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Horse Slaughter and the BLM
BLM Steps up Campaign to Eradicate Wild Horses
Posted 02/24/2006
Dear Humanitarian:
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) continues its campaign to eradicate America's wild horse by partnering with the very associations whose goals have been to rid this country of these national treasures. A recent press release by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) touts an agreement with the BLM and Public Lands Council (PLC) in which cattle ranchers currently holding federal grazing permits will be allowed to buy an unlimited number of wild horses for as little at $10 each. Aside from the obvious concerns, the NCBA and PLC have been leading opponents to the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. Now the BLM will be handing over thousands of wild horses to the individuals fighting to keep horse slaughter alive in the United States.
This latest scheme, added to what has been the worst period suffered by wild horses since the enactment of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971, may be the final blow to the future of the wild horses throughout our western public lands unless the American people stand up and demand change.
The 1971 Act was implemented specifically to protect wild horses from wholesale extermination efforts by the BLM and ranchers grazing their private livestock on public lands. In an effort to grab total control over public lands, the BLM and ranchers orchestrated massive round-ups of wild horses who were subsequently sent to slaughter. Sadly, the BLM was given the job of protecting the very animals they had worked so hard to remove for so many years – a recipe for disaster.
Today, the same two parties are again working to remove wild horses from our public lands. Unless action is taken immediately, the fate of these majestic wild horses will be the same as it was in 1971 – slaughter. To make matters worse, not only are wild horses being removed from public lands to placate the demands of ranchers, but according to a recent study by the Government Accounting Office, public lands grazing by these same ranchers are costing tax payers over $300 million each year. Amazingly, less than 3 percent of all beef produced in the United States comes from Western public lands – hardly justification for such an enormous taxpayer subsidy and one that is sealing the fate of our nation’s wild horses.
What you can do:
The only thing that saved wild horses from extinction back in 1971 was public outrage and demand for action. Thirty-four years later, we must again demand the protection of wild horses before it is too late. It is vital that everyone contact Secretary Norton and Director Clarke immediately, requesting that the BLM stop its plan to sell wild horses to livestock ranchers.
For more background and facts to include in your correspondence on the wild horse issue, please visit SAPL's wild horse and burro page: http://www.saplonline.org/w_horses.htm.
1) The Honorable Gale A. Norton
Secretary of the Interior
US Department of the Interior
1849 C Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20240
2) Director Kathleen Clarke
Bureau of Land Management
US Department of the Interior
1849 C Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20240
3) Please write your Senators and Representative, urging them to swiftly enact the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503/S. 1915). By banning horse slaughter, BLM won't be able to dump wild horses and the ranchers will not have an incentive to buy them if, after a short period of time, they are unable to send them to slaughter. To find your member of Congress click here: http://www.saplonline.org/congress.htm.
Please share our “Dear Humanitarian” eAlert with family, friends and co-workers, and encourage them to contact everyone listed above, too. As always, thank you very much for your help!
Sincerely,
Cathy Liss
Legislative Director
Below are news articles that detail the BLM's latest plan to systematically eradicate our nations wild horses.
Their plan calls for the very people who are responsible for the lobbying and resulting decimation of these horses, CATTLE RANCHERS, to buy the horses currently being held in BLM facilities (about 7,000 of them) in order to make room for horses still running wild to be rounded up and imprisoned in BLM holding yards.
This is the beginning of the end for the wild horses if we allow this dispicable plan to go forward. I shudder to think what will happen to these horses once the cattle ranchers get their hands on them.
I have withstood a lot gut wrenching heartbreak throughout the past few years, and have always been able to keep my composure, but not today. The articles out today about the BLM and the cattle ranchers actually made me physically ill. This just cannot happen.
I would almost rather buy these horses and have them all euthanized than bear witness to the horrors they will endure at the hands of these greedy ranchers.
I will send an official action alert out detailing what we need to do, once Chris or I have one prepareded.
Gail Vacca
Illinois Coordinator
National Horse Protection Coalition
Wilmington, Illinois
Tel: 815-761-4937
Fax: 815-476-5257
www.horse-protection.org
Casper Star Tribune -
BLM to ranchers: Buy wild horses
By WHITNEY ROYSTER
Star-Tribune environmental reporter Wednesday, February 22, 2006
A ranchers' group is partnering with the federal government to urge people who graze animals on some public lands to consider adopting older wild horses.
Public Lands Council President Mike Byrne and Bureau of Land Management Director Kathleen Clarke sent letters to some 15,000 livestock operators across the West holding BLM-issued grazing permits or leases.
In his letter to public lands ranchers, Byrne wrote, "We recognize and appreciate that many of you already provide support to wild horses and burros through water use and grazing on private lands intermingled with the public lands. We are asking you to consider continuing to help by purchasing some of the older horses."
BLM spokesman Tom Gorey said this is the first appeal directly to ranchers.
"We think cattle ranchers are public land stewards, and even though they are already helping in a number of ways, this is something we'd like to bring to their attention," Gorey said.
By pulling older horses -- those 11 years or older -- out of the BLM's holding facilities, that helps free up money the agency is spending on caring for those horses. That money can be spent on managing wild horse herds, such as rounding up additional horses.
Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said he thinks some individual ranchers will try to help buy and care for older horses. But, he said, most will have to have private pasture to keep horses separate.
Casper Star Tribune -
Conflicting mandates drive BLM effort
By WHITNEY ROYSTER
Star-Tribune environmental reporter
with wire reports Wednesday, February 22, 2006
The Bureau of Land Management's push for ranchers to buy wild horses stems from two mandates: Reduce the numbers of horses on public rangeland, but don't send them to slaughter.
Congress passed a law in 2004 allowing wild horses older than 10 or unsuccessfully put up for adoption three times to be directly sold. Before, horses could only be adopted, meaning they were still under direction from the BLM.
But the sale program met with resistance, particularly after two sales resulted in horses being sold immediately to slaughterhouses. The BLM tightened the reins on the sale program, saying buyers had to be "qualified" and screened.
BLM spokesman Tom Gorey said there are about 7,000 older horses looking for homes, and only 1,500 have been sold. Horses in holding facilities, of course, are aging, so there will be more older horses in upcoming years.
Alan Shepherd, Wyoming's horse and burro manager for the BLM, said the state's target levels for wild horses on the range are between 2,490 and 3,725. Numbers now are about 3,600, so the state is in "maintenance mode," meaning there will still be periodic roundups.
Last year, the BLM spent $39.6 million on the wild horse and burro program. The cost for holding wild horses and burros in short- and long-term facilities was $20.1 million.
Wild horse advocates have been outraged at the BLM's push to reduce wild horse numbers on public lands, saying non-native cattle outnumber native horses 100 to one, and land managers are giving preferential treatment to ranchers over horses.
Protecting the animals from slaughter is a big issue for the Humane Society of the United States, said Nancy Perry, vice president of government affairs for the group. She said taking wild horses off the land is like "rolling the dice with their lives."
"We think the best and safest haven is in the wild," she said. Perry believes BLM needs to be more cautious in deciding how many horses are rounded up from the range.
Based on a 2005 census, there were about 32,000 wild horses and burros on BLM lands in the West, roughly 4,000 more than what the agency believes can exist "in balance" with other interests, according to the agency.
Officials with two Wyoming livestock groups said they think ranchers may be willing to buy wild horses -- at an asking price of $10 per head -- to help the BLM.
"As we talked this up, there was a pretty good amount of enthusiasm saying, 'We need to make this try, some of us need to step up and assume this obligation,'" said Jim Magagna of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. "Not because we want more horses, but it could be a key component in moving this horse project forward."
He said getting the older horses out of holding facilities would make room for others.
Bryce Reece, executive vice president of the Wyoming Woolgrowers' Association, said he, too, is optimistic people will help with older horses.
"If ranchers can take some of these horses and put them into areas where it lessens the pressure on the resource and give these horses a home," it's a good idea, he said. But it may be difficult, as many older horses are not likely to be trained to be ridden.
"You've got older horses, horses where there's no way you could get them accustomed to humans. Those are the problem horses when it comes to what do you do with them," Reece said. "I think it's a good idea, and there are likely going to be ranchers that would take some of those animals."
He said there's no economic reason to buy horses, as it will ultimately cost the rancher to provide care. Horses can also be put on a rancher's BLM grazing allotment, but a permit is required.
NewsTracker
* Last we knew: The Bureau of Land Management was hoping more people would buy or adopt wild horses from its holding facilities.
* The latest: The BLM and a ranching group are appealing directly to ranchers to buy some older horses.
* What's next: Ranchers and all others who are interested in buying wild horses for $10 per head should call the BLM at 1-800-710-7597, send e-mails to wildhorse@blm.gov, or talk to a local BLM manager.
Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@tribcsp.com.
Deseret News -
Wild horses for sale
Steve Gooch, Associated PressWild horses graze in a long-term holding facility near Pawhuska, Okla. Federal officials now have more than 7,000 older wild horses eligible for sale in holding facilities, and the Bureau of Land Management and the Public Lands Council appealed Tuesday to ranchers in the West to buy the mustangs.
Arizona Republic -
Western cattlemen urged to buy wild horses
Becky Bohrer
Associated Press
Feb. 22, 2006 08:40 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. - The U.S. Bureau of Land Management and a ranchers' group are asking thousands of Western cattlemen to consider buying older wild horses that have been culled from the range.
Letters are being sent to more than 15,000 ranchers with BLM grazing permits or leases in an effort to help the agency sell the roughly 7,000 "sale-eligible" wild horses it has in holding areas. BLM says it is required by law to sell the horses, which are older than 10 years or have been passed over for adoption at least three times.
Tom Gorey, an agency spokesman, said Tuesday that BLM has reached out to advocacy groups, ranchers and others since the law was passed in December 2004, and considered it logical also to appeal to those who graze livestock on BLM lands. The program is being done in partnership with the Public Lands Council, a ranching trade association.
Gorey said that, while the price is usually negotiable, the BLM will ask $10 per head to be consistent.
As of January, BLM had sold more than 1,500 wild horses and burros of the 8,400 that were immediately affected by the sale law, he said.
Sales of the animals were halted temporarily last spring, after the discovery that 41 horses BLM sold were slaughtered and dozens more were on their way to slaughter. The bill of sale for wild horses and burros has been strengthened as part of the bid to keep that from happening again, he said.
Protecting the animals from slaughter is a big issue for The Humane Society of the United States, said Nancy Perry, vice president of government affairs for the group. She said taking wild horses off the land is like "rolling the dice with their lives."
"We think the best and safest haven is in the wild," she said. Perry believes BLM needs to be more cautious in deciding how many horses are rounded up from the range.
Based on a 2005 census, there were about 32,000 wild horses and burros on BLM lands in the West, roughly 4,000 more than what the agency believes can exist "in balance" with other interests, according to the agency.
BLM says it spent $39.6 million on its wild horse and burro program for fiscal year 2005 and $20.1 million of that to keep animals in holding facilities.
The cost associated with caring for horses rounded up from the range is "enormous and strains the BLM's ability to deliver other services," wrote Mike Byrne, president of the Public Lands Council.
"Interest and advocacy groups' response to the purchasing of older animals has been very limited," Byrne wrote. "Now more than ever, we need stewards from the ranching community and other supporters who care about public lands to step up and purchase these horses."
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