The Plight of the American Burro
American burros face numerous challenges, from eradication efforts in national parks to brutal roundups and random shootings. Despite their historical significance and role in the ecosystem, these animals are often targeted due to competing interests. This article explores the history of these threats and the ongoing efforts to protect and conserve burros in the United States.
Burro Killings
Over the years, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) has routinely killed burros in Big Bend Ranch State Park, the largest park in Texas, to make way for big game such as bighorn sheep, which compete with burros for scarce resources. In 2007, two TPWD employees shot and killed 71 burros at Big Bend Ranch State Park over several months. Park staff reported that the dead or dying animals were left where they fell, and several burros suffered slow, painful deaths from careless shots that did not kill them quickly. The shootings were investigated, and the two park officials were ultimately cleared, although it was determined that they failed to follow notification protocols.
Read about Texas' Big Bend Ranch State Park's history of killing burros for big game. In 2012, amid public outcry, the state park suspended its burro shooting policy and agreed to work with the Humane Society of the United States on an alternate burro removal plan.
NOTE: Big Bend Ranch (not to be confused with Big Bend National Park) is Texas' largest park. It is 70 miles across and is the site of several extinct volcanoes.
National Park Service Has History of Eradicating Burros
Since the protections of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act do not extend to National Park Service (NPS) lands, this Interior Department agency has classified burros as non-native and "feral." Operating under a management policy that mandates restoration of natural systems, the NPS has a history of lethally eradicating burros from National Park lands.
Photo Above Courtesy of Ginger Kathrens, The Cloud Foundation
Grand Canyon National Park
Despite its claim to fame as the historic home of the iconic burro, "Brighty of the Grand Canyon," the Grand Canyon National Park was the site of a brutal and long-lived burro eradication program. Brighty and the other burros of the Grand Canyon were cast-offs from prospectors in the Gold Rush era. They lived as wild equids on the public lands in the area but were disdained by ranchers as competition for forage for livestock grazing. The anti-burro sentiment generated by the ranchers fueled a long eradication campaign in the area. According to An Administrative History of the Grand Canyon National Park: "Rangers shot more than 1,500 burros during patrols along the Tonto Trail between 1924 and 1933 ... By 1949 another 1,600 had been shot, and hunts persisted into the 1970s when public sympathy led to a successful if expensive program of trapping, removal, and adoption."
In 1979, the pending slaughter of hundreds of burros in the Grand Canyon National Park led noted author and animal welfare advocate Cleveland Amory and The Fund for Animals to devise a daring plan to airlift hundreds of burros out of the 7,000-foot canyon. Amory purchased land in Texas and created the Black Beauty Ranch to house the burros and other rescued animals. Read the full story of this legendary animal rescue here.
Mojave Desert and Death Valley
The California Desert Protection Act of 1994 transferred tens of thousands of acres of land from the BLM to the National Park Service, with catastrophic results for 1,400 wild burros in the Mojave Desert and 500 in Death Valley. Under the 1971 Act, the burros were safe from slaughter on BLM land. On National Park Service land, they were reclassified as an "alien species" and slated for "direct reduction," a euphemism for shooting them.
Today the NPS still considers the burros an "exotic" species, but due to budgetary constraints and different priorities, the agency is not conducting burro removals at this time.
The Hunter's Game
Hunters regularly lobby for the removal of burros and wild horses to increase forage for big game animals such as bighorn sheep. Increased forage means increased population numbers, which result in increased revenues from the issuance of hunting tags. It's ironic that hunters call this cycle "conservation," when, in reality, big game populations are artificially manipulated to increase the numbers of "trophy" animals available to shoot. This practice has nothing to do with true conservation or natural selection. In addition, many of the bighorn sheep have been introduced into areas never previously inhabited by the species. In fact, the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society boasts on its website that over 1,000 animals have been introduced and have established viable populations in ten mountain ranges where they didn't previously exist.
Burro Shooting in Arizona
For whatever heartless reason, burros are a frequent target of random shootings. Often, since the burros receive less attention than their wild horse cousins, these cold-blooded crimes go unsolved and unpunished. That's the case with 18 burro shootings over the past five years in the desert outside Phoenix. No one has ever been brought to justice for these shootings, including: Feb 2009: 11 wild burros, including foals, were shot and killed on public lands outside of Phoenix, Arizona (up to $5,000 reward) Dec 2009: 2 wild burros shot and killed in Yuma County, Arizona (up to $1,500 reward). March 2012: six burros found dead north of Phoenix. January 2014: 2 burros shot and killed northwest of Phoenix ($5,000 reward offered).
Burro Roundups
The BLM uses helicopters to round up burros as well as wild horses and remove them from our public lands. The helicopter stampedes are particularly brutal for the burros because these tenacious animals do whatever it takes to evade capture. Read more about the tragedy of burro roundups here.