Wild Horses in Oregon Threatened by Livestock Industry: How You Can Help Now!

Beginning inearly November, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) helicopters will descend on the remote Beatys Butte Herd Management Area (HMA) in southern Oregon. Their target: 1,500 federally-protectedwild horsesliving peacefully on nearly 400,000 acres of public land in that area.

When the roundup is over, the lives of these noblemustangswill be shattered – their families torn apart, their freedom just a memory. Some will not survive the roundup, perishing from injuries sustained during the helicopter stampede or in the trap pens. Many more will perish in the months following the roundup in the holding facilities where they will be held in feedlot pens for “processing” and warehousing.

America’s wild horses and burros areprotected under federal lawas “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; that … enrich the lives of the American people.” The law is supposed to protectwild free-roaming horsesand burros from “capture, branding, harassment, or death.”

So What is Going on Here?

Two words:livestock industry. The ranchers that form the Beatys Butte Grazing Association hold permits to graze cattle on the public lands designated as habitat for the Beatys Buttewild horses. These ranchers pay grazing fees that are a fraction of market rate, thanks to our tax subsidies. They view mustangs – cherished by millions of Americans – as competition for this cheap grazing, and they want them gone. They have been lobbying theBLMto removewild horsesfrom the area. TheBLM, an agency run by and for the ranchers, is only too happy to comply.

The American taxpayers, whostrongly supportwild horse protection, but will pay $1 million for the helicopter roundup and as much as $75 million for the lifetime warehousing of the horses in a system where an astounding 50,000 capturedmustangsand burros are already stockpiled.

In 2013, theNational Academy of Sciences recommendedthat theBLMutilize humane fertility control strategies – including thePZPbirth control vaccine — as an alternative to the costly removals of animals for managing population numbers. ThePZPvaccine has been used for more than two decades to successfully and humanely manage wildlife populations – including wild horses – throughout the world.

Instead of heeding the NAS’ recommendations and utilizing available technology to humanely manage wild horses on the range, theBLMcontinues to wring its hands and claim that the only thing it can do is remove more and more wild horses from the range. This attitude has resulted in the absurd situation we have today with as many wild horseswarehoused in holding facilitiesas remain free on the range.

Helping Oregon’s Horses

In Oregon, as nationally,wild horsesare present on less than 20 percent ofBLMland grazed bylivestock. Conflicts between ranchers and wild horses can be resolved – there is a will and there is a way:

• BLM must stop the brutal roundups and start humanely managingwild horseson the range utilizing the best option available today – the PZP birth control vaccine.
• BLM must start treating wild horses and burros fairly by increasing the numbers of these iconic animals that are allowed to live on our public lands and reducing livestock grazing in wild horse and burro habitat.
• BLM should offer retirement of livestock grazing permits in mustang country and create a mechanism to allow for compensation of ranchers for non-use of their grazing permits. This will be far more cost-effective than continuing to round up, remove and stockpilewild horsesin holding facilities.

Sign the petition against the Mega Mustang Roundup in Oregonand join the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation) efforts to Keep Wild Horses and Burros Wild.

Originally Posted By One Green Planet