Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) slipped an eleventh hour amendment into the 2005 Consolidated Appropriations Bill to allow the sale of wild horses for processing into commercial products, opening the door for long protected wild horses to be slaughtered for human consumption overseas.

The measure, secretly tucked in the massive, 3,300-page omnibus bill to avoid public hearings, undermined the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act by allowing wild horses to be sold at auction without limitation. Killer buyers frequent these auctions to purchase horses for slaughter in Canada and Mexico. The meat will be sent to certain European and Asian countries where it is considered a delicacy and eaten in high-profile restaurants.

This amendment needs to be repealed at once. It only takes a moment to save a life!