The BLM Releases Plan for Extinction of Wild Horses and Burros to Congress
April 27, 2018Urgent! Please Comment Today to Stop BLM’s Gruesome Torture of Wild Mares
June 4, 2018BLM Lays Out Plan for Managing Wild Horses and Burros to Extinction
ALERT!
What you can do to help is at the end of this post.
The Bureau of Land Management Lays Out the Plan to Manage Wild Horses and Burros to Extinction 4/30/18
By Debbie Coffey and Carol Walker
The BLM has submitted a report to Congress “Management Options for a Sustainable Wild Horse and Burro Program” with recommendations on managing the wild horses and burros on our public lands as well as the 46,000 held in short and long term holding facilities.
Some of the suggestions include killing (misidentified as “euthanasia”) 10,000 wild horses and burros, massive roundups of 50,000 wild horses and burros currently on our public lands, then sterilizing 80% of the wild horses and burros that remain, and removing limitations on sale of these wild horses and burros, which exposes them to the risk of sale to slaughter. The options offered in this report would not lead to sustainability, but to the extinction of wild horses and burros on public lands, likely within the next generation or two.
Here is the BLM’s Plan:
The BLM is asking Congress for permission to proceed with these extreme measures, and yet the basis for this plan is rooted in false claims.
“Since receiving federal protection in 1971, wild horse and burro populations on public lands have dramatically increased, far exceeding what is healthy for the land and the animals.”
The BLM’s population estimates remain wildly inaccurate. Wild Horse Freedom Federation prepared a White Paper in 2017, that provided a review of the BLM’s own statistics where, according to the BLM, some herds of horses have increased by as much as 750% to 1,250% in only one year. This is biologically impossible and scientifically indefensible.
The BLM claims “The current overpopulation of wild horses and burros threatens the overall health of the western rangelands, degrading ecosystem function and limiting forage and water available for domestic and wildlife species, including game and nongame species.”
Privately owned livestock vastly outnumber wild horses and burros on public lands. Blaming wild horses and burros for all of the range degradation on our public lands and scapegoating them for loss of sage grouse habitat is at very least without any scientific basis. According to Western Watersheds Project, a conservation non-profit: “Public lands ranching is the most widespread commercial use of public lands in the United States. Ranching is one of the primary causes of native species endangerment in the American West; it is also the most significant cause of non-point source water pollution and desertification.”
Journalist Vickery Eckhoff points out that “the 2014 BLM and USFS livestock grazing receipts ($17.1 million) tell a different story: the equivalent of 2.1 million cattle outnumbering 56,656 federally protected wild horses and burros by 37:1.”
Eckhoff also states, “These privately owned livestock are allocated 97 percent of western forage on all 251 million acres. This is compared to 3 percent allocated to 56,656 wild horses and burros occupying just 29.4 million acres.”
“In establishing the “Appropriate Management Level” (AML) for wild horses and burros on the public lands, the BLM uses scientific principles of rangeland management to determine the population of wild horses and burros that the habitat can sustain.”
When Congress enacted the Wild Free-Roaming Horses & Burros Act of 1971 (16 U.S.C. §§ 1331- 1340), the wild horses & burros were to be protected in their historic herd areas. In 1971, wild horses & burros occupied 53.8 million acres managed by the BLM, but now wild horses and burros are on only 26.9 million acres. The BLM has not only eliminated half the land where wild horses and burros were to be protected, but on the remaining acres, oil and gas, livestock grazing and other uses are squeezing out the wild horses and burros.
Most BLM Land Use Plans, including Resource Management Plans (in effect for 20 years unless revised) and Environmental Assessments, do not even allow for numbers of wild horses or burros that are high enough to maintain a minimum viable herd number in their “Appropriate Management Level” (AML). BLM allows some herds to have only 15-20 animals. There are over 150 wild horses in only 27 of the 148 wild horse Herd Management Areas, and there are over 150 burros in only three of the 30 documented burro herds. If the BLM is allowed to achieve their stated goal of “achieving AML” of only 26,000 wild horses and burros then many of these herds will not remain viable and wild become extinct or be zeroed out.
Dr. E. Gus Cothran, an equine geneticist used by the BLM for decades, has consistently stated that wild horse and burro herds need a minimum of 150-200 members, with at least 150 breeding age adult animals, to sustain genetic diversity in the herd and maintain a viable population.
The BLM harps on the cost of warehousing the 46,000 wild horses and burros purported to be in holding facilities. However, Wild Horse Freedom Federation investigations revealed that only about 1/3 to 1/2 of the wild horses the BLM and their contractors claimed were on many of these facilities were actually there. Wild Horse Freedom Federation’s White Paper detailed this, and we notified members of Congress. All of these wild horses and burros that the BLM claims are in holding, aren’t all there. The missing horses have likely already ended up in the slaughter pipeline. And the wild horses and burros were grazing at no cost on public lands.
Regarding the BLM the BLM’s proposed actions, none of them are in the best interests of wild horses and burros. The BLM wants to reduce the time that it takes for adopters of wild horses and burros to receive title, from 1 year to 6 months. They want to designate any horse over 5, instead of over 10, as a “Sale Authority” horse, subject to sale without limitation, and they want to pay anyone who wants to adopt or purchase a horse or burro $1000. All of these proposals are geared toward making it easier for people to sell their wild horses and burros to slaughter.
Killing the wild horses and burros that the BLM currently holds in both long and short term holding is not euthanasia. Euthansia is putting a suffering animal out of its misery. The BLM would be killing healthy wild horses and burros, and it would most likely be in the ugliest way possible. There would be mass shootings and possibly even aerial shootings, and burials in mass graves. Many could be shipped to slaughter plants in Mexico.
The sterilization of 80% of wild horses and burros that are left on public lands would be inhumane, cruel, dangerous and a guarantee of extinction. Methods that were being considered in 2016 for spaying wild mares included methods that were untested and extremely dangerous, in unsterile environments with no or minimal post operative care and would lead to many dying of infection or trauma. Here are respected Veterinarian Don Moore’s comments on the proposed methods of spaying wild mares:
https://www.wildhoofbeats.com/DonMooreCommentsOregonSpayProposal.pdf
The BLM is proposing “partnerships” with state and local agencies that would allow them to transfer wild horses and burros in large numbers and strip them of any protections from sale or slaughter or other forms of mistreatment. The public needs to be concerned about these, particularly when the wild horses and burros are to be shipped overseas. One proposal that seems to be gaining momentum is to ship thousands of wild horses to Russia to be used as prey (food on hooves) for Siberian tigers. As if this wasn’t ridiculous enough, they are asking that U.S. taxpayers to pay for shipping them to Russia.
The BLM’s failure to manage wild horses and burros on our public lands and their willingness to continue to round up and remove wild horses and burros and then warehouse them leaving far more in captivity than on public lands where they belong is a direct result of pandering to special interest groups, such as grazing and oil and gas exploration. The “crisis” if there is one, is of the BLM’s own making, with decades of mismanagement and lack of responsiveness to wild horses advocates who have many solutions and also volunteers to help keep wild horses wild and free on our public lands, where they belong.
Wild Horse Freedom Federation has recommendations on wild horse and burros management which we have sent to Congress, and you can view these recommendations here: http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/news-alerts/recommendations-wild-horse-burro-management/
What can you do to help?
Take, Mail, email or fax this document https://www.wildhoofbeats.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/BLMLaysOutPlantoManageWildHorsestoExtinction.pdf
plus the WHFF recommendations above to your Senators and Congressmen. Tell them you oppose all of the BLM’s Plan. You can also download Wild Horse Freedom Federation’s White Paper here: http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/white-paper/
How to Contact Congress:
Contact Your Senators:https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/
Contact Your Representatives:https://house.gov/representatives/find/
To find out more about Wild Horse Freedom Federation and our work to keep wild horses and burros wild and free on our public lands visit: www.WildHorseFreedomFederation.org
Our Partner Equine Advocates:
20 Comments
Please leave a wild horses along let the farmers worry about their cattle it’s not our problem the public
please leave the wild horses alone…
They are part of American history!! Leave them alone, wild and free, where God Himself put them! ALL will stand before God one day. BLM too…..
I know that you think they are over taking land, but stop and consider we as humans are over taking everything, control the human population. Animals keep moving trying to find inhabited land and it is impossible, they dont want to be around us, they want to be free. And I am scared for the future of our wild animals and natural habitat, because Trump has no empathy towards the environment or animals.
DONT GET CRAZY. AS A RETIRED FED EMPLOYEE, U HAVE TO LIST ALL “Options” WHEN U DO A STUDY. THIS IS ONE OF MANY OPTIONS
I understand, but in this case all the options, 1-4 are bad.
This study may be “true” regarding the present population, but the OPTIONS are FLAWED, since the land definitely can support population of 2 MILLION CATTLE and millions of sheep. and Grazing fee been cut to 97Cents from $1.87 annually!!!!. but there a OVERPOPULATION of wild horses when there are only 75,000????. BUT NOT OVERPOPULATION OF CATTLE AT 2 MILLION !!!!!????? and millions of sheeps too??? This is FRAUD AND SCAM to kill our wild horses for welfare ranchers like Ted Turner, and Budweiser!!!! and when wildlife goes then they can DRILL, MINE, LOGG, GRAZED AND DESTROY AND POLLUTE EARTH !!!! for the phoney baloney, Federal Reserve Paper dollar !!!!
Is our new wildlife policy basically kill every species that is not “useful” to us. Are all policy decisions directed by hunters and ranchers. Photographers, nature lovers, also use our public lands as do wild species that no other place to go. Enough
How about sterilizing the stallions instead of mares!
Can’t do that . It makes sense. Gelding s will survive. . Spaying mares means fatalities. Isn’t that the idea? They won’t be happy til they’re all gone. Heaven forbid they scrounge out a living on the “ranchers ” public land . Heaven forbid they be in the oil company’s or the mining company’s way.. aren’t we something!
Wild horses and burros are apart of our history and are as important as any historical site or monument and should always be preserved for future generations to view and enjoy. More studies are needed to preserve these animals and avoid such a tragedy by destroying such beautiful animals.
As always, the human species want to take over everything including all animal welfare. Humans came to America, what did we do? We imposed on other humans – the Indians and forced them off their lands. Now we want to eliminate all wildlife including horses and burros which have been here long before humans. This is a disgrace and against God’s law that we as humans are custodians of all animal life.
I truly believed that the root of ALL THE PROBLEMS with animals. ….That HUMANS BELIEVES THEY ARE THE CUSTODIANS OF ALL ANIMAL LIFE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No, humans are just the EXPLOITERS OF ALL ANIMAL LIFE HERE ON Earth !!!!!!!!!!!!!. The bible that made that statement was written up by “man”!!!, NOT BY CREATOR….Creator would NEVER GIVEN HUMANS a PARASITE (created as Animal) to be custodians of anything !!!!. NATURE BEEN CUSTODIANS for 4 billion years and done an excellent job. Humans have even DESTROYED and blown up, and NUKED NATURE, and my friend Elena said, HUMAN EVEN EXPECT GOD TO SERVICE HUMANS !!!!!!!!!!
[…] BLM Lays Out Plan for Managing Wild Horses and Burros to Extinction […]
We will not let you destroy our wild horses and burros not now or ever. Americans Stand up and fight now.
A copy of the letter cited in one of your articles above, written by Dr. Moore. D.V.M. (dated Feb 8, 2016), and his expert opinions regarding the proposed options for sterilization as “trial and error butchery” should be read by all ; including, Congress who will be voting on this deplorable amendment – demand that it be stepped from the FY 2019 BLM Budget Request!
There are so many horse rescues across the United States! There are people who would WANT and care for and love these beautiful animals. If keeping them wild is not an option, then disperse these poor animals out to caring facilities that will rehabilitate and adopt them out. They are beautiful, intelligent animals being regarded as mere meat to slaughter. I cant imagine the fear and stress they are all under, corralled up as prisoners, separated from their herds.
Rightly so “…if there is a crisis it is the BLM” They do create a. humane. and Mustang crisis including a crushing moral crisis. on sensible and sensitive minds. The public at large must act fast before they reach their plan.Stop this gruesome agenda the administration has from top to bottom: Trump to Zinke and Pruitt have scheemed so expeditively to serve private interrests.
This is so cruel. I cannot believe that anyone would do what the BLM has done and planning on doing to animals that have done nothing wrong, – who scrape by every day on the scraps left by the cattle unable to drink from the water that has been polluted by the cattle and to crown it the BLM is planning on ripping out their uterus with no pain meds. no sedation nothing! They call this ‘management’ who are they managing? Not the wild horses and burros. This is shameful and this group of people should be held accountable for their actions because this is a crime!
We Write, call, fax, email, petition, but to no avail. Like the movie Jurassic World…….WE NEED MORE TEETH. BUT WHO, HOW? can we help the wild horses. People …..do something for once in your life. Make it personal.