An unprecedented collaboration between various government agencies, animal welfare groups and ranchers has created a plan aimed at finally bringing the wild horse and burro population on the Western range under control.
The disparate groups include the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the National Cattleman’s Beef Association, the Humane Society of the United States, the American Farm Bureau, American Mustang Foundation, the Public Lands Council and others.
The plan calls for removing 15,000 to 20,000 wild horses a year from the range in the next three years, drastically increasing the use of temporary and permanent sterilization, moving horses to cheaper cost-effective private grazing land and promoting adoptions. The removal number would drop drastically as fertility control takes effect.
As of March, the Bureau of Land Management estimated that the population of wild horses and burros on federal lands is more than 81,951 — more than three times 26,690 the agency believes the range can sustain — and that population can grow 18 percent a year, the plan warns. Meanwhile, the BLM maintains 36,906 wild horses and burros in large pasture facilities, and 14,029 horses and burros in corral facilities at a cost of $50 million a year.
The plan calls from increasing the BLM’s total wild horse and burro management budget from the current $80 million a year to $130 million initially, but with cost declining as fertility control cuts population growth and horses and burros are adopted. The goal is to sterilize 90 percent of the animals on the range.
Nancy Perry, ASPCA’s senior vice president, told The Associated Press, “Not every advocate wants to engage with or work with those that they have been in battle with over the years. But BLM’s current polices are ineffective. If they continue on the road they’re on now, it means disaster.”
In fact, the AP reported that the plan has ignited fierce opposition from the American Wild Horse Campaign and Friends of Animals, groups that are already challenging in the courts earlier horse round-ups.
The American Wild Horse Campaign was quoted as saying, “The groups promoting this plan have been co-opted into supporting the livestock industry’s agenda for wild horses by the BLM’s vague promise to utilize undefined ‘population growth suppression’ methods. By mandating the removal of a startling 15,000 to 20,000 wild horses a year, the plan will result in the reduction of America’s wild herds to extinction levels.”
Despite the hysteria from the horse huggers, the plan is at least putting forward a rational effort to control the horse and burro population on the range. The plan estimates it will take 10 years to reach the population that the BLM says is sustainable. Currently the animals in many herd management areas are so overpopulated that they are starving and damaging water resources. Grazing land needed by cattle and other wild animals is depleted.
The plan also addresses the cost of keeping wild horses off the range.
“Every day, the BLM spends $1.82 per horse in long term holding pastures and an average of $4.99 per horse in corral facilities,” the plan notes. “A shortage of pasture facilities has forced the agency to use corral facilities for long term purposes — at more than twice the expense. … The agency estimates that each of those horses costs approximately $46,000 over the course of their lifetime. We propose that the BLM relocate corralled horses and burros, along with any additional removed horses and burros, to more cost-effective private pastures.”
The status quo is not acceptable. Give this plan a chance. — TM
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This plan is for the extinction of our wild horses. There is no over-population, the NAS study found no evidence of it. 70% of the herds are not even genetically viable and many have been zeroed out. 22 million acres have been taken from them . Wild horses are symbiotic to ecosystems and they will eat cheat grass which helps to keep down wild fires. The millions of cattle on our public lands destroy the range and pollute the water. The 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act is being broken and BLM needs to be investigated by Congress.
.http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/SoundSoul-2918610-overpopulationmyth/
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The is such a plan that it’s not a plan. Its a extinction project based on very faulty numbers and unscientific heresy that could be debunked by simply opening a veterinary textbook on large animal anatomy. The BLM and ranchers love this plan because it leaves more room for cattle and sheep.
This article is so seriously short on facts. There has been no count of wild horses on public land in many years. They pick a number that fits the goal of removing as many wild horses from our land as possible. Data used from old documents. They make no attempt to hide their deceit because they’ve gotten away with it for so many years. Cattle outnumber wild horses as much as 80 to 1. The land they claim will hold only a few horses they also claim can support 10 times the amount of cattle. They claim horses foul the water when it cows that will stand knee deep in their own urine. One claim supported by their own stats is that herds increase as much 700% per year which is biologically impossible. This article pushes an agenda which supports welfare cattle ranchers and does nothing to support the wild horses that are our heritage. Over 80% of Americans support leaving our horses on the land they are entitled to and the removal the cattle, sheep, fracking, mining, etc from the land that belongs to us all. The number of people becoming aware and researching this issues increases every day. The BLM is corrupt and needs to be investigated and shut down. Providing false data to the government is a federal offense. A day of transparency is getting closer.
I go to Steens Mountain to see mustangs. They are healthy and doing well.
Simple solution: make more habitat available and it is time to end grazing on federal lands. I have seen brutal damage on the Malheur refuge from cows. As a taxpayer: I want cows off and mustangs on these lands.