by Stephanie Boyles
In 1971, Congress unanimously passed The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act to protect these animals from slaughter and commercial exploitation after decades of assaults on their populations by the livestock industry. Prior to the Act's passage, hundreds of thousands of horses and burros were removed from public lands and sold to slaughter for pet food manufacturers in North America and human consumption in Europe and Asia. At the turn of the century, there were some two million wild horses but by the time the federal law was passed, wild horses were "fast disappearing from the American scene.
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Wild horses belong on the range, not in goverment holding facilities.© Kayla Grams/The HSUS |
Over the past 10 years, The Bureau of Land Management (BLM)—the federal agency charged with protecting America's wild horses and burros—has conducted an aggressive wild horse roundup and removal program.
This flawed program has resulted in wild horses being permanently warehoused in long-term holding facilities. In fact, the agency now expends more than two-thirds of its budget to care for the horses it has collected—with no long-term plan for their care or adoption.
The Ultimate Price
Now, after years of mismanagement and unanswered pleas from wild horse advocates to stop removing large numbers of horses from the range, the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board recently voted in favor of an unprecedented, and unthinkable, option—among 18 other proposed actions, the Board recommended, as a last resort, that the BLM kill tens of thousands of captured horses to "balance" the agency's budget.
If the BLM accepts the Advisory Board's "sale authority without limitation" recommendation, thousands of wild horses will be taken from holding facilities, or the range, and sent directly to auction where they are likely to be sold for slaughter—exactly what Congress intended to prohibit when the Act was passed in 1971.
A mass killing of wild horses is not the answer to the BLM's self-inflicted financial dilemma, and wild horse advocates and members of Congress have already demonstrated their opposition to any attempt by the BLM to "bail out" of its responsibilities by forcing our nation's wild horses to pay the ultimate price for the agency's mistakes over the years. The BLM made a commitment to care for these animals—in perpetuity if necessary—when it began rounding up horses and burros and placing them in holding centers around the U.S.
Now, the agency must honor its commitment to care for these animals, but first, the BLM must work to regain the public's trust, and the best way to start is by immediately rejecting the Advisory Boards' recommendation to euthanize wild horses, and to allow their sale to the public without limitation.
The Solutions
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| Wild horses running free on the range.© The HSUS |
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We applaud the efforts of Madeleine and T. Boone Pickens to create lifetime sanctuaries for 30,000 wild horses—now in federal holding centers—who otherwise may have been sold and killed. Mr. and Mrs. Pickens embody the spirit of millions of Americans who care deeply about the fate of our wild horses.
Their unprecedented act of generosity provides the BLM with a unique opportunity that they must seize without fail—to fix a program that is clearly broken by engaging in a long overdue reformation of its wild horse management policies and procedures. To that end, BLM should also pledge to work with wild horse advocates to develop humane, sustainable programs for managing wild horses on the range.
Viable, cost-effective and humane alternatives to removing horses from the range are available and must be explored. A preventative approach, including fewer round ups and more use of a contraception program in managing wild horse populations, would be more cost-effective, more humane, and more in keeping with Congressional intent for these beloved animals. This suggestion is not new to BLM. A recent issue of the Journal of Wildlife Management, J. Bartholow (USGS) revealed the economic benefits of contraception over gather/removals.
An additional area overlooked and neglected by the BLM has been the wild horse adoption program. A decade ago, the agency began aggressively removing more horses than could be adopted annually and the program suffered as a result. The BLM must creatively market and promote its adoption program, as well as expand its training program. In order for the adoption program to be successful, it is essential that these horses be given suitable training prior to placing them in new homes. With the appropriate training, these magnificent animals can be adopted.
Finally, the BLM should work with wild horse advocates and members of Congress to comply with the original intent of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. For instance,H.R. 249 , a bill to restore the prohibition on the commercial sale of horses and burros, overwhelmingly passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 277-137, and is currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate. Such legislative action is essential in order to provide BLM with the ability to comply with the law while fulfilling the mission, spirit and intent of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act—to protect wild horses and burros on our public lands for Americans to appreciate and enjoy for generations to come.
What You Can Do
The HSUS has advocated for the welfare of wild horses for years. As an active member of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign Coalition, we work collaboratively with wild horse advocacy groups as a united front against efforts by the livestock industry and others to whittle away at laws in place to protect horses from abuse and exploitation. We work closely with sympathetic state and federal legislators and encourage them to introduce and support pro-horse legislation. To reduce the need to gather and remove horses from the range, we also work directly with federal agencies and corporations to further the development and wider use of contraception to manage wild horse populations in the U.S.
The HSUS will continue to work tirelessly to protect America's wild horses and burros, but we cannot do it alone. We need your help. Please contact the director of The Bureau of Land Management urge the BLM to reject the Advisory Boards' "euthanasia" and "sale authority without limitation" recommendations. Then, contact your two U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative and encourage them to take any legislative actions necessary to ensure that horses and burros will continue to live, wild and free, on our public lands.
