The BLM vs. Our Wild Mustangs: A Call for Humane Management
Brenda Love Bennett discusses the controversial plan by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sterilize wild mustangs, highlighting the need for humane alternatives. The article explores the implications of this plan and presents the PZP contraceptive vaccine as a viable solution supported by advocacy groups.
Seriously, what is the BLM thinking? It is indeed stunning to see federal land managers poised to use the most backwards and inhumane method possible as a way to manage our nation's wild horses (Agency to sterilize mustangs for first time to slow growth, June 26, 2016).
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced this plan during a heated congressional hearing recently, which saw one, sole horse advocate outnumbered by politicians and agricultural interests who would just as soon see every mustang removed from the range.
Advocate Ginger Kathrens rightly pointed out that there are better, more humane ways to manage horses and help clean up the mess the BLM has made for itself via its system of roundups and removals.
For years, the agency has used helicopters to terrify and chase down mustangs and remove them from the range. Some are adopted out, but most spend out their lives in taxpayer-funded holding corrals — wild no more.
Ironically, rather than control horse numbers, these roundups merely drive herds to breed more, creating an endless cycle of crisis and spiraling costs.
The BLM currently spends 72 percent of its budget on roundups and the warehousing of an astounding 44,000 captured wild horses in government holding facilities.
Meanwhile, less than 1 percent of the BLM wild horse program's budget is spent on humane fertility control that costs around $26 per dose: The PZP contraceptive vaccine.
PZP is safe, humane and effective. Rather than sterilization, which is invasive, expensive and inhumane, PZP is flexible and reversible. It's been used successfully in numerous herd management areas, including on the Assateague Island National Seashore since 1994. Also, PZP has been used successfully in herd management programs such as the Spring Creek Basin and Little Book Cliffs here in Colorado.
The use of PZP as an alternative to roundups and removals is supported by three dozen U.S. wild horse advocacy groups.
The agency has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on an unsustainable roundup and removal scheme that has backfired horribly. Are we now going to let the BLM waste millions more on risky and inhumane sterilization experiments that most certainly will damage the health of horses and their herds?
Not to mention that much of the BLM's panic about "overpopulation" on the range is not substantiated by science. The "Appropriate Management Levels" the agency uses to set population isn't based on science, but is an arbitrary system. The National Academy of Sciences, in a 2013 report, called out the BLM on this, stating that it "could not identify a science-based rationale" behind the AMLs.
The truth is, only 3 percent of western forage on western grazing land is inhabited by wild horses. That's roughly one horse per 500 acres — hardly overpopulation.
The BLM is charged with preserving our nation's iconic wild horses and three-fourths of all Americans support this mission, while 80 percent of Americans — including 90 percent of women — oppose horse slaughter.
As we seek a better way forward, let's not replace it with one that's worse for animals and has untold consequences. Better to use science to determine what actually is "appropriate" in terms of horse population and, if necessary, to manage horses in a safe, effective and humane manner with the established and currently available PZP birth control vaccine.
To speak up for our wild mustangs, contact President Barack Obama at 202-456-1111 or www.whitehouse.gov/contact, or members of Colorado's congressional delegation.
Originally posted by Daily Camera