Wild Horse Advocates Challenge BLM's Plan to Remove 1,300 Horses

Wild Horse Advocates Challenge BLM's Plan to Remove 1,300 Horses

The overheated debate between the federal government and animal advocates over the removal of wildmustangsfrom the Western range ticked a few degrees higher after the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced plans to takefewerhorses from the land this summer.

Even though its holding capacity for captured wild horses has nearly reached its limit at 50,000 animals nationwide, the agency said last week that it would remove 1,300 horses in the coming months, many of which might otherwise die from lack of food and water.

Animal advocates say 1,300 horses is still too many and question theBLM’s rationale for the removals.

Nine of theBLM's 16 summerroundupswill be conducted in Nevada, home to roughly half of the estimated 37,000 free-roaming wild horses and burros in the West. The agency plans to remove 855 wild horses and burros in Nevada, 140 in Oregon, 105 in Arizona, 65 in New Mexico, 50 in Colorado, and 25 in Idaho, the agency saidin a news release.

On Tuesday, the agency said it would relocate 50 wild horses threatened by drought from an area two hours north of Las Vegas.BLMofficials said, “it is anticipated that as an act of mercy, some animals with a poor prognosis for survival may need to be humanely euthanized to end their suffering.”

“The drought conditions are so severe we’re going to see die-offs,”BLMspokesman Tom Gorey told the Los Angeles Times.

TheBLMhas been closely monitoring drought conditions and since early July has been supplementing the natural water seeps, filling tubs and troughs with water and providing hay to the horses. Unfortunately, these animals are extremely skittish and will not drink from the man-made containers. Even with the extra water, the seeps do not provide enough water to sustain them, Gorey said.

“It’s contrary to the cliché -- we’re bringing the water to the horse, but the animals still won’t drink it,” he told The Times. “Horses will die. It’s not going to be pretty.”

TheBLMhas been under fire for what many have called its failing policies toward wild horses, who have been blamed for range damage despite the fact that their numbers are heavily overshadowed by grazing domestic cattle.

An independent scientific review of the agency’s horseroundups, released in May, recommended that the government invest in widespread fertility control of themustangsand let nature cull any excess herds instead of spending millions to house them in overflowing holding pens.

The 14-member panel assembled by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council and Management concludedBLM's removal of nearly 100,000 horses from the Western range over the last decade is probably having the opposite effect of its intention to ease ecological damage and reduce overpopulated herds.

In June, 30 members of theHouse of Representativesurged new U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to reform the government'swild horse managementprogram and its spiraling budget, which is dominated by the high cost of corralling and removing the animals from the range.

For the 2013 fiscal year, which ends in September, theBLMplans to remove 4,800mustangsfrom the range, compared with 8,255 in the last fiscal year, Gorey said, adding that the reduction is due to overstocked corrals.

In a statement, the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation) coalition criticized theBLM's plans.

"TheBLMis galloping ahead with rounding up more wild horses, despite the high cost to taxpayers and animals as well as the findings of an independent scientific review, which recommends against continuedroundups," said coalition spokeswoman Suzanne Roy. "The agency still has not gotten the message that the removal of wild horses from our Western public lands is inhumane, unsustainable, unscientific, and must come to an end.”

Six of the Nevadaroundupswill employ contract helicopters to drive the animals to pens, while the rest of the operations will use bait and water to trap them in corrals.

Sally Summers, founder of the Reno-based group Horse Power, which has called for a stop to the capturing of horses and burros, said theBLM’s planned areas for its water traps is the same area that is at the center of a lawsuit by advocates for better monitoring access of helicopterroundups.

“They’re doing water traps because they knew we won’t have access to monitor what they’re doing,” Summers told The Times. “Do they make sure there is enough water in those traps? Do they check them enough times a day to collect horses out in the middle of the heat? We won’t know, because they won’t let us near those traps to watch their tactics.”

She added: "TheBLMis tired of people picking it apart. They want to do what they do in secrecy.”

Gorey lashed back at critics.

“The opponents of our horse gathers face a daunting question of ethics,” he told The Times. "On one hand, they imply that if Mother Nature kills off the horses from thirst or starvation, that’s OK. But if we intervene to save these horses, that’s unacceptable.”

“Where is the reasoning in that argument? I don’t see it.”

Originally Posted By Los Angeles Times