Where Will Wild Horses & Burros Be in Twenty Years?

Throughout the West, wild horse and burro herds are racing towards extinction.  The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), with other government agencies, seem intent on driving them out of their rangelands and imprisoning them in holding pens – funded with our tax dollars.

Although advocates all over America are working for these animals’ freedom, the BLM finally released their overdue Report to Congress last year, which the senate passed.  This new plan outlines the removal of 220,000 mustangs and burros in the next twenty years.  There are already 50,000+ mustangs and burros in holding pens.

In this plan, the BLM will reach the “Appropriate” Management Level (AML) of 26,715 wild horses and burros on 26.9 million acres of land.  This means that each wild equine remaining in the wild would be expected to cover and use about 1,000+ acres.

At the Paul’s Valley Off-Range Corral in Oklahoma, wild horses and burros are housed in a private pasture until their adoption.  Surprisingly, on just 400 acres of land, the BLM can house a maximum of 600 horses and burros on this pasture.  These horses mainly rely on grass, but are sometimes given free-choice hay.  That’s less than one acre per horse compared to the 1,000+ acres the AML is allotting to each horse living in the wild!

When the planned AML is reached, most mustang and burro herds will be placed below a genetically viable level – a big problem.  This could result in loss of genetic health in those herds, leading towards their extinction.  The 1971 Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act directs the BLM to manage the herds as populations of healthy animals.  The BLM will be straying far from this direction if they ever reach the desired AML.  For the BLM to maintain a healthy herd – according to Dr. Gus Cothran, an equine geneticist – there must be at least 150-200 horses or burros.

To attain the AML, the BLM will conduct hundreds of helicopter roundups to remove the mustangs and burros.  Helicopter roundups are extremely cruel and inhumane.  Mustangs die during these roundups or suffer severe injuries such as broken legs, backs and necks, and hoof abscesses.  Some are euthanized due to “pre-existing” conditions.  Stallions are separated from their bands and often get injured fighting to protect them.  Foals are forced to run until they collapse due to injuries, exhaustion, or because they don’t have any remaining hooves.  After a horrible roundup, the existing horses or burros are transported to holding facilities, remaining there for weeks, months, or years.

The BLM removes so many mustangs and burros due to ranching interests, mining, oil and gas drilling, fracking, privatizing public lands, wildfires, etc.  Livestock create a negative impact on our public lands.  Since these cattle stay in a large herd, they trample the ground, destroying vegetation and fouling water sources. Sheep will remain in one area until they have eaten everything before moving on.  Livestock cause the removal of many mustangs and burros.  Currently, in the west, your tax dollars are paying for someone else’s livestock interests, mustang roundups, and holding pen costs.  Instead, our tax dollars should be used to maintaining healthy ranges and managing humanely, using PZP fertility control – which costs much less than roundups and housing. 

The BLM also allows hunters and ranchers to kill predators, such as cougars and wolves.  Instead of keeping the livestock safe, this removes the natural management of mustangs and burros by predation.  There are some herd areas where there is little to no natural predation occurring.

So, where will our wild horses and burros be in twenty years?  That’s for you to decide.  If we stand by and watch the BLM manage them to extinction, they will be gone.  But if we decide to do something – to take action – our mustangs and burros will still be living wild and free for years to come.

A year ago, I was in the Pryor Mountains of Montana viewing the land and visiting the horses.  Seeing each horse and foal made me wonder if they would still be wild by the end of this year.  Would the newborn foal I saw be allowed to live free, or would she, like so many others, be cramped in holding pens until sold – if ever?  Her life could be one of living in precious freedom as God intended, or crossing the border on a slaughter truck one day.  It’s up to you.  That’s why we advocates work towards a day when every mustang and burro foal born on the range will live its entire life – no matter how long or short – in peaceful freedom in the wild.