horse population has skyrocketed.

Feral horses-and unwanted domestic horses being dumped in the country due to the economic meltdown-are now destroying rangeland forage needed to feed livestock and wildlife and to retain soil in place.  They are also eating special plants of spiritual and nutritional significance to the local tribes.  Runoff is dumping topsoil into streams, leading to degradation of the aquatic habitat for salmon and steelhead.  Forage consumption by feral horses is also threatening the survival of our other traditional foods, such as deer, elk, bighorn sheep, and sage grouse.  Something must be done to reduce the number of wild horses grazing in the West, and fast.

The Bureau of Land Management of wild horses on federal lands, and the necessity of controlling the overpopulation in designated Horse Management Areas is only one small part of a much larger problem that includes federal lands outside of Horse Management Areas, tribal lands, state lands, and private lands. For instance, the resident adult horse population in the three-State area of tribal lands only in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho is above 20,000 animals, and the annual foal crop raises that number by 20 percent every year.

The closure of horse-processing facilities in Texas and Illinois has had a far-reaching effect on the horse industry throughout the country.  Without the slaughter option, the horse market has been flooded, the prices for all horses have dropped dramatically, and the livelihood of horse ranchers-tribal and otherwise-has been severely jeopardized.  A collateral economic effect of the glut of horses is the devastating impact their populations are making on the environment.  Forage depredation is only part of the picture.  Plants important in tribal spiritual practices and medicine are being destroyed.  Vegetation needed for big and small game has disappeared.  Streams important to sport and Indian subsistence fisheries are degraded by silty topsoil rolling off denuded slopes.

Katherine Minthorn Good Luck, spokesperson for the Northwest Tribal Horse Coalition, noting that a historic meeting of tribes from across the Nation was held in Fort Hall, Idaho last year, and that as a result strong policy resolution have now been passed by the National Congress of American Indians. "The tribes stand shoulder to shoulder with the United Organizations of the Horse to call for the return of humane and regulated processing of horses in the U.S.," says Good Luck," and for the ability to manage feral horses in a sensible way that will actually protect our precious lands, maintain our sacred horses at sustainable levels, and provide much needed jobs for our depressed economy."

For more information, visit www.UnitedOrgsoftheHorse.org and www.UnitedHorsemensFront.org.

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