BLM’s Wild Horse Management: A Call for Reform

For decades, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which oversees hundreds of millions of acres of public land, has opted to spend a significant portion of its budget on a failed policy to remove thousands of “excess” wild horses from the range. Many Americans remain unaware that the federal government devotes more than $50 million each year to stampeding and rounding up horses with helicopters and then stockpiling these free-roaming animals in off-range holding facilities and corrals for the rest of their lives.

But theBLMmight finally move away from this inhumane and dangerous practice, thanks to a historic vote in the U.S. House of Representatives last month. As part of a massive spending bill for the upcoming fiscal year, lawmakers approved an amendment directing theBLMto allocate $11 million of its budget to proven, humanefertility controlto manage wild horses.

The last time the full House voted to protect wild horses was when the Restore Our American Mustangs (ROAM) Act passed in 2009. The bill sought to bolster protections for wild horses and spare them from slaughter. TheSenate, however, failed to approve the measure.

The amendment passed on July 23, championed by Reps. Dina Titus, D-Nev., and Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., along with an impressive list of bipartisan cosponsors, could help set a new course for theBLM’s management strategy at a crucial time.

Last year,Congressawarded theBLMan additional $21 million in the hopes that the agency would finally change its ineffective system of removing wild horses from the range. While the total number of horses in theBLM’s holding facilities has stayed roughly the same since 2012 — 46,000 horses — the agency’s budget has ballooned from $75 million to more than $102 million this year.

Rather than try to rein in costs, theBLM, in a recent report to Congress, proposed to double down on roundups. The agency’s long-term “vision” is to accelerate mass removals to the tune of nearly $1 billion over the next five years alone — with minimal commitment to implementing effectivefertility controlmethods to curb population growth.

Over the years, horse advocates have observed foals dying from exhaustion while trying to keep up with their mothers duringBLMstampedes, and terrorized horses crashing through barbed wire. Recently, a wild mare suffered a broken neck after colliding with a pen during a helicopter roundup in Utah. After she died,BLMwranglers used chains to drag her away. The shocking image of a federally protected animal being treated like trash sparked immediate public outcry.

Although theBLMis charged with protecting our nation’s iconic wild horses under the landmark Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, Acting Director William Perry Pendley recently characterized these animals as an “existential threat” to our public lands. Yet he continues to downplay the impacts oflivestockgrazing, oil or gas drilling, mineral extraction, and other consumptive uses.

That should come as no surprise since Pendley, a critic of thesciencebehind climate change, previously led a legal foundation that represented these same extractive industries against the federal government.

In Nevada, for example, 43 millionBLMacres — most of any state — are authorized for grazing, yet about 47,000 wild horses are restricted to under 16 million acres. Meanwhile, conservative estimates based on agricultural data indicate that livestock in Nevada outnumber wild horses 18 to 1. Even if Pendley and theBLMtruly believe that wild horses, not cattle, are wreaking havoc across the West, the agency should be proactive in implementing safe, effective, and humanefertility controloptions to manage these herds.

The Porcine Zona Pellucida vaccine (commonly known asPZP) has been used successfully for decades on wild horses and enjoys broad support among animal protection groups and in the scientific community as the best option available. By theBLM’s own admission, PZP has no adverse effects on herds, is at least 90% effective, and can reduce or even eliminate the need for roundups.

In 2013, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed theBLM’s management of wild horses and unequivocally recommended PZP for large-scale use. To date, however, theBLMhas been reluctant to embracefertility control, claiming that the PZP vaccine is only a temporary fix on smaller herds and would exhaust staff resources. As Titus noted when speaking in favor of the House amendment, the agency has never spent more than 4% of its budget onfertility control.

Instead, theBLMspends an estimated $48,000 for lifetime care of a single wild horse. Volunteers with the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign), by contrast, darted nearly 1,000 mares with thePZPvaccine in the Virginia Range of Northern Nevada. Their total budget: $182,000.

TheBLMkeeps repeating the same mistakes but expecting a different outcome. Fortunately, House lawmakers have decided to intervene. It is still unclear whether theSenatewill follow. But given the inexplicable stagnation in theBLM’s management plan, the House vote is a reason to be optimistic that America’s wild horses across the rural West might one day regain the respect and freedom they deserve.

Joanna Grossman, Ph.D., is equine program manager for the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington, D.C.

Originally posted by Las Vegas Sun