Out of the American West: Colorado and Wyoming take very different approaches to wild horses.
In Colorado, a new bill introduced in the legislature would ban the slaughter of equines and the sale of equines for slaughter. In addition to an outright ban on slaughtering equines, the bill, SB 23-038, takes aim at livestock auctions where horses both wild and domestic are bought and sold, many destined for slaughter plants in Canada and Mexico.
While Governor Jared Polis fought to intercede on behalf of Colorado’s wild horses last year to halt two highly controversial helicopter roundups, Wyoming’s leaders cheered the roundups in that state and called for the mass slaughter and butchering of Wyoming’s herds.
In Colorado, just weeks after the BLM removed hundreds of wild horses from the Sand Wash Basin HMA on the pretext that the land couldn’t support them, the agency allowed thousands of sheep to swarm onto the same area, prompting outrage among Colorado equine advocates and taxpayers. They resent the agency’s arrogance and shameless pandering to public land ranchers, who enrich themselves by grazing their livestock on our public lands at a taxpayer-subsidized rate of just $1.
It's clear which of the two states is out of step with most Americans on this topic. In a recent poll, 83 percent of Americans strongly opposed the slaughter of American equines, viewing them as valued partners in recreation, work and sport, not as food. In other words, while Wyoming insists that wild equines are mere “livestock,” most Americans, and likely a broad majority of Coloradans, see them as more akin to dogs and cats in how we relate to them.
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