By Bobbie Katz
Reporter for crwenewswire.com
The first phase of the roundup of wild horses in northern Elko County, Nevada, is over for the moment but as the Bureau of Land Management prepares for phase two in its goal to remove a total of 12,000 horses from BLM land in 2010, the controversy continues at a fever pitch. Phase one, which was a two-stage roundup, saw the deaths of 12 out of 228 horses in the Tuscarora roundup and 21 out of 636 horses in the “emergency” Owyhee gather, mostly from stress, dehydration, and water intoxication, putting the heat on the BLM once again for what many consider inhumane treatment and unnecessary removal of the animals.
For any animal lover, these deaths of an icon of the American West are certainly a reason to want to blast the BLM into the next state. The agency still bears the ignominy from the disastrous Calico, NV, roundup that ended in February of this year when 158 horses died after being run for miles and miles over rock in the dead of winter In fact, the recent tragedies in the BLM’s gathers have led Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) to declare that the BLM has one year to get its act together or lose jurisdiction over the wild horses and burros.
Still, no matter which side one chooses to listen to, big questions still remain as to where the blame for the roundup fiascoes should fall. Is the BLM really the thorn in these horses’ sides that they have been portrayed to be, conducting roundups in circumstances under which they should never be conducted and that are not for the equines’ benefit but rather that of other parties such as cattle ranchers? Or is the agency, like these helpless creatures, fenced in by a law that is in desperate need of amendment or repeal by Congress?
“We manage 179 herd management areas over 10 western states,” explains Tom Gorey, Senior Public Affairs Specialist for BLM Public Affairs. “The current population of horses and burros in those areas is 38,400, which is 12,000 more than our management studies show the land can support. The horses are not allowed to go beyond the boundaries in which they were found roaming in 1971 when the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act was created by Congress for the animals’ protection. But the mandate of that law is for the BLM to manage the land for a thriving ecological balance It says in Section 13.33 of that law that the Secretary of the Interior shall immediately remove excess animals because of size impact from overpopulated herds.”
“We are not removing horses so that we can increase cattle grazing,” he continues. “In actuality, cattle grazing has declined by 30 percent since 1971. We remove the horses for the sustainability of the range. We manage the herds on 26.6 million acres of BLM land and over 5 million acres of non-BLM land, which adds up to 31.9 million acres total. The herds reproduce at a rate of 20 percent per year and we don’t have fertility control for the horses. As a result, over a four-year period, which is how often we conduct the gathers, the herd size has doubled. Forage allocation is done according to land use plans. Wildlife is the first to be affected by the overuse of forage by horses and burros.”
For its part, the media has been intensely critical of the BLM’s handling of the horses and wild burros. And while there is certainly room for questions and opinions, it needs to be noted that the things the agency has done in the past and is trying to implement in the future in favor of the animals have virtually gone unreported.
Such is the case with a press release from Gorey’s office, dated June 3, 2010, which came out before the Tuscarora and Owyhee roundups began. In it, Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey announced that the agency is taking the Federal Wild Horse and Burro Program in an unprecedented new direction – and, on the BLM website, it is seeking public comment, for which the deadline is August 3, 2010, on a Strategy Development Document implementing Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar’s Wild Horse and Burro Initiative. Calling it a new day and stating that there is a need for a fresh look at the program, Abbey said that the BLM will consider the public’s input as it prepares a long-term strategy for the management of America’s wild horses and burros.
Abbey also stated that as the strategy is developed, certain topics and options will not be considered, including the euthanasia of healthy excess animals for which there is no adoption demand (even though it is required by a 1978 amendment to the 1971 Act) and sale “without limitation” to any buyers (required by law by the 2004 Burns Amendment to the 1971 Act). Both of these amendments proved untenable to the BLM (the latter virtually ensures that the animals would end up in slaughterhouses) and the agency never adhered to them, as evidenced by the GAO report of October 2008 that cites the BLM for non-compliance of these articles. According to Gorey, these amendments were also untenable to the majority of Congress, so no action was ever taken against the agency.
The press release contained other information that should be very heartening to horse advocates. Abbey said that other difficult topics and even some controversial options will be up for discussion, among them the implementation of a comprehensive animal welfare program; the potential reintroduction of wild horses or burros into herd areas where they currently don’t exist; increased use of fertility control or other methods to slow population growth; opportunities to make more forage available for wild horse and burro use; the establishment of preserves to care for unadopted wild horses; the designation of selected wild horses and burros as treasured herds; opportunities to place more excess animals into private care, and continued emphasis on science and research to ensure that the BLM is using the best available science to manage wild horse and burro herds now and in the future. Admittedly, to get some of these things accomplished, the BLM, with the aid of the public’s voice, is going to have to get Congress to make some changes to the 1971 Act as it exists today.
Abbey did say that the agency was going to move forward with scheduled gathers in the near term, noting that they were being analyzed and that the public was being engaged in the planning process. When it came to Tuscarora and Owyhee, that latter statement certainly proved false. In fact, even after a court order allowing artist and horse advocate Laura Leigh to attend the Owyhee roundup, she was told that her name was not on the list. In addition, much of the roundup was conducted on private land, thus keeping the public away as well. That has made the mortality of the animals even harder to bear and created more controversy because many people believe that the BLM is hiding the real way the horses are handled from the public.
Admittedly, when it comes to the gathers, the situation is heart-wrenching from any perspective. It may come as a surprise to many but that fact is not lost on the BLM, either.
“When we talk about mortality in these gathers, our goal is zero,” Gorey claims. “We don’t have an acceptable mortality rate but deaths are inevitable. The gather itself may cause deaths. The horses may stumble or break a leg, even in the holding pen. But out of 7,500 horses we gathered last year, we had less than half of 1 percent mortality rate. Any death is regrettable and we would like each one to be preventable.”
In regards to the charges of inhumane treatment of the animals during the gathers, Senior Wild Horse and Burro Specialist Susie Stokke explains the Tuscorora roundup in which 12 horses died.
“There were horses in two pastures – Star Ridge and Dry Creek,” she says. “There was no livestock use in either pasture. There is a water catchment and a pond and the horses will trail 8 to 10 miles to the Owykee River to drink, too. The gather began on July 10. While the horses appeared to be in good body condition, it looked like they hadn’t gotten any water. We rounded up 228 horses but after realizing that some of the horses were drawn up, we suspended operations by 9 a.m. that same day.”
“We then went into an emergency gather on Friday, July 16, and had gathered 636 horses as of Monday, July 19,” she continues. “There were 21 deaths, three of them related to injuries in the corral. The BLM hauled more than 30,000 gallons of water from Monday, July 12, until the end of the roundup to make sure that the horses had enough to drink. In the big picture, Tuscarora and the other gathers are what we are doing under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which charged us with the protection, management, and control of the wild horses and burros. It’s the way the law reads – the removals are addressed in law. Excess horses must be removed for the benefit of wildlife and for the benefit of the horses themselves. Letting Mother Nature take care of its own is a laisse faire policy. We’re charged with a minimalist approach to balance the range.”
By virtue of the 1971 Act, the agency has the responsibility to maintain the herds at the number that were found on the land at the time the law was created (17,000). Stokke, admits to what many horse advocates have maintained for years – that the animals may have been under-counted when the act was instituted.
She and Gorey also both maintain that the published literature stating that there were more than two million horses on the land in 1900 is fallacious and that it came from a book by Frank Dobie called “The Mustangs.” Stokke reiterates, however, that while many of the people who work for the BLM are horse owners and equine enthusiasts who truly love horses, herself included, and that the agency respects and appreciates the horses as icons of the American West, the BLM, as a multiple-use agency, has the responsibility to maintain the balance on the range.
Then, of course, there is the water issue and the fact that animal advocates say that the horses are being denied access to the water because the BLM is allowing ranchers to fence off the water for the benefit of cattle. They point out that the ranchers pay the BLM .$1.35 per cow per month for grazing privileges, which, because of the vast amount of cows, amounts to some $26 million or more a year in revenue for the government. The BLM contends that the horses are not being denied access to water and that it is the natural drought conditions that are causing the problem.
“When you travel to a herd management area, you’ll see private ranch land fenced off for cattle,” Stokke answers. “Owyhee, has one pond and the Desert Ranch Reservoir. It’s fenced-in public land because the water is privately owned. But there are three large gaps in the reservoir fence so that the horses can get water. They also have access to one spring on private lands. However, the balance of water there is an unfenced catchment pond, which is dry because of the drought.”
There still are some seeming inconsistencies, such as how can you have private water rights on public land? And how can you fence off public land and deny access to the water? Then there is the issue of the helicopters used to round up the animals, which horse advocates claim terrify the animals and cause them to stampede. Gorey admits that the horses are under a degree of stress and that the noise disturbs them because it is not a natural noise. But he claims that they are not being stampeded but rather are being moved at a different pace.
“Horses are bred to run to escape from danger,” Stokke adds. “We’re using their natural behavior to get them at a pace we need them to go. The alternative would be inefficient gathers that would be dangerous to the animals. We don’t want to lose any horses. We’ve gathered thousands since 2004.and the mortality rate of the gathers, on average, is less than 1 percent. Over the last 40 years, the BLM has developed standard operating procedures to make the gathers the safest and most humane that they can be. We’ve even developed ways to keep foals with their mothers. What we really need are people to help us either by adopting animals or caring for the animals we have to remove.”
“We are very selective about who we allow to adopt a horse,” Gorey sums up, a point that goes back to the agency not adhering to the the 2004 Burns amendment. “We don;t want to put a horse in the wrong hands. Right now, we have 35,000 horses and burros – mostly horses – in holding facilities. The land can only support 26,600 horses and burros in conjunction with the resources and other uses of public land across the 10 western states. We have only sold 4,100 horses and burros under the Burns Amendment.”
Sometimes it’s necessary to give credit where it is due. One thing is for certain – if the public truly wants to secure the safety and protection of the wild horses and burros, they need to voice their comments on the BLM’s proposed strategy by August 3. The difference between life and death for these magnificent creatures may lie in their hands above all others. It is only the voice of the public that can get Congress to get with the program and change the 1971 Act so that the animals can survive and thrive.
Next: Part III – The 1971 Act — another ill-advised law from Congress – and what they should do about it
The Views and Opinions Expressed by the author are his or her opinions only and do not necessarily reflect those of this Web-Site or its agents, affiliates, officers, directors, staff, or contractors. The author at the time of this article did not own any shares or receive any consideration financial or otherwise from any company or person mentioned or referred to in the article.
