Teachers & Students
A letter writing campaign would be a great learning opportunity for your students!
In 1959, Velma Johnson (who later became known as Wild Horse Annie) started a grassroots letter writing campaign that included schoolchildren from all across the country. The letters brought awareness to the American public and our government, that our wild horses were being shipped to slaughter. Because of the letters, the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses & Burros Act of 1971 was eventually enacted.
A letter writing campaign or project would help teach your students that getting involved in an important matter can help make positive change! It will teach them about contacting members of Congress and working to enact new legislation.
You can have the students handwrite letters or you can purchase blank postcards and write on those.
Option #1: Get your students involved by having them send postcards or letters; the students can make drawings and write messages as simple as "Save Our Wild Horses" and "Let our wild horses live wild & free on our public lands". You can teach them how to look up the contact information for your state's Senators & Representatives (members of the House), the President & Vice President, Secretary of the Department of the Interior Deb Haaland, & the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning. It will teach the kids how easy and important it is to contact members of government and let them know how the American public feels about an important issue.
But, if you and your students are up to the challenge, I suggest choosing one of two important issues facing our wild and domestic horses today (maybe have 1/2 the class do one, and 1/2 the class do the other one, or better yet get a 2nd class involved and have each class do a bill - then each group can share their progress!). Feel free to contact me at kaya97524@yahoo.com if you need help or have questions.
Option #2:
The SAFE Act HR 3475 in the House and the SAFE Act S 2037 in the Senate (see graphic below for a description of how the two bills would work)
Though horse slaughterhouses in the US were closed, our domestic and wild horses are still shipped to slaughter to Mexico and Canada. To stop this we need to the The Safe Act H.R. 3475 / S 2037 (it is important to use the bill number as there are other Safe Acts). Here is the link to the bill:
www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3475?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22hr3475%22%7D&s=1&r=1
This would be a great opportunity to teach your students to look up a bill that has been introduced, and how to get that bill passed by contacting legislators. They can see who is currently supporting the bill, and send those Reps a Thank You letter. Then send a letter to those Reps not supporting the Act, and give them reasons why they should support it.
I would suggest three sets of letters: one letter to members of the House of Representatives asking them to support the SAFE Act H.R. 3475, one letter to members of the Senate asking them to support the SAFE Act S. 2037 when it arrives to the Senate Floor, and a letter to the President or Vice President asking them to support the SAFE Act: Save America's Forgotten Equines.
Each letter should include reasons why horses deserve to better treatment and protections from slaughter, and why horses are important.
This could be a ongoing lesson that follows the legislation as it gets passed and signed!
Option #3:
The Burns Amendment H.R. 249: Protections for our wild horses
The Burns Amendment was a rider slipped into a 2004-05 Omnibus spending bill by then Senator Conrad Burns from Montana, that sadly made 'sales without limits' of wild horses legal. Previously, the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses & Burros Act of 1971 prohibited the sale of wild horses to slaughter. Then Senator Burns was sneaky about it and did not confer with other members of Congress, so most of them did not even know the Amendment was in the 3000 page bill when they signed it.
The Burns Amendment is different from the SAFE Act in that it helps with further protections of our wild horses who are meant to be a protected species under the 1971 Act.
"H.R. 249 needs to be reintroduced and the language of the Burns Amendment stricken from the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. That action would directly protect wild horses and burros from slaughter by undoing the changes to the Act that permitted it. That change would “live in the law books” on public lands and make it illegal to sell, ship or slaughter a wild horse or burro under any circumstance, domestic or abroad. Passage of language represented in this bill would not be a patchwork with many cracks wild horses could slip through, it would do the job once and for all for our wild ones." - Laura Leigh, Wild Horse Education
"If you can find someone to reintroduce this bill? You will do what the multi-million dollar corporate lobby groups, that joined in the plan to decimate our herds, failed to do for 50 years. " - Wild Horse Education
What a great challenge for your students to participate in! See more here:
https://wildhorseeducation.org/2020/06/24/wild-horse-slaughter-safe-burns-budget/?fbclid=IwAR1ltQZjiqEHPcfWcbHM-t8Xmb-6mR6yjxiklF836anAuOnbjgizr8Q4UI0
I would again suggest three sets of letters and also phone calls on this bill: one letter to members of the House of Representatives asking them to reintroduce H.R. 249 and work to get it passed into law, one letter to members of the Senate asking them to support H.R. 249 when it arrives on to the Senate Floor, and one letter to the President or the Vice President asking them to support H.R. 249. Have your students call your state Representatives and ask them to re-introduce the amendment.
Each letter should include the reasons why wild horses deserve the protections afforded to them in 1971 and that no wild horse should be sold to slaughter or shipped across our borders to slaughter. This would also be an on-going lesson that would follow the legislation as it gets passed!
In 1959, Velma Johnson (who later became known as Wild Horse Annie) started a grassroots letter writing campaign that included schoolchildren from all across the country. The letters brought awareness to the American public and our government, that our wild horses were being shipped to slaughter. Because of the letters, the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses & Burros Act of 1971 was eventually enacted.
A letter writing campaign or project would help teach your students that getting involved in an important matter can help make positive change! It will teach them about contacting members of Congress and working to enact new legislation.
You can have the students handwrite letters or you can purchase blank postcards and write on those.
Option #1: Get your students involved by having them send postcards or letters; the students can make drawings and write messages as simple as "Save Our Wild Horses" and "Let our wild horses live wild & free on our public lands". You can teach them how to look up the contact information for your state's Senators & Representatives (members of the House), the President & Vice President, Secretary of the Department of the Interior Deb Haaland, & the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning. It will teach the kids how easy and important it is to contact members of government and let them know how the American public feels about an important issue.
But, if you and your students are up to the challenge, I suggest choosing one of two important issues facing our wild and domestic horses today (maybe have 1/2 the class do one, and 1/2 the class do the other one, or better yet get a 2nd class involved and have each class do a bill - then each group can share their progress!). Feel free to contact me at kaya97524@yahoo.com if you need help or have questions.
- The SAFE Act which would protect our horses from being shipped to Mexico and Canada for slaughter
- The Burns Amendment: Protections for our wild horses
Option #2:
The SAFE Act HR 3475 in the House and the SAFE Act S 2037 in the Senate (see graphic below for a description of how the two bills would work)
Though horse slaughterhouses in the US were closed, our domestic and wild horses are still shipped to slaughter to Mexico and Canada. To stop this we need to the The Safe Act H.R. 3475 / S 2037 (it is important to use the bill number as there are other Safe Acts). Here is the link to the bill:
www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3475?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22hr3475%22%7D&s=1&r=1
This would be a great opportunity to teach your students to look up a bill that has been introduced, and how to get that bill passed by contacting legislators. They can see who is currently supporting the bill, and send those Reps a Thank You letter. Then send a letter to those Reps not supporting the Act, and give them reasons why they should support it.
I would suggest three sets of letters: one letter to members of the House of Representatives asking them to support the SAFE Act H.R. 3475, one letter to members of the Senate asking them to support the SAFE Act S. 2037 when it arrives to the Senate Floor, and a letter to the President or Vice President asking them to support the SAFE Act: Save America's Forgotten Equines.
Each letter should include reasons why horses deserve to better treatment and protections from slaughter, and why horses are important.
This could be a ongoing lesson that follows the legislation as it gets passed and signed!
Option #3:
The Burns Amendment H.R. 249: Protections for our wild horses
The Burns Amendment was a rider slipped into a 2004-05 Omnibus spending bill by then Senator Conrad Burns from Montana, that sadly made 'sales without limits' of wild horses legal. Previously, the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses & Burros Act of 1971 prohibited the sale of wild horses to slaughter. Then Senator Burns was sneaky about it and did not confer with other members of Congress, so most of them did not even know the Amendment was in the 3000 page bill when they signed it.
The Burns Amendment is different from the SAFE Act in that it helps with further protections of our wild horses who are meant to be a protected species under the 1971 Act.
"H.R. 249 needs to be reintroduced and the language of the Burns Amendment stricken from the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. That action would directly protect wild horses and burros from slaughter by undoing the changes to the Act that permitted it. That change would “live in the law books” on public lands and make it illegal to sell, ship or slaughter a wild horse or burro under any circumstance, domestic or abroad. Passage of language represented in this bill would not be a patchwork with many cracks wild horses could slip through, it would do the job once and for all for our wild ones." - Laura Leigh, Wild Horse Education
"If you can find someone to reintroduce this bill? You will do what the multi-million dollar corporate lobby groups, that joined in the plan to decimate our herds, failed to do for 50 years. " - Wild Horse Education
What a great challenge for your students to participate in! See more here:
https://wildhorseeducation.org/2020/06/24/wild-horse-slaughter-safe-burns-budget/?fbclid=IwAR1ltQZjiqEHPcfWcbHM-t8Xmb-6mR6yjxiklF836anAuOnbjgizr8Q4UI0
I would again suggest three sets of letters and also phone calls on this bill: one letter to members of the House of Representatives asking them to reintroduce H.R. 249 and work to get it passed into law, one letter to members of the Senate asking them to support H.R. 249 when it arrives on to the Senate Floor, and one letter to the President or the Vice President asking them to support H.R. 249. Have your students call your state Representatives and ask them to re-introduce the amendment.
Each letter should include the reasons why wild horses deserve the protections afforded to them in 1971 and that no wild horse should be sold to slaughter or shipped across our borders to slaughter. This would also be an on-going lesson that would follow the legislation as it gets passed!