Charlotte Roe: Advocating for the Freedom of Wild Equines

Charlotte Roe sheds light on the ongoing challenges faced by wild horses and burros in the United States. Despite legal protections, these iconic animals are threatened by illegal sales and mismanagement. Roe calls for accountability and reform to safeguard their future.

Recently, the Inspector General for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) found that Tom Davis, a Colorado rancher, admittedly sold nearly 2,000 wild mustangs for slaughter that he had "adopted" from the BLM, after certifying that they would go to "good homes." Just as shamefully, the BLM and the Colorado attorney general's office chose not to pursue charges for these illegal acts. Unless there is accountability for the crime, suspicions will remain strong that federal and state authorities were in on the scheme. This is not the first time that protected wild horses and burros have been illegally sold to kill plants in Mexico and Canada. Where is the incentive to prevent future abuses against the wild equines that symbolize our Western heritage? Who will speak for those that continue being driven from their rightful lands and slated for a miserable end?

Millions of acres of federal lands that were guaranteed to our wild equines by the Wild Horse and Burro Act (WHBA) of 1971 have been taken away or fenced off from them for commercial purposes, largely for cattle grazing by a tiny percentage of ranchers — at huge public cost. Each year, thousands of mustangs and burros are rounded up using helicopters and other inhumane methods. Nearly 50,000 are kept in unsheltered, overcrowded holding pens. The BLM spends less than one percent of its $80 million budget on fertility control, while wasting 70 percent of that budget on rounding up and warehousing horses. Some claim the wild horse population is growing out of bounds, and that they degrade public lands. But scientific studies prove that wild horses and burros improve the range ecology in comparison with livestock, whose numbers overwhelmingly outnumber equines on WHBA designated lands.

There's a better way. In Colorado alone, several non-profit organizations have been working for years to ensure that wild mustangs remain free and safe. The Friends of the Mustang has adopted the Little Book Cliffs Herd Management Area (HMA) near Grand Junction; the National Mustang Association/Colorado chapter looks after the Spring Creek Basin HMA in southwest Colorado; and the Great Mustang Escape Sanctuary's Sand Wash Advocate Team adopted the HMA of the same name in northwest Colorado. Their volunteers cooperate with the BLM to dart mares with the PZP fertility control vaccine, a proven method that does not disrupt mares' natural cycles, and which the National Academy of Sciences recommends as an alternative to removing wild horses from their lands. These grassroots groups inventory the herds and help improve their rangelands. They facilitate secure adoption efforts. The Longhopes Donkey Shelter in Bennett rescues and finds homes for donkeys, many of whom have ended up in kill pens after being cast away by uncaring owners who can buy them for a pittance from the BLM. These groups deserve our strongest support and involvement.

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that wild horses and burros should be protected on federal lands. It's time to act on this belief by insisting our congressional representative and senators support legislation to restore the original intent of the WHBA of 1971. We need reform to fix a broken BLM system so these beautiful wild equines can stay on their rightful lands, before they are driven to extinction.

Charlotte Roe lives in Berthoud.

Originally Posted By Daily Camera