The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the government agency, within the Department of the Interior, responsible for administering and enforcing the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 (Public Law 92-195).
The Act designated America's wild horses and burros as "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West," specifying they "shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death...[and that] to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of public lands."
Since 1971, the BLM has removed over 270,000 horses from their Western home ranges and taken away nearly 20 million acres of wild horse habitat. Only 37,000 wild horses and burros remain on public lands in the West. By contrast, millions of cattle graze our public lands. Thirty-two thousand wild horses who have been removed from the range are already held in government holding facilities, and the BLM intends to round up 12,000 more horses in FY 2010.
At the heart of the BLM's management problems and over-crowded "holding facilities" is the question: How many wild horses and burros can the designated rangelands (Herd Management Areas, or HMAs) reasonably support?
The BLM's Appropriate Management Levels (AML) for wild horses and burro are artificially low and often more resources (i.e. forage, water) in wild horse and burro Herd Management Areas (HMAs) are allocated to cattle rather than wild horses. In some instances cattle are allocated more resources in HMAs than wild horses or wildlife. And thus begins the BLM's "roundup and removal" management of wild horses and burros - an endless game of stampeding wild horses into traps, removing them from Western public lands that were designated for them and shipping them off to Midwest and Eastern private ranches for warehousing. In the process the BLM destroys the strong social bonds of wild horses and burros and devastates family units. This unsustainable management is cruel and inhumane to wild horses and burros and costly to American taxpayers.
By far the biggest roundup of FY 2010 is in the proposed Calico Mountain Complex in northwestern Nevada , where the BLM planned to remove 80-90 percent of the estimated 3,055 horses living there. The roundup which started in late December 2009 and ended in early February 2010, removed 1,922 wild horses and resulted in the deaths of moe than 54 horses and more than 30 spontaneous abortions. This cruel roundup used two helicopters to terrorize and chase wild horses into capture pens and remove them to a government holding facility in Fallon, Nevada where they await their fate.
All roundups break apart horse families, fracture the wild horse society. The Calico roundup intended to leave behind just 600 wild horses on the 542,100 acres of this range complex. IDA filed a lawsuit to stop the Calico roundup, while it did not cancel the roundup important it has ignited important questions regarding the legality of the BLM's long-term holding practice. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia continues to reside over this case and a ruling is expected before summer.
Through In Defense of Animals' previous alert for public comment to stop the Calico Mountain Complex roundup, over 10,000 email comments were submitted. Clearly, the American People want to see the wild horses and burros, the "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West," humanely treated and strongly protected in their rightful and natural environments, as they were meant to be.
Furthermore, the "multiple use management concept" phrase, included in the 1971 Act, has been construed by the BLM to allow multiple uses of public lands on Herd Management Areas (HMAs). However, the 1971 Act clearly states that such herd areas be ?devoted principally? to the welfare of the wild horses and burros. "Multiple use" was intended to support and maintain a "thriving natural ecological balance" on public lands, with respect to other wildlife and range biology and ecology. Instead, however, the BLM, in its management decisions, includes under "multiple use" such uses as cattle grazing, recreation for off-road vehicles, mining, development, and oil drilling. Such uses were not intended to justify the removal of wild horses and burros from their herd areas.
According the Federal Code 43 C.F.R. Section 4710.5, the BLM can choose to close areas of public lands "adjacent to or within areas occupied by wild horses or burros" to grazing use by all or a particular kind of livestock, "if necessary, to provide habitat for wild horses or burros, to implement herd management actions, or to protect wild horses or burros from disease, harassment or injury."
On July 17, 2009, the US House of Representatives passed H.R. 1018, The Restore Our American Mustangs Act. This act addresses, amongst other management issues, the setting of AMLs (appropriate management levels) based on scientifically sound methods, voluntary grazing buyouts, negotiations with private land owners to allow for federally supervised protection of wild horses on private lands, the identification of appropriate rangelands and the establishment of sanctuaries or "exclusive use areas" for wild horses and burros.
The Obama Administration, through Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Ken Salazar, has admitted that problems exist and reform is needed. However, such reform should include the following:
- Shift in resources to focus on range management, range enhancements such as water improvements, the limitation of livestock grazing on HMAs per Federal Code 43 C.F.R. Section 4710.5;
- Implementation of programs for monitoring, counting, and identifying wild horses, their social groups and family structures and ongoing research on fertility control;
- An end to mass roundups that break up family structures and bonds and destroy long-standing mare/stallion relationships and the removal of all older, wise horses which are responsible for naturally managing the welfare of the herds;
- An end to the stockpiling of wild horses as a management method and the creation of viable "preserves" or designated areas on the Western range.
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