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Wild Horses on Public Lands | Photo Credit: Marty Irby
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Old Man | Photo Credit: Ashley Avis
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The person or persons responsible for this act of premeditated, vicious animal cruelty poses a very real danger to people and animals.” — Scott Beckstead, director of campaigns at the Center for a Humane Economy PHOENIX, ARIZONA, UNITED STATES , October 7, 2022 / / -- Today, Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy released statements condemning the of at least 10 wild horses in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest and called on authorities to take swift action to find those responsible and hold them accountable. According to eyewitnesses, the bodies of 10 horses have been found shot dead, with some killed by gunshots to the body and between the eyes. Four more horses were found with severe bullet wounds, including to the face and abdomen. Witnesses are reporting that many more members of the herd are missing and feared injured or killed.
The horses were members of the Alpine herd, which has been targeted for removal by the Forest Service pursuant to the terms of a settlement in litigation between the agency and environmental groups that contend the horses harm sensitive habitat for vulnerable and endangered species. The Forest Service has already trapped and captured 20 of the horses who, due to their unprotected status, are at risk of being sold to kill buyers for slaughter in Mexican or Canadian meat plants.
“The person or persons responsible for this act of premeditated, vicious animal cruelty poses a very real danger to people and animals,” said , director of campaigns and equine welfare specialist for the Center for a Humane Economy.“By now the link between animal abuse and interpersonal violence is clear and well-understood. For the sake of protecting the public and achieving justice for the Alpine horses, we hope to see swift and aggressive action by federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to apprehend the sadistic killer who committed these heinous acts and bring them to justice. Further, we call on Arizona's governor and legislative leaders to consider taking action to provide enhanced penalties for anyone who hurts or kills wild, free-roaming equines, regardless of where they live.”
“This act of brazen depravity can be traced directly to the cruel acts and policies of our federal government that casts our iconic wild equines as unwanted trespassers, and to the hostility toward horses by commercial livestock grazing interests, who want all the grazeable lands for their cattle and sheep,” said , executive director of Animal Wellness Action, and a lifelong horseman who was honored in 2020 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his work to protect horses. 'The American people are waking up to the unrelenting violence being perpetrated on the American horse and are demanding that it stop. The Forest Service must get to the bottom of the horse killings in Arizona, and more broadly, the federal government needs to get serious about protecting wild equines.”
Animal Wellness Action is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) organization with a mission of helping animals by promoting legal standards forbidding cruelty. We champion causes that alleviate the suffering of companion animals, farm animals, and wildlife. We advocate for policies to stop dogfighting and cockfighting and other forms of malicious cruelty and to confront factory farming and other systemic forms of animal exploitation. To prevent cruelty, we promote enacting good public policies, and we work to enforce those policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and that's why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones don't. We believe helping animals helps us all.
The Center for a Humane Economy is a non-profit organization that focuses on influencing the conduct of corporations to forge a humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both.
Marty Irby
Animal Wellness Action
+1 202-821-5686
Scott Beckstead talks wild horses on #WildHorseWinsday
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