Feds to Gather 'Nuisance' Mustangs in Nevada
Federal wranglers are preparing for an unusual wild horse roundup near the Nevada-Utah line. Ranchers and rural residents claim that protected mustangs are damaging fences and impregnating domesticated mares, leading to this controversial action.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to conduct a public safety and nuisance gather of approximately 120 wild horses in eastern Nevada next month. Typically, the agency conducts roundups to manage herds on overgrazed public lands at risk of starvation.
In this upcoming roundup, officials aim to remove mustangs causing havoc on private property in Butte Valley and posing a threat to motorists on U.S. Highway 93, located 120 miles south of Ely.
"Wild stallions have torn down, jumped over, or run through fences on private landowners' facilities, resulting in injured domestic horses and domestic mares being bred by wild horses," the BLM stated in an environmental assessment.
The mustangs have also destroyed sprinkler systems, gardens, lawns, trees, and haystacks, according to the agency. The estimated 1,800 wild horses in the 5,780 square miles at issue are six times the maximum number that BLM scientists estimate can be sustained by the public rangeland shared with cattle, sheep, and other wildlife.
The BLM clarifies that this is not a typical roundup. The environmental review published in August envisions cowboys on horseback roping mustangs the old-fashioned way when necessary, alongside the use of helicopters, pickup trucks, and bait traps.
Critics argue that these taxpayer-funded gathers amount to welfare for ranchers aiming to eliminate competition for scarce forage. Anne Novak, executive director of the California-based horse advocacy group Protect Mustangs, acknowledged that nuisance roundups are legal under the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971. However, she contends that ranchers are "grabbing at straws to remove native wild horses."
"If people are going to live outside the city and don't want wild horses and other wild animals eating their grass, then they need to pay for fencing with their own money, not expect another government handout," Novak said.
Nevada's Department of Agriculture has captured horses posing hazards on U.S. Highway 50 in western Nevada and on a state highway near Virginia City. However, these animals are considered feral horses, mostly abandoned and left to roam state-owned property, where they enjoy no protection under the 1971 federal law.
BLM officials report that overpopulation on the range has prompted some horses to wander 40 miles onto private land. "We are over the appropriate management level, and lots of little stud groups are looking for mares to breed," BLM wild horse specialist Ben Noyes said. "There's no fence that is going to keep them out."
Originally Posted By Associated Press