by John Rodgers and Danielle Silverberg
Introduction
The feral horse has become something more than meets the eye of the normal bystander. Most populations of feral horses roam the western United States. Over the years they have caused a significant amount of erosion and damage to the earth’s surface. Adverse impacts of over populated herds include soil compaction, decreased plant diversity, and less land for livestock to graze on. Also, dense herds of horses are likely to become unhealthy and become conduits of disease. It is possible for diseases that begin in horses to be transferred to domesticated livestock, with potentially devastating financial effects on ranchers (Beever, E., & Brussard, P). There have been multiple laws passed to manage feral horse populations to keep destruction to a minimum and manage the overall population in the most humane manner possible.
photo: BLM
Background
Throughout the 1950s a Nevada woman named Velma B. Johnson (eventually known as Wild Horse Annie), became aware that horses were being collected in a merciless and undiscerning manner. Professionals such as ranchers and hunters were the main perpetrators of such acts. Wild Horse Annie directed a political campaign involving children to capture the hearts of the public. In 1959 Nevada congressman Walter Baring introduced what is now known as the “Wild Horse Annie Act”. This bill became a public law on September 8th 1959, prohibiting the hunting of horses and burrows with any motorized vehicles. Having only this single specific regulation in the act proved to Congress that the more thorough program advocated by Annie to protect, manage and control wild horses and burros was greatly needed. This resulted in the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burros Act (WHBA). Five years later The Federal Land Policy and Management Act improved the WHBA, now allowing the appointed Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to use motorized vehicles such as helicopters, circumventing the Wild Horse Annie Act (“The Wild Horse Annie Act”).
The Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 (WHBA) states that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands. The Secretary of the Interior is responsible for management of the ranges, ecological balance of objectives assigned, scientific regulations and forage allocation adjustments. The Secretary determines whether any old, sick or lame animals are to be destroyed or to be humanely captured and removed for private maintenance and care, for which he will determine an adoption demand (WHBA, 1971).
Possible Management Technique
Currently, the BLM’s predominant management method is to round up excess horses and place them in short-term holding facilities. If these horses are not found new homes through adoption they are sent to long-term holding facilities to live out the rest of their lives. In addition to the 33,000 horses on BLM land, there are already 30,000 horses in long-term storage facilities.
In addition to adoption the BLM has also experimented with fertility control and relocation as management techniques. Unfortunately, the best available form of fertility control is a one year vaccine that must be re-administered annually. For this reason, fertility control is not cost effective, and very seldom used. Also, rounding up and relocating horses causes stress to the herd, and therefore is not an optimal technique. The roundup process also requires the use of helicopters, which are another added expense.
Finally, the last management technique that is sometimes used is simply making barriers to prevent horses from grazing on land designated for another use (usually cattle). The method often fails because the horses are capable of breaking through these fences, rendering them useless. Also, it does not financially make sense to pay for something that may be destroyed in a short matter of time (U.S Department of the Interior).
BLM Position
Horses that are culled, regardless if that means killing, adoption, or die a natural death, from BLM lands are no longer considered as falling within the range of the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. The Bureau of Land Management has seen a doubling in the wild horse population approximately every 4 to 5 years. The constant growth of the horse population is due to the fact that there are no natural predators for horses. The program’s goals have expanded by setting appropriate management level (AML) for individual herd to include achieving and maintaining viable, vigorous and stable populations. Unfortunately these horses have become their own worst enemies because of their over abundant population, causing them to destroy their habitat, which can lead to starvation and disease, which then cause individual horse populations to become extinct (Sharp, T., & Saunders, G, 2010).
In October of 2009 the current secretary of the interior Ken Salazar, wrote a letter to the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, proposing a national solution to restore the overall health of America’s wild horse herds and the rangelands that support them. He has suggested three main points: to manage sustainable herds on the Western rangelands through aggressive fertility control; to establish wild horse preserves in the Midwest and East, for horses that must be culled from the western rangelands; and providing specific designations for the selected treasured herds in the west. This will assumingly reach appropriate management levels for the western herds with the acceptation of Obama’s Fiscal Year 2011 Bureau of Land Management budget proposal.
The budgets were not adequate to manage the excessive numbers of horses and, additionally, burros at an appropriate management level. Obama is requesting a budget proposal of $75.7 million for the wild horse and burro program, a nearly $12 million increase over the fiscal year 2010 level of $63.9 million. This budget increase is expected to fulfill the suggested management requests (Bureau of Land Management Secretary’s Initiative).
Proposal
We believe that the BLM should utilize euthanasia programs more effectively to cut down the costs of caring for wild horse. Under the law, the BLM can use euthanasia, but is extremely reluctant to do so because the public is largely against is. Also, slaughtering excess horses would not only save money, but could potentially bring money back into the BLM. While eating horse meat is illegal in the United States, there are numerous countries around the world with a market for the product, including Mexico, China, and Brazil. In addition to making money from the sale of horsemeat, this action would help feed countless people in areas were food is not always easy to access. Today, over one billion people, or 16% of the world’s populations, eat horse meat (Lenz, 2010). We propose that this method be used on horses that are being held in the long term storage facilities, and therefore have no chance of being adopted. These individuals already have a poor quality of life, and we believe we should make money off of them instead of spending money on them.
Conclusion
The Problem of excessive horse populations in the western United States is one of the most pressing land management issues of our time. These herds of horses are destroying the land, endangering other species. People argue that the wild horse is part of our natural heritage, and that culling them should be out of the question. In fact, horses are not native to the Americas, and are actually destroying habitat for some species that are. Many management techniques have been tried in order to control ever increasing populations of horses. Unfortunately, each technique currently used by the BLM has its own particular flaw. Many people would argue that our proposal, using euthanasia to decrease number of captive horses the BLM has to care for, is unethical. However, if our plan is put into action it would help feed hungry people in many countries. Also, money freed up from caretaking could be used to help other species that have been negatively impacted by the horses’ domination of the region. If alternative management methods are not found for these feral horse populations they will continue to grow and have increasingly negative impacts on the ecosystem around them.
References
Beever, E., & Brussard, P. ( 2000). Examing ecological consequences of feral horse grazing using exclosures. Western North American Naturalist. 60 (3). Retrieved from ojs.lib.byu.edu.
BLM National Wild Horse and Burro Program – Legislative History. (n.d.). BLM National Wild Horse and Burro Program. Retrieved April 20, 2010, from www.wildhorseandburro.blm.gov.
BLM Secretary’s Initiative. (n.d.). BLM. Retrieved April 28, 2010, from www.blm.gov.
Chereb, S. (2008, November 16). Howls over BLM’s euthanasia option for horses. SFgate. Retrieved from articles.sfgate.com.
Lenz, T. (2010, February 5). The unwanted horse in the United States—international implications. Horsetalk. Retrieved from www.horsetalk.co.nz.
Sharp, T., & Saunders, G. (n.d.). Model Code of Practice for the Humane Control of Feral Horses. Invasive Animals. Retrieved April 20, 2010, from www.invasiveanimals.com.
The Wild Horse Annie Act. (n.d.). American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign. Retrieved April 25, 2010, from www.wildhorsepreservation.com.
U.S Department of the Interior. (2010). Wild horse and Burro quick facts. Retrieved from www.blm.gov.
Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Management on Public Land Administered by BLM. (n.d.). Public Lands Foundation. Retrieved April 28, 2010, from www.publicland.org.