Chris Stewart Calls for Bipartisan Solution to Wild Horse Crisis

According to the Bureau of Land Management, there are over sixty-seven thousand wild horses on public land in the West, and the BLM estimates that the number will double in just four more years. On Wednesday, Utah Representative Chris Stewart insisted that the crisis requires a bipartisan solution, and right away.

Urgency of the Wild Horse Crisis

The congressman made the comments in a House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee meeting, holding up a photograph of an emaciated mare nursing a small colt.

“These animals, as I’ve said, if you care about these animals like I do, we can’t just continue with what’s happening here. By the BLM's own estimate that they gave us, just in the last couple of days, it’s going to cost us a billion dollars to care for these animals in the next few years – a billion dollars.”

Challenges in Adoption and Legislation

Adoption markets for wild horses are saturated, and under pressure from animal activists, federal law prohibits the sale or adoption of wild horses if such sale or adoption might lead to slaughter, either in the U.S. or abroad.

Originally posted by Utah Public Radio