Feds Offer Cash Incentive for Mustang Adoptions - Advocacy Group Raises Concerns
Washington, DC (March 12, 2019) – The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign), the nation's leading wild horse advocacy organization, has criticized the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) new policy of offering $1,000 to adopt a wild horse or burro from BLM holding facilities.
AWHC argues that this plan fails to address the root problem created by the BLM's ongoing roundups of wild horses and burros from the Western range, without implementing scientifically-recommended fertility control to manage population growth rates.
For instance, if the BLM meets its target of adopting out 5,000 horses this year, the plan will cost taxpayers $5 million. Meanwhile, the agency plans to spend less than $150,000 on fertility control, which could reduce the number of wild horses needing adoption after removal from the range.
“The BLM cannot adopt its way out of the situation it faces with the stockpiling of 50,000 horses in holding facilities,” said Suzanne Roy, AWHC Executive Director. “The only way forward for the BLM is to focus resources on humane management of wild horses in the wild with fertility control that will also save taxpayers money.”
Roy described the new policy as “another example of the BLM throwing good money after bad in its trainwreck of a wild horse program.”
AWHC also expressed concerns from an animal welfare perspective, predicting that the policy will lead to more federally-protected wild horses and burros entering the slaughter pipeline by incentivizing adoptions by individuals lacking the necessary skills and resources.
The BLM claims the adoption incentive would initially increase costs but will eventually pay for itself by reducing off-range holding expenses. However, it does not acknowledge that roundups and removals will continue, adding thousands more horses and burros to holding facilities each year.
In contrast, a 2013 National Academy of Sciences review of the BLM’s program suggested that intensive management through fertility control, though initially expensive, is a more affordable long-term solution than continuing to remove horses to holding facilities. Currently, BLM spends less than 1% of its budget on humane and cost-effective fertility control, while allocating 10% of its budget to the adoption of approximately 4,000 wild horses and burros annually.
The American Wild Horse Conservation is the nation’s leading wild horse protection organization, with over 700,000 supporters nationwide, including more than 2,000 members in New Mexico.