Tuesday, March 25, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
IT'S been 26 years since Americans, sick of the carnage on the range, demanded protection for the nation's wild horse herds.
They demanded it out of disgust for the brutality of a few cowboys who hounded wild horses until they collapsed, tortured them and then shipped them off to dog food processing sites.
The last straw came in 1971 near a little town called Howe, Idaho, where wranglers ran a herd off a cliff, then cut off the survivors' front legs with chainsaws to prevent their escape. That occurred as Congress was holding hearings on whether to enact mustang protection. Incidents such as those, along with the lobbying efforts of Velma Johnston --"Wild Horse Annie" -- brought the law into existence.
Now, a generation later, the law is being circumvented. Mustangs are being adopted, held for a year, then sent to the slaughterhouse. Efforts to stop this practice haven't fared very well. Federal lawyers contend that the mustangs are no longer government property after the first year of adoption. But BLM does not pay attention to the adoptions themselves. It took a 1987 court order forbidding the BLM from issuing title to anyone who intends to slaughter the horses.
Unfortunately, that order has not improved the situation. Thousands of horses are being adopted as "canners" headed for packing plants in and out of the country. Continuing abuses brought a Texas grand jury on the verge of indicting BLM officials. It was sidetracked by a government intrepretation of the law.
Federal attorneys now argue horses can be killed under the wild horse protection act, the law designed to protect them. Former Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., warned at the time that Congress must ensure enforcement. Judging from the abuses, he was right.
Admittedly, wild horse management has serious problems. In many areas there are too many horses for the available forage and horse reductions are necessary.
The principal tool for reducing the number of mustangs has been adopting them to citizens interested in owning part of America's past. Obviously, animals too old or sick for adoption have no realistic option other than the slaughterhouse.
But Congress never intended the BLM to become a processing point for dog food. It intended that the animals would be safeguarded from those who use cruelty to make a profit.
Congress should revisit wild horse protection and amend the law, affording no leeway for lawyers to evade its intent. As it stands now, the law provides little, if any, protection and perpetuates more cruelty, such as that inflicted by a few cold-hearted monsters in Idaho 26 years ago.
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