Oppose AB 329

A bill that has reached the Nevada State Senate seeks to re-define the word “wildlife,” stripping protections for wild horses and burros, and eliminating any mandate that allows them… water.

Merriam-Webster defines wildlife as follows: living things and especially mammals, birds, and fishes that are neither human nor domesticated.

But Nevada lawmakers have introduced AB 329, which seeks to exclude wild horses and burros from that definition in the context of water resources:

As used in this title, unless the context otherwise requires, “wildlife” means any wild mammal, wild bird, fish, reptile, amphibian, mollusk or crustacean found naturally in a wild state, whether indigenous to Nevada or not and whether raised in captivity or not. The term does not include any wild horse or burro.

The livestock industry would have you believe that there are “too many” wild horses. The fact is, cattle ranches usurp land and water to support more than twenty times as many cattle as there are wild horses.1

Nevada has employed some despicable techniques to get rid of wild horses and protect the profits of cattle ranching. Wild horses have been fenced out of water sources, rounded up via helicopter, killed, and sterilized. The new plan will allow ranchers to legally “thirst” the horses out.

It’s time for this self-serving nonsense to stop. Please contact the following office holders and tell them that wild horses and burros must not be excluded from any protections afforded to wildlife. Tell your legislators to oppose AB 329:

Nevada’s Governor Sandoval
Contact online
Phone: (775) 684-5670

Members of the Nevada senate:
Email
Individual Senators:
Contact online

AB 329 has been referred to Committee on Natural Resources. Members of that committee are:

Senator Mark Manendo Email (775) 684-6503
Senator David Parks Email (775) 684-6504
Senator John Jay Lee Email (775) 684-1424
Senator Dean Rhoads Email (775) 684-1447
Senator Michael Roberson Email (775) 684-1481

References:
1- Estimate of head of cattle in NV vs. estimate of number of wild horses