An Important Update on the R.O.A.M. Act – Please Help!

A Call for Action! I Implore You to Contact Your U.S. Senators Today for the Survival of the R.O.A.M. Act!

By Madeleine Pickens

Dear Friends:

I write today to again ask for your support for another important part of the effort to protect our wild horses.  On March 3rd of this year, I testified before the House Subcommittee on Public Lands on legislation sponsored by Congressman Rahall from West Virginia, H.R. 1018, referred to as the Restore Our American Mustangs or R.O.A.M Act.  That legislation subsequently passed the House of Representatives on July 17, 2009 by a vote of 239-185, a comfortable majority.  The legislation then moved to the Senate and was referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee where it sits today.  This is the second Congress in which Congressman Rahall, along with Congressman Grijalva of Arizona and many other Members of the House of Representatives have managed to pass legislation that would make major changes to the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971.

It is quite amazing to think that a program that has been around for nearly 40 years and by anyone’s admission is rife with problems would not have undergone a major review and overhaul, but that is the case with the Wild Horse and Burro Act.  Oh sure, there has been the usual tinkering with small parts of the original legislation but never has there been a serious effort to correct many of the deficiencies that plague the program.  One has to ask, where are the champions of the wild horses in the United States Senate?  Why hasn’t someone on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee pressed for changes to the Program?  To his credit, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia has sponsored a bill, S 1579, that is a companion bill to the one passed by Congressman Rahall.  Isn’t it interesting that there seems to be more interest in West Virginia in correcting the deficiencies in the Wild Horse and Burro Program than that demonstrated by Members from western States where wild horses reside? Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=9287

Tags: BLM, equestrian community, Equine Protection, H.R. 1018, Horse Care, Madeleine Pickens, Mustangs, the Restore Our American Mustangs or R.O.A.M Act, wild horses

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