Wild horses on the Sand Wash Basin Herd Management Area in Colorado. Photo by Meg Frederick.
Reps. Vern Buchanan, David Schweikert, Brian Fitzpatrick and Juan Ciscomani last week sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum last week asking him to support reforms to the management of wild horses and burros
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They urged Burgum to support:
- increased use of humane, reversible fertility control by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
- budget measures that “significantly reallocate” BLM wild horse funding to fertility control
- and the upholding of congressional directives and Interior Department policy for non-lethal management.
Return to Freedom has long advocated for minimally intrusive wild horse management, with proven, safe and humane fertility control to slow (not stop) herd growth replacing removals as the BLM’s primary tool.
We are grateful to the representatives for supporting this common-sense solution.
RTF has worked closely with Buchanan for many years on the effort to pass a lasting ban on horse slaughter and the export of American horses for slaughter. In February, he and Rep. Jan Schakowsky reintroduced that legislation, the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act.
Last week’s letter from Buchanan and his colleagues emphasizes the continued protection of wild horses and burros as well as fiscal responsibility.
The BLM has never spent as much as 4 percent of the wild horse budget on fertility control despite growing calls from Congress, public lands stakeholders and the public to implement proven, safe and humane fertility control to slow herd growth.
Instead, the BLM has tried and failed for decades to control herd populations by capture and removal. The agency estimates that there are about 73,000 wild horses and burros on the rangelands it manages. Nearly as many — 65,000 — are now warehoused in off-range government holding facilities.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Fertility control use now broadly supported by rangeland stakeholders and the public that can be used to create a conservation legacy of which all Americans can all be proud.