BLM's New Policies: A Threat to Wild Horses?

Recent policy initiatives by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have sparked fears among animal rights activists about the potential mass slaughter of wild horses. TheBLMmanages wild horse populations onfederal lands, but new strategies may threaten these iconic animals.

The Bureau of Land Management manages, protects, and controls the population of wild horses and burros onfederal lands, pursuant to the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. To maintain ecological balance,BLMdetermines the appropriate population of wild horses and burros on federal rangelands called the Appropriate Management Level (AML). Horses and burros in excess of AML are removed from the range and kept inBLMcare. In recent years, the horse and burro population has soared, increasing approximately 15% per year since 2014.

Current AML is 26,715, while the Bureau estimates the current horse and burro population onfederal landsis almost 70,000. The population of off-range horses and burros inBLMfacilities was 46,000 as of April 2016.

To alleviate these conditions, the Bureau is pursuing new strategies to maintain AML. Activists say these new strategies are inhumane, having the large-scale slaughter of horses and burros as their goal.

At issue is new language in the proposed 2017 budget for theBLM, which allows the Bureau “to more efficiently facilitate the transfer of animals to other public entities – local, State, and Federal agencies – who have a need for domestic work animals,” .

The Bureau allows public agencies or private owners to adopt horses or burros in their facilities. Per the 2004 Burns Amendment,BLMis prohibited from selling to slaughterhouses or so-called “kill-buyers.” However, activists say the phrase “work animals” in the new budget language is not sufficiently defined, providingBLMthe prerogative to sell to unscrupulous partners.

Roy says the new language and soaring number of captive horses and burros inBLMfacilities are precipitating newpolicyconditions whose end game “appears to be legalizing slaughter as a management solution.”

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Management told TheDCNF that federal law prohibits the Bureau from selling horses or burros to other public entities.

“The U.S. Border Patrol uses nearly 300 wild horses for their patrols of the Mexican and Canadian borders, but each of these animals had to be adopted by individual agents in their personal capacity becauseBLMdoesn’t have the legal authority to convey horses directly to other agencies,” spokesperson Kimberly Brubeck said. “We’d like to fix that.”BLMhorses have worked in a variety of other capacities, including in ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery.

Activists are also troubled by a pending record of decisionsBLMis expected to issue in the near future. The Bureau may allow research for several spay methods conducted by Oregon State University at the state’s wild horse facility, Burns Corral. The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) characterized one of the experimental procedures, the ovariectomy via colpotomy, as “barbaric.” Roy says the procedure, described in detailhere, is “highly invasive, risky, and strongly opposed by the public.” Roy claims 21,000 citizens submitted comments to theBLMopposing approval of the new method, though the Bureau would only confirm they are in receipt of 970 such complaints.

The National Academy of Sciences characterizes the procedure as “inadvisable for field application” given the risk of prolonged bleeding and infection. The United States Cattleman’s Association, a beef lobby in Washington, D.C., also called the method “inhumane” in a letter toBLMRangeland Management Specialist Lisa Grant.

Brubeck says any research conducted on spay methods at Burns Corral will be conducted by licensed veterinarians in accordance with protocols established by OSU’sInstitutional Animal Care and Use Committee. The protocols require any person with direct knowledge or reasonable suspicion of animal mistreatment must make a report in short order.

American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign)filed a petitionwith OSU, urging the University to decline the proposed research.

The animal rights group expects a final decision on the research this week.BLMmade no specific comment as to the time frame of the decision, only saying it would be issued “soon.”

Originally posted by The Daily Caller