Multiple pieces of legislation require distinct action even if they relate to the same subject; horses.
Legislation
When the President's proposed Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018 was announced it brought the resumption of slaughter of wild horses; government funded "mustanging"). A tidal wave of emotion and confusion ensued. Proposing to send to slaughter tens of thousands of wild horses sent a wave of panic and outrage through advocacy.
We began a series of webinars that addressed how any bill, including appropriations, becomes law. The intention of that effort was to inform the public of the multiple steps that were required prior to such an action actually taking place.
Unfortunately we also had to address a media pool that felt like they had just written that story. The media was under the impression that the "hub bub" from advocacy had already been addressed in the FY17 budget and an issue that exploded out of context, wild horses going to Forest Service.
Many of the initial responses to concern over the FY 18 budget, actually sending wild horses to slaughter, was also met with confusion from Congress. It didn't help that thousands of emails from the public were also confused, citing what they had heard about Forest Service.
In addition the, distinct and separate, proposal to refund horse meat inspections, so horse slaughter houses could reopen on US soil, compounded the problems.
At WHE our purpose is to address and educate on issues that impact the "wild," wild horse. Our focus is not rescue, training, competitions. Our focus is the wild horse, public land management, capture and holding facilities. Once a horse is adopted or sold it loses it's legal status as "wild" under law.
The intention of this publication is to clear up the confusion. If we can not clear up the "horse" confusion we can not focus on the wild horse, public land management.
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