Federal Government's Plan to Control Wild Horse Population

August 31, 2018

DENVER (CBS4) – Taxpayers foot the bill to the tune of $80 million every year to care for wild horses currently being held in pens across the West. The Secretary of the Interior wants to change that.

SecretaryRyan Zinkeis proposing permanently sterilizing those horses and releasing them back intopublic lands. The idea is controversial. But even wild horse advocates agree something needs to change as the population grows unchecked, causing food shortages and water woes.

Wild horses live in large sections ofpublic landscalled ranges. Each is managed differently.

Cindy Wright with Wild Horse Warriors for Sand Wash Basin was part of a group of volunteers who trucked water into the Sand Wash Basin for horses due to this year’s drought with shrinking supplies.

Supporters are cautious to get excited about Zinke’s proposal but they are happy to see some renewed discussion about what to do about the issue.

Currently, the herds are thinned by rounding up some horses from the wild and putting those animals in holding pens until they are adopted. Most never are.

All along, taxpayers foot the bill to care for the horses.

The horses andwild burrosare federally protected. The Bureau of Land Management is charged with controlling and managing the population.

The issue is heated. Horse advocates have accused the BLM of treating the horses unfairly. Often, horses are killed in the process of rounding up the animals. Usually, a helicopter is used to drive the herd into pens before hauling some of the animals off to the holding facilities.

Wild horse advocates differ on exactly what they think should happen, but all of the different groups agree something must be done.

Zinke did not have a timetable as to when any changes to how the horses are managed could be made, but says it is a priority.

Originally posted by CBS Denver