Senate Committee Moves to Reform Federal Wild Horse Program

In a historic move, the Senate Appropriations aligns with the House on directingBLMto utilize humanefertility control.

Washington, DC (October 18, 2021) — Today, the nation’s leading wild horse protection organization, theAmerican Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign), commended the U.S.SenateAppropriations Committee on a historic move to protect the West’s wild horses in its fiscal year 2022 Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related agencies today.

Championed by Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), the appropriations bill sets aside $11 million in dedicated funding to “implement a robust and humanefertility controlstrategy of reversible immunocontraceptive vaccines.” The further provided acknowledgment that these tools are available now and that removals alone are counterproductive. The language states theBLMmust report back within 45 days with its strategy for a vaccination initiative—a move to ensure the agency is held accountable.

“We applaud the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee for taking a historic step toward reforming the Wild Horse and Burro Program by providing $11 million in funding for reversiblefertility controlvaccines — a humane on-range management strategy that will ultimately help keep these animals in the wild where they belong,”said Holly Gann Bice, Director of Government Relations for AWHC.“We’re deeply grateful to Senator Booker, subcommittee Chair Jeff Merkley, and others for providing the necessary leadership to place theBLMon a more sustainable and fiscally responsible track for the humane management of our Western herds.”

At the same time, AWHC expressed disappointment that the bill provides increased funding for roundups and removals, meanwhile anew reportshows that livestock, not wild horses, are a significant cause of land degradation on the 12% ofpublic landsdesignated as wild horse habitat. Environmental organizations, such as Sierra Club and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER),have recently called forthe removal of privately-owned cows and sheep from wild horse and burro habitat due to the overgrazing and degradation these animals contribute to onpublic lands.

Currently, theBLMspends less than 1% of its Wild Horse and Burro Program budget onfertility control, but spends approximately $60 million in taxpayer dollars annually rounding up horses from the range and keeping them in long-term holding facilities indefinitely. Thisbrutal roundupprocess often results in injury or death.

In May 2020, under the previous administration, theBLMreleased a management plan that called for the removal of more than 90,000 wild horses and burros frompublic landsover the next five years. The plan would balloon the number of horses and burros warehoused in holding pens and cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion in the first five years alone.

Importantly, theSenateInterior bill maintains long-standing, critical provisions intended to prevent wild horses and burros from being sent to slaughter. The committee further called for the Interior Department to set up an interagency council to address wild horse and burro management. Taken together, these recommendations could result in meaningful reforms to the broken federalWild Horse and Burro Program.

Finally, in a new development, the Committee recognized that removals of wild horses from the range can have the “unintended effect of increasing foaling,” echoing a key finding of theNational Academy of Sciences report, which stated thatroundupscan accelerate population growth rates through a biological phenomenon calledcompensatory reproduction.

About AWHC

TheAmerican Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign)(AWHC) is the nation's leading wild horse protection organization, with more than 700,000 supporters and followers nationwide. AWHC is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse and burros in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage. In addition to advocating for the protection and preservation of America's wild herds, AWHC implements the largest wild horsefertility controlprogram in the world through a partnership with the State of Nevada for wild horses that live in the Virginia Range near Reno.

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