Critics Protest BLM Wild Mustang Roundup Plans

Over 6,000 citizens have voiced their opposition to the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) plan to round up and remove hundreds of wild horses from Eastern Oregon. This plan has sparked significant concern among conservation groups and the public.

At the heart of the issue are Oregon’s historic Timber Horses, residing in the Malheur National Forest and surroundingpublic lands, which form the Murderers Creek Herd Management Area (HMA) and Wild Horse Territory. Thesemustangsare genetically unique, descending from Native American horses, New World Iberian breeds, and horses that aided early settlers.

The opposition was submitted in response to theBLM’s request for comments on aPreliminary Environmental Assessmentof its plan to round up and remove 338 Murderers Creekmustangsover the next decade, reducing the herd to just 50 horses.

“This is just one example of the government reducing a wild horse herd to a dangerously low number of animals, which jeopardizes the long-term genetic health of the herd,” saidSuzanne Roy, director of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign). “It’s time for theBLMto listen to the American public. For too long, this agency has ignored public sentiment and galloped ahead with its costly wild horse roundup program, to the detriment of American taxpayers and America’s cherished wild horses.”

TheBLM’s plan would add hundreds more horses to government holding facilities, which are nearly at capacity with 50,000 wild horses. A recent investigative news article published by ProPublica indicates that theBLMhas stockpiled so many horses that it has turned to the illegal sale of wild horses to a known “kill buyer,” resulting in over 1,700 federally protected wild horses likely being sent to Mexico for slaughter.

“TheBLM’s plan to round up hundreds of Oregonmustangsat a time when the agency’s holding pens are full demonstrates its lack of commitment to a sustainable program,” said Ginger Kathrens, founder and director of The Cloud Foundation, an AWHC coalition partner. “Americans need to know that the 50,000 wild horses captured and warehoused by theBLMare in imminent danger of slaughter so long as this agency continues along the same, untenable path.”

The American Wild Horse Conservation and The Cloud Foundation submitted public comments requesting that theBLMimplement an alternative management plan for the Murderers Creek horses. This plan would utilize PZP birth control to humanely manage reproduction while accommodating present wild horse population numbers by reducinglivestockgrazing in the complex. This proposal was endorsed by approximately 6,000 public comments submitted on the proposedBLMMurderers Creek roundup.

In the last four years, under Secretary Salazar’s tenure, theBLMhas rounded up and removed over 35,000 wild horses from their homes on Westernpublic lands. Only a third of these horses have been adopted, the groups said.

Most captured horses are warehoused in holding facilities. Currently, there are more wild horses in government holding facilities (50,000) than are left free on the range (32,000).

The critics said wild horses are removed by the thousands frompublic landsto make room for taxpayer-subsidized livestock grazing. Private livestock exceed wild horses onBLMlands by at least 50-1. In Murderers Creek, theBLMauthorizes five times more privately-owned livestock than federally-protected wild horses to graze this designated wild horse habitat area.

The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign) is a coalition of more than 50 horse advocacy, public interest, and conservation organizations dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come.

The Cloud Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of wild horses and burros on our Westernpublic landswith a focus on protecting Cloud’s herd in the Pryor Mountains of Montana.

Originally posted by KTVZ.com