wild horses
Mustangs in Nevada have long been at the center of unprecedented controversy. And with their population rising above the Bureau of Land Management’s sanctioned number, the debate carries on.
Photo: Brian T. Murphy
As I climb into Willis Lamm’s Ford pickup I briefly glance back at the mustangs. With my excitement ebbing, the gravity of the previous few hours sinks in. I was temporarily a part of that band—an awkward two-legged outsider nonetheless—permitted to walk among one of the West’s proudest symbols. Early last fall, Lamm, president of Least Resistance Training Concepts, and Bonnie Matton, president of the Wild Horse Preservation League, took me to the Virginia Range east of Dayton to introduce me to some of their closest friends, Nevada’s wild horses.
Anyone who has read a Nevada publication in the last couple decades knows that wild horses, and the issues surrounding them and their range, remain among the most controversial topics in the state. Although the controversy has evolved into an emotional, convoluted collection of opposing viewpoints, everything relates to two main issues: the horses’ sharing of land and resources with free-ranging livestock and the methods with which state and federal government manage the mustang population. Those issues are closely related to the niche wild horses fill on the range, where they fall in the spectrum of animals sharing the habitat, and the debate over whether they should be considered a feral (introduced) or reintroduced species.
According to Jay Kirkpatrick, director of the Science and Conservation Center in Billings, Montana, ancestors of modern horses started evolving in North America about four million years ago. The most recent ancestor to exist on the continent, Equus lambei, went extinct about 12,000 years ago. Kirkpatrick goes on to say DNA analysis shows that this extinct species is the genetic equivalent of the modern horse that was reintroduced into North America in the 1500s by Spanish explorers, and that modern horses, E. caballus, could have evolved nowhere else but North America. Kirkpatrick’s findings point to wild horses deserving consideration as indigenous, not feral—as common belief for more than a century suggests—animals.
By 1900, there were as many as 2 million wild horses in North America. During the following decades, that number fell sharply as the horses were increasingly captured and domesticated for private and military use and slaughtered for consumption. During the 1950s, activists such as Velma Johnston, better known as Wild Horse Annie, pressured government to pass a bill prohibiting the use of aircraft or motorized vehicles to hunt wild horses, and in 1959 the Wild Horse Annie Act went into law. The decree only stoked the flames of public outcry, and The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 was implemented. In its declaration of policy, Congress said, “Wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people; and that these horses and burros are fast disappearing from the American scene.” Under the law, mustang populations around the country were protected from capture, branding, harassment, and death. The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service (most herd areas are under BLM jurisdiction) were charged with implementing the act and managing herds on public land with an emphasis on maintaining a “natural ecological balance.” Counts conducted following the passage of the act set the number of animals that the BLM and Forest Service were responsible for maintaining.
According to Susie Stokke, Wild Horse and Burro Lead for the BLM, there are about 18,800 mustangs in 102 BLM Herd Management Areas (HMAs) across Nevada. That number does not include close to 1,000 wild horses on state-owned and private lands. She says the ideal number—to maintain the aforementioned balance—is about 12,600. “We have been trying to get to the proper number (of animals) for the last decade,” Stokke says, and according to BLM studies and counts, that can only be accomplished if the surplus animals are removed from the range. Currently, roundups are the primary method with which the BLM attempts to control population. “We want healthy animals and healthy range lands,” Stokke says. She is well aware that the BLM’s wild-horse program elicits strong emotions. “People are very passionate about the horses,” she says. “We’re very passionate about them, too. I love them.”
A dozen Nevada roundups in 2008 removed 3,837 horses according to BLM Deputy State Director Michael Holbert. The number of animals captured each year during roundups in 2006 and 2007 were between 3,000 and 4,000 as well. Once the horses are gathered, they are transported to holding facilities, such as the Palomino Valley National Wild Horse and Burro Center, about 20 miles north of Sparks, and are prepared for adoption. But they are not being adopted in large enough numbers.
Stokke cites the nation’s struggling economy as one of the biggest factors contributing to a steadily declining rate of adoption. This means that the horses are held in facilities like Palomino Valley for much longer than intended, a situation that cost the BLM about three quarters of its $37 million budget in 2008 and prevented the agency from having enough funding to properly manage other parts of the wild horse program, according to Stokke.
Advocacy groups, such as The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, argue that the range can support even more horses than it currently does, making adoptions and holding facilities like Palomino Valley unnecessary. The groups claim that the BLM gives preferential treatment to livestock—such as cattle and sheep for which ranchers lease grazing privileges—on public lands around the state, resulting in an inaccurate assessment of the appropriate sustainable numbers for wild horses. Furthermore, according to Lamm, the horses can graze in areas where cattle and sheep cannot survive, and wild horses are not responsible for overgrazing. In Paula Morin’s book, Honest Horses: Wild Horses in the Great Basin, Bob Brown, a retired wild horse specialist for the BLM’s Ely Field Office, argues to the contrary. He says that when horses graze they bite small plants low enough to remove the roots, making it so the plants have no chance to regenerate. “If horses were left unchecked, they would be the last to survive out there,” he says. Independent studies support the arguments of both sides, contributing to this fundamental discrepancy that has yet to find a compromise.
In 2004 the controversial Burns Amendment was enacted to provide an alternative to long-term holding. The amendment changed the language of the 1971 legislation to allow for the open sale of horses that have not been adopted after three tries. This is an attempt to defray some of the costs—each horse held at Palomino Valley costs the BLM $4 to $5 per day according to JD Parsons, assistant facility manager—and alleviate pressure on holding facilities. Activists strongly oppose the amendment on the grounds that horses put up for sale stand a greater chance of being slaughtered, as horse meat is regularly consumed and considered a delicacy in countries such as Belgium, France, and Japan and still used to feed zoo animals and exotic pets worldwide.
Stokke emphasizes that the BLM does not want any of the horses it sells under the amendment to be slaughtered, but that it is a possibility if the horses are sold without limitations. She adds that even though the law mandates that horses that are not adopted after three tries can be euthanized, killing these horses remains an exceedingly unlikely option. “I know of no BLM employee who would want to be in the position of having to put down a healthy horse,” she says. Failing increases in adoption rates, the best option for the BLM seems to be more funding. “The BLM needs about $60 million to operate this program in 2009,” she says. Congress has proposed a budget between $35 and $36 million. Stokke points to rising costs of hay for adoption facilities and fuel for transporting the horses as the main reasons the agency needs a larger budget.
Some people, such as Ely rancher Hank Vogler, say they have seen starving mustangs and are open to humane slaughter. “The horses are the ones that suffer,” he says. “Starvation is a terrible, agonizing death. It’s a travesty.” Vogler adds that restrictions on humane slaughter in the U.S. (the last three horse meat abattoirs were ordered closed in 2007 according to an Associated Press article) encourage some people to ship horses to Mexico, where he says slaughter practices are downright gruesome. In a video on The Humane Society’s Web site, a horse is repeatedly stabbed in the neck until its spinal column is broken.
Brown contends that slaughter in the U.S. is a more humane option. “The animals (sheep and cattle) go down instantly, there’s no chance for them to feel anything,” he says. In the U.S., slaughterhouses use what is called a captive bolt gun which thrusts a heavy steel rod into the forehead of animals, leading to a quicker, less painful death. In September 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption. The bill, however, was not taken up by the Senate.
The amount of mustangs on the range can vary greatly year to year, adding further challenges to effective population control. Statistics concerning wild-horse reproduction and survival rates vary greatly depending on their source. Regardless, there is no refuting that if unchecked, wild-horse populations have the potential to climb even farther above the number set by the Free-Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act. In a 1982 National Academy of Science report cited by the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, wild-horse populations throughout the West experience annual increases of less than 10 percent, while the 1971 study conducted on behalf of the BLM suggests an annual increase of about 20 percent. A 2004 essay from the USDA National Wildlife Research Center titled, “Evaluation of Three Contraceptive Approaches for Population Control in Wild Horses,” puts the rate between 15 and 20 percent. A difference of five to 10 percent might seem small, but when dealing with tens of thousands of animals over many years, it can equate to huge discrepancies.
A 1992 article in RANGE magazine points to an episode in Southern Nevada on the Nellis Air Force Range in which a herd of 1,000 horses increased to 10,000 in “little more than a decade.” The article, “Wild Horses: No Home on the Range?” describes the sickening condition of many of the removed horses that suffered from extreme dehydration and starvation. “Down at Nellis there were colts that were just dried as prunes, not one but dozens of them,” says Dave Cattoor, a contractor for the BLM who worked on the roundup. “Their little mouths were caked with mud. We had to rinse the mud out before you could feed them,” he says. This population explosion represents an annual increase of more than 25 percent.
With adoptions dwindling and the strong sentiment opposed to any kind of slaughter, many see fertility control as a viable and acceptable means to prevent such extreme situations as that which occurred at Nellis. The USDA essay regarding birth control aimed to find contraceptives that were safe, potentially reversible, effective for several years, and had minimal affect on reproductive or harem maintenance behavior. The study concluded that the two tested vaccines prevented pregnancy in all of the 27 mares tested, while the other contraceptive prevented pregnancy in 10 out of 15. The study also found that none of the contraceptives had adverse effects on the health or behavior of the horses. According to the essay, further research is needed to evaluate the longevity of the birth-control measures, and only one of them is currently approved for use.
A continuing barrier to this method of population control, according to Stokke, is the cost and logistics of administering contraceptives that, for all intents and purposes, are not proven beyond one-year effectiveness. The horses still must be gathered, and the time and potential risk involved in administering birth control is far greater than that for regular roundups.
Stokke says that the BLM wouldn’t be able to treat enough animals for the contraceptives to help control the population. “We have to catch the horses, bring them in, and apply it,” Stokke says. “We turn them back out and won’t catch them again for four or five years, so there is currently no practical means of remotely applying fertility control to thousands of horses across millions of acres.”
The question of whether there is a viable solution remains. Although there are situations in which the conflicting factions work together—advocates that protest BLM roundups also help by promoting adoptions, and the ranchers pay close attention to the range so that it can sustain both their livestock and wild horses—certain key issues remain uncompromised on. Are there too many horses on the range? Is it worse to slaughter mustangs or risk their starvation when and if their numbers grow too unwieldy for the range to support? Is birth control for wild animals a realistic answer to population control?
But, for all of their differences, practically everyone involved with Nevada’s wild horses shares a common goal: to ensure the wellbeing of these magnificent animals. The horses have no control; their fates lie in the hands of these people and the hope that they can continue to work together on behalf of the animals they all care for so deeply.
As we left the band of Virginia Range horses, I thought about the future of these animals and wondered if such compromises were possible. My reflection was interrupted when the lead mare cautiously approached me. After a moment of eye contact I surmised that it was safe to raise my hand toward her face. She gave it a few sniffs and allowed me to lightly stroke her nose. Lamm and Matton were astonished; apparently she doesn’t let just anyone pet her. I like to think she knew I was there for a good reason.
Water Shortages
In the Virginia Range east of Dayton, water is sparse in late summer and early fall. With more and more water being used to hydrate the ever-growing suburban areas around Reno and Carson City, domestic cattle and wild horses in the area are faced with increasing challenges to their survival. That is where people like Willis Lamm and Dell Brandt come in. The two volunteer countless hours to provide watering troughs for animals in the region. Lamm makes it clear that they provide water only, not food. While the horses use the troughs just as they would a natural spring, feeding them would create a dangerous dependence on humans. “Feeding these animals would be a death sentence,” he says.
CONTACT
Least Resistance Training Concepts
whmentors.org
Adoption
“We don’t see sick horses coming in off the range,” says JD Parsons, assistant facility manager at the Palomino Valley National Wild Horse and Burro Center. “These animals are much hardier than domestic horses.” The mustangs taken to adoption facilities such as Palomino Valley are prepared for adoption by BLM staff and volunteers. In addition to giving the animals all the necessary vaccines, the facility occasionally offers a $100 price cut from the regular $125 adoption fee. Parsons adds that another advantage to adopting mustangs is that with the proper attention, they take to training very well. “They’re basically a clean slate,” he says.
If the only thing keeping you from adopting a mustang is the challenge of training it, a prison horse adoption might be for you. Prisoners at the Warm Springs Correctional Center in Carson City work with mustangs for 120 days before the horses are put up for adoption. The adoptions can be successful—the last one, in October 2008, found a home for every horse. The next adoption is set for February 21.
CONTACTS
Palomino Valley National Wild Horse and Burro Center
wildhorseandburro.blm.gov
775-475-2222
Nevada Department of Corrections, Warm Springs Correctional Center
doc.nv.gov/wscc
775-861-6469
CONTACTS
Bureau of Land Management
Nevada State Office
1340 Financial Blvd., Reno
blm.gov/nv
775-861-6400
The American Wild Horse
Preservation Campaign
P.O. Box 926, Lompoc, CA 93438
wildhorsepreservation.com
877-853-4696
Wild Horse Preservation League
P.O. Box 1858, Dayton, NV 89403
wildhorsepl.org
775-220-6806
Least Resistance Training Concepts
whmentors.org
The Humane Society of The United States
2100 L St., NW, Washington, D.C.
hsus.org
202-452-1100
State of Nevada Commission for the Preservation of Wild Horses
885 Eastlake Blvd., Carson City
wildhorse.nv.gov
775-849-3625
WORTH A READ
Honest Horses: Wild Horses in the Great Basin, by Paula Morin. University of Nevada Press, unpress.nevada.edu, 775-784-6579. 408 pages. Visit “Battle-Born Books” for a review.
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Comments
Everyone should remember that these are horses, and that they can be used. If they need to be managed, catch some, break them to ride, then sell them. That should manage them enough that the problems should go away. Also, you can make a lot of money doing this.
The wild horse or mustang is a American Indians culture and should not be destroyed because the greed for oil and gas lease. It is a known fact the BLM destroyed 1,700 wild horses in Colorado and wiped out the west Douglas Mountain herd near Rangely, CO by a bounty hunter, beside shipping wild horses to Mexico for slaughter. It shows that the BLM is not doing their job even the losses of three National Parks in Utah and Arizona.
The public lands should be shared with both the wild horses and the private livestock. No one should receive better treatment. You ranchers need to understand that this land is public lands. Sit aside in a public trust. I’m sure you understand that many states do not have any free grazing. The ranches have to feed their own livestock.They have to grow their own grains and hay, why do you people think that this is some God-given right? Well, I’m sorry to tell you it is not.
Open a season on them, and manage them like the animals they are.
One thing that has to be remembered is that these horses aren’t really wild, they were never native to North America. Settlers and explorers brought them here as a tool and breeding stock to get more tools. Ranchers successfully managed these animals and used them as a tool, as a renewable resource. They are just livestock that has gotten away. They belonged to substantial land owners who used them and managed them in a humane manner, such as cattle and sheep before 1971 when the government intervened taking over the horse herds. Is the government really looking out for the horses well being? They cannot manage the herd in the same sense because they are not around the horse herds as much as ranchers had been. I believe the most successful way of gathering these horses with the less stress possible is using traps.
I used to live in Nevada. My grandparents rescued a whole herd, and it was awesome. We had so many horses we just let them out into the big pastures and then they grazed on the grass out there since we would run out of food for our horses. It was really cool to see them all fed and happy; then we found out most of the mares were pregnant, not full, so we had babies all over the place since we saved the horses we could of kept them but we sold them and made a really good fortune off of them. I really miss seeing all the horses.
Let us not shirk from the truth. The photos of the wild horse roundups — massacres — contain images far too graphic to post here, but they speak volumes about the wild horse roundups, and the issues have nothing to do with BLM’s allegations, nor have they ever.
Awesome little scenery. Make some more next time.
I grew up in Nevada and loved it whenever I saw wild horses. Rounding horses up with helicopters is cruel. I can’t understand how anyone can think that is OK. How anyone that cares about horses can watch them fall and be trampled and injured and not be sickened by it shocks me. And I am sick of the stupid argument about wild or feral and native or not…PLEASE! The cattle of today aren’t what they were either—no longhorns out there…bred away for man’s ease. So—no wild horses…the new cow doesn’t belong either—with that thinking applied. You fence off the horses from water, but the cattle get water, and our tax dollars pay for it. Public grazing rights-—the wild horses deserve access to water, too. My tax dollars pay for it. We seem to only want natural habitat…horse, burro, cow, coyote, etc. that doesn’t make our lives uncomfortable, especially in the purse. How many times have I followed hikers that leave their plastic water bottles?—enjoying nature and destroying it. Horses were needed and respected before helicopters, cars, etc. They have earned their right to life.
I respect the knowledge gathered and applied in this article, but, as the first comment notes, the cattle industry is the main issue here. Humans, again, are at fault. Not only have our animal-consuming ways polluted our bodies and the surrounding environment, it’s consistently at odds with other surrounding ecosystems dehydration symptoms. In other words, our insistent need to manipulate the environment around us to make our dear dollars throw off the eco-balance so to speak. (I’ve distanced myself as much as possible through a vegetarian lifestyle.)
So, how do we humans make up for our mistakes? We blame it on the horses, who have every right to live there as they please. But, people believe it’s in the way of commerce. It’s sad how humankind believes dominion means domination.
Once again the hypocritical horse lobby’s ignorance of the true situation is EPIC! The Warm Springs Canyon HMA in the Calico Hills Horse Management Area has not had cows for over three years due to lack of adequate feed and water. The Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge has not had cattle in almost 20 years, both have the worst environmental damage and horse foals as well as native wildlife are dying! Most of the Feral Horses in Nevada are living on 10 percent of the best land we have. The situation will not just go away without intervention. The Wild Horse & Burro Act was enacted for the purpose of protecting wild horses and burros as part of the natural system of the public lands. In the Wild Horses Act, Congress gave the Secretary of the Interior the authority to manage populations of wild horses and burros “in a manner that is designed to achieve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance on the public lands.” Nevada’s wildlife, including the wild horse, are starving because of you and anybody that argues that the Calico Hills Complex or the Sheldon Refuge can support as many horses as it currently does should get out of the house more. Do not let your hatred for the cattle industry and your ignorance overshadow the most important issue our great states wild lands and the native wildlife in it. There are no horses in Yellowstone or Yosemite National Parks because they would destroy the parks like they are destroying Nevada’s high desert and its native wildlife. You are probably thinking, this guy doesn’t like horses! Not true. I have never owned a cow, but I have owned over 20 horses in my 65 years. The difference is I MANAGED mine. You people want to make decisions from your warm & fuzzy San Francisco townhouse that effect many animal and bird species in our state. How do you know more than the BLM range biologists and local residents that are out there every day? When was the last time you got out of your front room to Nevada’s high sage country to see or be shown the obvious damage done by the overpopulated feral horse? Get out of your arm chair by the fire place, come on up to the Black Rock Desert and see what you are helping to destroy, I will show the truth! I live in the Black Rock Desert, and we see it being destroyed bite by bite every day. Nevada is one of the most environmentally sensitive states in our great country and deserves better than to be turned into a horse corral.
What I think is that they’re not mustangs, their horses that were used by all the ranches, and the ranches turned them out, and the BLM said they’re mustangs. The horses here used to be little inbred horses, and the BLM did improve their breeding program, but they put these mustangs in feed lots and they have fed them. Now they have no more money to feed them, so they will turn them out, and the mustangs have been depending on people so when they get turned out they will starve to death.
Slaughter the damn animals! I need the food!
11th Hour for Cloud’s Herd,
URGENT MESSAGE ABOUT THE PYRORS
Please act now to stop this unnecessary and cruel round up—- the BLM still plans to move forward on September 1st
The Bureau of Land Management is rounding up and eliminating 12 herds (650 horses) off 1.4 million acres in Nevada right now—next they plan to destroy Cloud’s herd with a massive removal of 70 horses that would include OLDER HORSES and YOUNG FOALS.
Many of the horses you have come to love in the Cloud shows and will meet in the new Cloud show on October 25th will lose their families and their freedom next week. By zeroing out whole herds and reducing others to below genetic viability, the BLM is circumventing the will of Congress. The House just passed the Restoring of American Mustangs (ROAM) act and the Senate will review this bill (now S.1579) when they return from recess in September. Is BLM just trying to do as much irrevocable damage to America’s wild horses as they can before Congress can act?
This round up will start on September 1st unless we can stop it. Removing 70 horses will destroy this unique little Spanish herd, leaving them well below the bare minimum for genetic viability. The range is in great condition and the horses are healthy. This removal should be stopped. Please do all you can to help! Listen to Ginger Kathrens on Endangered Stream Live—a special edition show “Angels for Cloud”
National Call in Day for Cloud is Friday, August 28th — SPREAD THE WORD! Have your kids call in and write too—These horses need to be preserved for future generations and we must act NOW
1. Call/write/fax President Obama as often as you can—this herd is a national treasure and should not be wiped out by a government agency. Please flood the phone lines with calls! Phone: 202-456-1111 or 202-456-9000 Fax: 202-456-2461
E-mail Obama
2. Ask Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar to stop this round up
Call: 202-208-3100
Write: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
3. BLM Director Bob Abbey, tell him to halt this round up—he must reconsider his agency’s actions
Call: 202-208-3801
Fax: 202-208-5242
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
4. Call and write your own Senators and Congress people- tell them that Montana is allowing the destruction of Cloud’s unique and historical wild horse herd. Politely express your outrage and ask them to help stop this round up. Find your state offices here
Listen to Ginger Kathrens NOW on “WFL Endangered Stream Live”
REMEMBER: National Cloud Call-In Day is FRIDAY, AUGUST 28th!
Thank you to everyone for signing the petition- we only need about 400 more signatures!
The main thing that the article and the posted comments fail to mention is the negative effect that horse overgrazing has on real wildlife. Not livestock (horses), but true Nevada wildlife. All of the “wild-horse advocates” need to get out of their urban habitat and look at the range conditions in mountain ranges with horse overpopulation. See the springs that have been pawed out 6 or 8 feet deeper than the surrounding ground level. See the trails beaten down into a foot of alkali dust by horses traveling to water, and grazing the riparian areas. On good water years, there may not be a problem, but on our all-too-common drought years, the horses are too dominant to allow the true wildlife like deer, elk, and bighorn sheep to come to water. The smaller species like all of the Passerine birds, small mammals, and reptiles lose the riparian areas they depend on when the horses graze them down to dust. There are so many “horse advocates,” but where is the voice for the true wildlife species that are the real losers when horse numbers are out of control? If a rancher lets his cattle numbers exceed the allotted amount established by the BLM, he can get fined, lose his grazing permit, or be subject to legal action. The BLM has let their horse numbers greatly exceed the allotted numbers for decades, with no recourse. When the BLM does conduct a gather, they turn back a number of horses equal to the AML. That assumes that every horse in the unit was captured, which is impossible. So the day after the gather, horse numbers are already over AML. In two to four years, the numbers are double the AML again, and another gather is desperately needed. When will we stop this never-ending money pit? When will we make the decision to manage horse numbers based on sound science instead of emotion?
What a disappointment to read an article such as this one. Nevada Magazine had a perfect opportunity to show the entire country the REAL plight of the wild horses…instead, Charlie Johnston wrote a fluff piece.
Mr. Johnston wrote about the non-wild horses east of Dayton. Any one of us that actually live in the Virginia Range and live around the real wild horses know the difference. A real wild horse would NEVER allow a “two-legged outsider” anywhere near them. Mr. Johnston was walking among the Huppies (horse puppies) gentled by Willis Lamm that he keeps on the small piece of BLM land called Stockton’s Flat. He likes to take reporters and tourists there to pretend they are with the wild horses. These poor horses are kept as a sideshow and are fed and watered by humans.
Another glaring point Mr. Johnston missed entirely was the fact that the Virginia Range wild horses are not BLM horses. The Virginia Range wild horses fall under the Nevada Department of Agriculture, and while these horses were the inspiration for Wild Horse Annie, they are wild horses on private property and are not protected under the Wild Horse & Burro Protection act of 1971.
There are real wild-horse advocacy groups in the Virginia Range working toward preserving and protecting our wild horses, and none of them are mentioned in your article. The Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Association (http://www.vrwpa.org) is the oldest wild-horse protection group in Northern Nevada, formed in 1979. There is also Wild Horse Spirit (http://www.wildhorsespirit.org) formed in 1993. Mr. Johnston could have even interviewed Craig Downer, our go-to guy on everything wild equine. But instead he chose a horse trainer to interview. Interesting…
Jeanne Gribbin, President
Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Association
In 2001, BLM launched one of the most aggressive removal campaigns ever initiated taking over 75,000 wild horses and burros to date. Despite massive and repeated removals (many herds across the West have been rounded up annually or bi-annually since this began), BLM continues to report over the last few years, the same number of wild horses and burros are still remaining on the range! Yet analyzing the Wild Horse & Burro Programs own removal statistics since this began and the 20% reproduction rate they themselves apply, this is impossible! While BLM reported in February 2008 that 33k wild horses and burros STILL remained on the range, their own statistics independently analyzed revealed only 13,500 to 16,800 were really left! Furthermore, reviewing BLMs reported populations between 2004-2008, 38 different herds were found with highly inflated populations that jumped massively from one year to the next, some by as high as 500%! Just between 2007 and 2008, 24 herds were found with glaring discrepancies, such as the Wilson Creek HMA in Nevada where BLM removed hundreds of wild horses last February and reported only 130 were left; yet one year later, the number jumped to 386 and another round up is now on the horizon. In order to cover up the glaring discrepancies their own statistics reveal, BLM has recently begun claiming the aerial census methods used to count wild populations over the last 4 decades is so inaccurate and flawed that collectively, it accounts for the thousands of “missing animals” that comprise the difference between their own population reports for several years that concludes what IS really out on the range versus what they claim is still out on the range as their own data fails to support those claimes! The evidence suggests BLM has manufactured the current crisis by removing thousands more wild horses and burros than they needed too and their statistics support the fact that BLM achieved their own national population target, pitifully low as it may be, over two years ago. Yet the round ups continue…So what if BLM is right, that there were tens of thousands of wild horses and burros they were “missing” in their aerial census counts and during the repeated round ups? The law requires that BLM determine just what is “excessive” by MONITORING THE RANGE and what the wild horses and burros are actually consuming! So wouldn’t that suggest that BLM wasn’t monitoring squat or that, not only were their census methods highly inaccurate, so are the methods used to determine what wild horses and burros are really eating, as BLM is now trying to suggest thousands more than they were aware of were “consuming resources” but remained unaccounted for? Then how valid is their population levels that determine what is “excessive”? Doesn’t this imply BLM has just been pulling numbers out of a hat to determine how many wild horses and burros can exist in “balance” with other rangeland users? Since 2000, Dave Cattoor made over $12 million dollars rounding up our herds and he has had an almost exclusive contract with BLM since the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act passed in 1971. Think he has a vested interest in backing BLMs claims of “overpopulation”? And what about that continuous, unchallenged drum of overpopulation? Can they be overpopulated? Sure! But are they? Just within CO, UT, ID, MO, and WY, 2007 elk populations were estimated between 675,000-700,000 while BLMs target wild horse population is about 5,500 for the same areas. In fact, the GAP in elk estimates is larger than BLMs entire national allowable management level for ALL wild horses! Bighorn sheep, the “native” wildlife burros continue to be erradicated for, numbered 70k last year; BLMs burro population targets; now under 3k. Overpopulation? In 2008, 96.7 million head of cattle alone were reported by the USDA nationwide. Just BLM (versus other agencies) authorize livestock grazing on 160 million acres and in 2007, BLM reported 6.8 million AUMs of forage was actually used exclusively by livestock though 11.1 million AUMs were potentially available. Wild horse and burros are only allowed on 34.5 million acres (though in August 2008, the BLM officially removed 1.6 million MORE acres from wild horse and burro habitat so this needs to be revised) and only 309k AUMs are allowed for their consumption, less than 3% of the available forage. Often, water sources are fenced with no water piped outside; read BLMs Resource Management Plan for Nellis-they failed to even include how many water sources were even IN Nellis but set a “new” population based on “water sources” that were never fully identified. They were also very clear that many they DID report on had been fenced off completely from wild horse use. While wildlife and livestock are allowed “alternative” water sources, not so for wild horses and burros. Apparently, BLM believes it is more cost effective to water them in long term holding facilities and issue quarterly checks to the facilities versus investing in long term reliable water sources on the range to compensate for the afore mentioned development, urbanization, habitat fragmentation and underground aquifer pilfering. The population objectives BLM has set over the years, known as AML (allowable management level) are riddled with ancient and incomplete data, unsupported statements, missing reports, and in some known instances, flat out lies! In the High Rock HMA in CA, BLM set the wild horse population number based on water sources for 6 springs though there were 20 in the area. They also claimed one spring was severely damaged due to “overpopulation” but 7 years later(yes, it took 7 years before the truth was published!), another BLM document unrelated to wild horse management reported this same spring was in excellent condition and had been long before BLM did their “wild horse analysis.” Why was it in excellent condition? Because it had been fenced off way before BLM set the “new” wild horse AML. Before the public swallows the story being peddled, this can of worms needs to be opened and thoroughly reviewed by a full scale Congressional investigation and the legal loopholes BLM has been using to manage our herds to death needs to be closed once and for all! Failure to do so NOW will result in the needless spilling of thousands of American Mustangs and Burros blood; BLM’s “management” of our remaining herds and their ever dwindling habitat must be addressed and accountability demanded! There is a reason wild horse advocates continue to cry out, “They are being managed to extinction!”
These statistics, and many more, are available at:
http://www.americanherds.blogspot.com
I respect the knowledge gathered and applied in this article, but, as the first comment notes, the cattle industry is the main issue here. Humans, again, are at fault. Not only have our animal-consuming ways polluted our bodies and the surrounding environment, it’s consistantly at odds with other surrounding ecosystems. In other words, our insistant need to manipulate the environment around us to make our dear dollars throw off the eco-balance so to speak. (I’ve distanced myself as much as possible through a vegetarian lifestyle.)
So, how do we humans make up for our mistakes? We blame it on the horses, who have every right to live there as they please. But, people believe it’s in the way of commerce. It’s sad how humankind believe dominion means domination.
While this article appears to have covered this issue in depth, and it has given plenty of accurate information, the root cause and other pertinent facts have been left out and others have been spun incorrectly.
1. When there are literally millions of cattle (who evolved entirely in Asia) and less than 20,000 horses, why are we never reading articles about the devastation of our eco-system due to cattle? If there is enough room for both, let’s please lay off the horses at least. Was it an oversight not to mention this?
2. Humane slaughter in the United States for horses has not and did not exist. Please reference the 2004 GAO Report to Congress on the Humane Slaughter Act. It points out many issues including conscious slaughter due to the improper use and function of the pneumatic bolts. Moreover, these slaughter plants were designed for bovine with short necks not equine flight animals with long necks. They are designed to slaughter many cheaply, period. Was it an oversight not to mention this? Little to no funding has been the tradition for oversight of this Act.
3. It is true that horses trim grasses since they have teeth in the front top and bottom. However, cattle have no teeth in the front on top. So how do they trim the grass? By pulling it out be the roots with their tongue. Was it an oversight not to mention this?
4. Birthrate of any wild species is highly variable based on how much it is harassed or threatened. This is why hunting licenses are picked as they are and the hunted populations don’t go down by design in order to sell more licenses. Unmolested horse birthrates are 10% whereas harassed their birthrate doubles and more. Was it an oversight not to mention this?
5. How about those natural predators that our tax monies are used to wipe out in order to protect the investment in cattle? How about those wolves many have fought to bring back, with only tiny success? Was it an oversight not to mention this?
6. Horse grazing improves bio-diversity, and the BLM understands this. Many of the thirsty horses and starving horses are due to fencing the horses off from water and giving the grazing to cattle.
This is a complex issue, and there are many points to cover, but one cannot leave out cattle as the main issue. It is an unnatural balance with millions of imported or introduced species versus thousands of those which inarguably evolved here in North America. Again, if there is enough room for both, let’s get off the horses’ backs as the problem, as they are sorely outnumbered by the animal from Asia.
Congratulations on the excellent lead article by Charlie Johnson on Nevada’s Wild Horses. Very informative and accurate. And, it was a great pleasure to introduce Charlie to some of our “closest friends, the wild horses!”
Bonnie Matton, president, Wild Horse Preservation League
I am very concerned that this article overlooks the gross elimination of the wild horses from their legal herd areas both in Nevada and in the West. It also overlooks the very substandard population sizes that BLM and USFS have allowed to be set in those greatly reduced herd management areas that have not been zeroed out. These are not even minimally viable in most cases and are a set up for decline and extinction. Also the periodic guttings of the herds set back the process of natural selection, disrupting and traumatizing the horses, both those remaining in the wild and those made slaves. For this reason I am promoting Reserve Design as an alternative to the status quo. This would before public land reserves where the wild horses are, as the Wild Horse Act states they should be, the “principal” presences and not given secondary importance as is presently the case. Through appropriate Reserve Design incorporating natural barriers, and where necessary artificial, semi-permeable barriers as well as natural predators, the horses would be allowed to achieve population stability through density dependent controls of their own, after filling their niche in each such area. This they are capable of as “climax” species. We could, thus, obviate the cruel and draconian roundups that have been going on for so long. But people must be willing to sacrifice to make this very worthwhile goal a reality. People who really care about horses and their deserved freedom in the wild where they have been for 99.999% of their time on Earth!
This whole article is not true! For one, if there are so many wild horses, where are they? I used to see them often and have not seen any in years! The BLM has fenced off watering holes from them. Horse slaughter has been banned in the U.S., and groups like the HSUS are working hard to ban the transport of horses to slaughter in Mexico and Canada. AND, at slaughter, the horses are not killed instantly and humanely…there are many videos of horses still being alive while being slaughtered! See the HSUS.org for more! That is NOT the answer anyway! We need to keep them on THEIR land. The contraceptive program can work and has worked with other wildlife. The BLM was supposed to have done that already with the help from the HSUS…it’s in the BLM document of what they are to do, yet they have ignored it!
The bottom line is, cattle ranchers have lobbyists, and they are fighting to get the wild horses off of the land so they can have more land for cattle. That is it. These magnificent creatures can be managed effectively and with love and care…and we don’t have to kick them off of their own land. There is plenty of land here in NV and the Southwest. It’s all poliical BS that there isn’t food or water to sustain them. It’s all about the cattle ranchers…just as they have decimated populations of wolves, they are trying to do the same with our wild horses. We have to change the way the BLM operates!