Posted September 7, 2010 by

Save the Wild Horses!

If you're like me and hope to preserve America's most lovable symbol of the Wild West for future generations, than this should concern you.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management about 40,000 wild horses and burros roam the open range in 10 Western states. In order to protect the herd, the land they live off and other foraging animals, the bureau wants to have about 27,000 horses and burros in the wild. So those too old or considered unadoptable are sent to long-term holding facilities.  The agency now has about the same number of the animals in holding facilities as on the range. The cost of keeping animals in the holding facilities has caused the agency to consider euthanasia. 

The debate over the wild horses dates back over four decades to the passing of The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act.  In 1971, Congress passed a law that banned the inhumane treatment of wild horses and put safeguards into place so they couldn't be sold for slaughter. That law was the result of a two-decades-long crusade by Velma Johnston, better known as "Wild Horse Annie."  The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act passed both houses of Congress unanimously. It protected the mustangs "from capture, branding, harassment, or death." The Bureau of Land Management was the main agency assigned to enforce this law.

The B.L.M., part of the Department of the Interior, is responsible for administering America's 261 million acres of public land. Historically, it has worked closely with ranchers and other commercial interests, such as gas and oil, coal, and timber, in the management and use of these lands. Overseeing the wild horses is a small part of what the bureau does, but to the general public, which has an emotional attachment to them, it is one of its most important responsibilities. 

The real issue lies not in the politics of why the Act fell apart, or how the B.L.M. is fueled but in how the animals are treated and what is done them in the longterm. A "Roundup" entails a helicopter flying low over a long line of running horses and directing them into traps.  Questions about the roundups have intensified in recent years as costs have mounted, both in dollars and in dead horses. Seven horses have died in the current operation in California, where it is horse versus helicopter.  Last winter, a roundup in Nevada resulted in over 100 horse deaths.  The plan was to continue the process until a total of 3,000 horses were rounded up from the area.  Captured horses are offered for adoption, but with demand for horses low and the cost of feed high, the government often ends up quartering them on large private ranches, primarily in Kansas and Oklahoma. A local celebrity supporting the private ranch solution is Madeleine Pickens.  According to her website, www.madeleinepickens.com, her goal is "for a wild horse sanctuary that will be a tourist destination similar to our National Parks where Americans and tourists from around the world can come, observe and be a part of this great part of American history."   

The bottom line is that the America's Wild Horse population is dwindling, from over 2 million in the 1800s, to fewer than 33,000. There are now more wild horses in government holding pens than remain in the wild, with many of the remaining herds managed at population levels that do not guarantee their long-term survival. Still, the round-ups continue...There's still time to increase awareness and do our part to save them, for more information: http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/index.html

• Categories:
• federal land,
• helicopter,
• roundups,
• wild horses