Trump's Budget Threatens America's Wild Mustangs
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For most of American history, mustangs have been synonymous with the unbridled spirit of the wild west—a four-hooved, roaming piece of Americana. But the federal government's current budget proposal could jeopardize the future of these beloved animals.
There are 73,000 free-roaming wild horses under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management, with no consensus on how best to manage them.
The open range spans 10 states and includes 26.9 million acres of land. But it's not just the horses competing for the resource.
"Our mandate is to manage those lands for multiple uses, so we share the range with various activities that range from livestock grazing, providing habitat for wildlife, permitted resource extraction—like oil and minerals—and recreational activities," says Jason Lutterman, a spokesman for the BLM. "It's a whole suite of activities that we permit and manage on public lands in a way that's sustainable so the lands are healthy and productive for future generations."
The varying interests account for some of the disagreements in how horses should be prioritized. Animal advocates say the BLM is not doing enough to protect mustangs and help them thrive, pointing to government holding pens where more than 40,000 mustangs live in close quarters after being plucked from the range. They argue the government is instead catering to cattle-grazing interests, which is backed by big-money lobbyists.
The battle is only getting fiercer. There's a $10 million cut in this year's Wild Horse and Burro management program budget proposal, which is set to be voted on next month. The proposal, inked by President Donald J. Trump, includes less money for birth control and removes the Obama-era provision that prohibited the sale of wild horses to slaughterhouses that could kill the animals for meat.
"The president's budget for Fiscal Year 2018 did request that the BLM have access to all the tools that were first available in the 1971 act, which did say for any animals for which there was no adoption demand, they can be humanely destroyed," says Lutterman.
"It's been our policy not to do that, and to find homes for every horse we take off the range," he continues. "And we've placed over 240,000 into good homes since 1971. But fewer people are adopting the animals, and we have more being cared for by the BLM than ever before, which is creating a financial problem for the BLM and taxpayers."
Population
The number of wild horses and burros now living on public lands. The Bureau of Land Management says 27,000 wild horses and burros can live in balance on public lands.
Adoptions
The bureau has placed more than 235,000 animals into homes since 1971. But the number of adoptions is declining, and population growth is outpacing adoptions. The bureau spends two-thirds of its annual budget caring for animals removed from the range but not adopted. These mustangs are kept in government holding pens.
Expanding options would allow the BLM to do more with less, proponents say.
But mustangs are a romantic symbol of the American west, and Americans are queasy about the idea of selling horse meat for consumption.
How, then, can the United States manage a mustang population nearly three times the size of the target number advocated for in the original Wild-Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971?
Experts Weigh In
Kali Sublett, executive director of the Mustang Heritage Foundation, which runs Extreme Mustang Makeover:
"For us, adoption is our answer. It's maybe not the answer, or the solution, obviously. But for us, it is very effective, and adoptions are increasing every year. So ideally, the very end goal would be that adoption demand is meeting the removal rate."
"As a whole, we've adopted out close to 9,500 since 2007. And it's grown a lot, even in the last couple of years. Whereas we were at 500 to 700 adoptions per year, last year we were at 1,200, and this year it's about 2,000. We're seeing momentum, and I think we have the demand, so then it comes down to funding. So we're funded by the government to a certain extent, and then we count on private institutions and donations, foundations, things like that. So hopefully, we'll be able to have BLM funding and also outside funding."
"Basically, I think interest-wise, I think we could probably double next year, I think we could do 4,000 next fiscal year, then it just comes down to budget."
Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign):
"There's a solution out there that's been recommended by the National Academy of Sciences. For almost 30 years, it's been used in different herd management areas: The PZP Birth Control vaccine. And the BLM has consistently underutilized it. In fact, that's too mild. They've used it only in a token manner. The birth control works when you use it. It's cost-effective, it's scientifically recommended, and it addresses reproduction on the range. The situation is the BLM stubbornly, blindly, persistently continued this unsustainable approach to wild horse management, which is rounding up thousands of horses every year from their homes on the range and putting them in holding pens. And the numbers they round up far exceed the adoption, and it makes no sense to continue that approach and to not address that issue on the range directly, which is reproduction. It makes no sense to allow the herds to continue to grow—and continue holding them."
"It's more cost-effective in the long run to address reproduction on the range than to continue to be on the treadmill of removing horses and having them in holding facilities. It's endless; you can't get off that treadmill."
Jason Lutterman, spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management:
"I think the biggest challenge is managing a growing population of horses with the limited tools we have right now. And the budget problem we have right now is we're spending two-thirds of the budget to feed un-adopted horses. In the early 2000s, we could adopt out 8,000 animals a year, and that allowed us, for the most part, to keep tabs on these herds. Now we're hoping for 4,000 total adoptions this year, and the last couple of years it's been 3,000 or less. Having that tool before worked, and now it's not really working. It's a new reality that fewer people are adopting these horses since (the recession began in) 2008, and we need another way to handle this on the range. Whether it's birth control or something else."
"We're also looking at developing longer-lasting birth control vaccines. We started a big research initiative in 2015, where we're investing $11 million in this, and it could be fantastic to better control the population growth on the range. And we're actually looking at gelding horses... That could be a good solution for some herds. We're not so sure that gelding is the best form of contraception because it only takes one male to keep the herd growing at the same rate. You'd have to get them all, and we don't want to get them all because you do still need some breeding."
J. Edward De Steiguer, author of Wild Horses of the West: History and Politics of America's Mustangs:
"There are some issues with in order to administer birth control, they have to physically dart or jab the mare, and this is difficult. It's expensive, and you're not always sure it's going to work, and it has to be repeated every two years on any individual animal. So this is kind of a rich country's solution to the problem, to be honest with you. It's expensive, and it may be the way the nation wants to spend the resources if 75 percent of the public is opposed to euthanizing them or selling them to slaughter, they might opt for fertility control, but keep in mind it's expensive."
"I think the one thing I would predict pretty firmly is if the Trump administration allows these animals to go to slaughter, it will blow up in their face, and it will be some bad, bad press. So I don't think ultimately that's a policy solution. Now, what is a policy solution? Gosh, I don't know. Maybe if the horse protection groups were more involved in fundraising to support these animals—kind of put their money where their mouth is, into horse protection, that could help. But it's hard. Out west in the land of Republicans, the cattle ranchers are a curiously cohesive and powerful political force. So they do have an inordinate amount of influence with elected officials out west. There are so many disparate parties that can't come together politically to come up with a solution that this becomes the type of problem that tends not to get resolved."