The BLM vs. Our Wild Mustangs: A Call for Humane Management

Brenda Love Bennett discusses the controversial plan by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sterilize wild mustangs, highlighting the need for humane alternatives. The article explores the implications of this plan and presents thePZPcontraceptive vaccine as a viable solution supported by advocacy groups.

Seriously, what is theBLMthinking? It is indeed stunning to see federal land managers poised to use the most backwards and inhumane method possible as a way to manage our nation's wild horses (Agency to sterilize mustangs for first time to slow growth, June 26, 2016).

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced this plan during a heated congressional hearing recently, which saw one, sole horse advocate outnumbered by politicians and agricultural interests who would just as soon see every mustang removed from the range.

Advocate Ginger Kathrens rightly pointed out that there are better, more humane ways to manage horses and help clean up the mess theBLMhas made for itself via its system ofroundupsand removals.

For years, the agency has used helicopters to terrify and chase downmustangsand remove them from the range. Some are adopted out, but most spend out their lives in taxpayer-funded holding corrals — wild no more.

Ironically, rather than control horse numbers, theseroundupsmerely drive herds to breed more, creating an endless cycle of crisis and spiraling costs.

TheBLMcurrently spends 72 percent of its budget onroundupsand the warehousing of an astounding 44,000 captured wild horses in government holding facilities.

Meanwhile, less than 1 percent of theBLMwild horse program's budget is spent on humane fertility control that costs around $26 per dose: ThePZPcontraceptive vaccine.

PZPis safe, humane and effective. Rather than sterilization, which is invasive, expensive and inhumane,PZPis flexible and reversible. It's been used successfully in numerous herd management areas, including on the Assateague Island National Seashore since 1994. Also,PZPhas been used successfully in herd management programs such as the Spring Creek Basin and Little Book Cliffs here in Colorado.

The use ofPZPas an alternative toroundupsand removals is supported by three dozen U.S. wild horse advocacy groups.

The agency has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on an unsustainable roundup and removal scheme that has backfired horribly. Are we now going to let theBLMwaste millions more on risky and inhumane sterilization experiments that most certainly will damage the health of horses and their herds?

Not to mention that much of theBLM's panic about "overpopulation" on the range is not substantiated byscience. The "Appropriate Management Levels" the agency uses to set population isn't based onscience, but is an arbitrary system. The National Academy of Sciences, in a 2013 report, called out theBLMon this, stating that it "could not identify a science-based rationale" behind the AMLs.

The truth is, only 3 percent of western forage on western grazing land is inhabited by wild horses. That's roughly one horse per 500 acres — hardly overpopulation.

TheBLMis charged with preserving our nation's iconic wild horses and three-fourths of all Americans support this mission, while 80 percent of Americans — including 90 percent of women — oppose horse slaughter.

As we seek a better way forward, let's not replace it with one that's worse for animals and has untold consequences. Better to usescienceto determine what actually is "appropriate" in terms of horse population and, if necessary, to manage horses in a safe, effective and humane manner with the established and currently availablePZPbirth control vaccine.

To speak up for our wildmustangs, contact President Barack Obama at 202-456-1111 orwww.whitehouse.gov/contact, or members of Colorado's congressional delegation.

Originally posted by Daily Camera