BLM Budget Cuts Put Wild Horses at Risk, Advocates Say

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) faces scrutiny as President Donald Trump's proposed 2018 budget suggests cutting $4 million from wild horse and burro management. This reduction could lead to the elimination of restrictions on sales and other management options, potentially putting these animals at risk of euthanasia and slaughter.

The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 protects these animals under BLM jurisdiction. However, the act does not explicitly prohibit the agency from selling wild horses and burros without reservation or euthanizing those for which there is no adoption demand.

Historically, appropriations bills from 1988 through 2004 and in 2010 have forbidden the euthanasia or unrestricted sale of wild horses and burros. The current BLM adoption contract prevents buyers from selling or giving away animals for processing into commercial products, with federal charges for violators. In 2013, the agency tightened purchase requirements following reports of a Colorado livestock hauler selling over 1,700 BLM horses for slaughter in Mexico.

The proposed 2018 federal budget reduces the BLM's wild horse and burro program budget to $79 million from $80.4 million in 2017. Approximately $4 million of the $10 million reduction would come from “savings resulting from unrestricted sales,” according to the administration's 2018 Budget Justifications document. Additional savings would be achieved by reducing gathers, birth control treatments, and other activities.

The document states, “The long-term goal is to realign program costs and animal populations to more manageable levels, enabling the BLM to reorient the (wild horse and burro) program back to these traditional management strategies.”

However, wild horse advocates argue that allowing limitless sales and euthanasia could lead to herd dissemination.

Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation), stated, “The agency also wants to drive wild horse and burro population levels down to near extinction levels, based on arbitrary population limits that the National Academy of Sciences has criticized as having ‘no-science based rationale.’ This outrageous budget is completely counter to the will of the American people, who overwhelmingly oppose horse slaughter and support protecting mustangs and burros on our Western public lands.”

The organization urges Congress to reject the proposed BLM budget and increase the use of contraceptive vaccinations on wild herds.

In a written statement, the BLM emphasized its commitment to finding good homes for as many gathered horses and burros as possible while continuing research on better contraceptive vaccinations.

A BLM representative told The Horse, “With few natural predators and limited tools for controlling herd growth, our nation's wild horse and burro herds are chronically overpopulated and increasing exponentially. To address these challenges, the President’s fiscal year 2018 budget proposal requests the authority to use all management tools provided by the Act. This authority includes removing some restrictions on the sale and disposition of excess animals.”

Originally posted by The Horse