Problems

The Story Behind the Story

The U.S. Department of the Interior funds some of the agencies that oversee the management of wild horses on public lands. Those agencies are The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees the Forest Service, which also manages wild horses. Each agency has its own budget requirements, as well as its own regulations.

For the sake of simplifying, we'll concentrate mainly on BLM- and Forest Service-governed lands since the majority of wild free-roaming horses and burros reside there.

The BLM oversees roughly 260 million acres of land in 12 western states, and they are used by hikers, hunters, campers, and the like, as well as cattle grazers. The Forest Service oversees 192 million acres of land in 44 states, and they are also used by hikers, hunters, campers, and the like, as well as cattle grazers. That's more than 450 million acres between them. BLM’s private livestock grazing program encompasses 214 million acres of public lands and costs over $130 million to manage annually.

BLM issues 18,600 permits to run cattle on nearly 13 million AUMs (Animal Unit Months = an AUM is defined by how much forage per month is required to sustain a cow, a sheep — or a horse). The Forest Service issues 8,500 permits to run cattle on roughly 9.3 million AUMs. That's a combined total of more than 26,000 permits and 22.3 million AUMs.

The grazing fee which, technically, fluctuates with the cattle market, is currently at $1.35 per cow per month (the equivalent of $0.06 per acre per year, or about 1/10th of market rates to graze cattle on private lands), giving the government about $26.5 million annually in grazing fees.

Congress has mandated that public lands be enjoyed by means of multiple uses: public recreation (hiking, bird watching, camping, etc.), livestock grazing, and hunting, among other uses. There is roughly more than six million livestock, a couple million ungulates (deer, elk, etc.), and an estimated 23,000 wild horses and burros grazing the public range. Private livestock outnumber wild horses and burros at least 200 to 1 on public lands (note: some livestock may not be grazed year round).

The Early Years

Due to the mistakes, misinformation, and misguided efforts of both cattle ranchers and humane groups, wild horses were caught in the crosshairs. When the Wild Free-Roaming Horse & Burro Act passed in 1971, only 17,000 wild horses and burros were estimated to be on public lands. To the horses' detriment, both sides agreed to allow the government to manage wild horse populations at that level. But eleven years later — in 1982 — a study by the National Academy of Sciences (and, in part, commissioned by the Bureau of Land Management) found that a base of 50,000 wild horses was closer to the actual herd level, given the horses' growth rate and the numbers of horses being removed.

But the damage had already been done, the "management levels" were engraved in stone, and the removal of "excess" horses well in place. Wild horses and burros continue to come off federal land, despite public opposition and the intent of federal law.

It costs the BLM alone as much as $3,000 to roundup, transport, vet, feed, and adopt/place — with an annual budget of $39 million — every horse it catches each year. Even though a sport hunting organization argues that 40,000 bighorn sheep qualifies them as endangered, the BLM has been removing wild horses and burros that, by some standards, already qualify as endangered species.

The horses are then put up for adoption to the American public for $125.00 each. Because most people adopting wild horses don't understand what it entails to tame and train one, most of America's wild horses have gone on to slaughterhouses. In fact — as reported in an Associated Press article — a federal grand jury collected evidence that 90% of the wild horses adopted by the American public have been butchered for table meat in foreign countries.

In order to remove wild horses from public lands, BLM MUST claim that horses are destroying critical habitat, competing for grazing lands, and overpopulating themselves, causing immeasurable suffering, dehydration, and starvation.

But, in fact, two GAO Reports, one from 1990 and the other from 1991, along with a National Academy of Sciences study, show that none of BLM's claims have been proven: BLM has never presented any evidence that horses destroy habitat, nor that their population levels are what it says they are. What BLM HAS done, however, is fence horses off their winter and summer ranges, removed entire herds from protected, designated horse areas, and allowed tens of thousands of horses to go to slaughter. It is the agency, not the horses, that has created the range wars that exist today.

And there's one more catch: The 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse & Burro Act, a law designed to protect and keep wild horses on public lands, stipulates that horses can only be removed from public lands if it is proven that they are overpopulating and/or are causing habitat destruction. It further mandates that the government must "protect and manage wild free-roaming horses and burros as components of the public lands, and ... maintain specific ranges on public lands as sanctuaries for their protection and preservation."

Over the past 39 years now, BLM has been violating — and continues to violate — this federal law, enacted by the people for the wild horses and the federal lands that belong to them. In the 40 years that BLM has been "managing" horses, it has rounded up, removed, given away, and slaughtered tens of thousands of wild horses — more than 200,000 to date — but it has NEVER developed a strategic plan to keep viable herds of wild horses on public lands. BLM's history with wild horses is one of reduction, not preservation.

Why would an agency spend $3,000 taxpayer dollars to catch a single horse, a horse that only frees up $8.10 in grazing fees? Well, we have the answer: let's just follow the money...

The Gist of It

To simplify this part of the story as well, let's hypothesize. Say, for example, you acquire a government permit to run cattle on public lands. And let's say that permit costs you $1.35 per cow per month, and a portion of that permit money you spend comes back to you from the government in "range improvement funds." The cost to run your cow has just been reduced.

In order to have acquired that permit, however, you would have to own a "base ranch" from which you run cattle on public lands. And let's say your ranch will run a thousand head of cows. Those 1,000 cows use up 6,000 AUMs (six months of AUMs times 1,000 cows). Because all ranches are sold on an Animal Unit (AU) basis (a ranch is valued by how many animals it can run, not on the amount of land it has), your 1,000-head ranch is hypothetically worth $3 million in AUs (given the average going rate of $3,000 per AU).

And let's say there just happens to be 200 wild horses on those federal lands you're leasing. If you remove the wild horses and put another 200 head of cattle in their place, you have increased your AUs by 200, each worth $3,000 each, and the value of your ranch automatically grows by $600,000, giving you a $3.6 million ranch — all by simply removing the horses.

Your cow isn't worth any more than your neighbor's, but he's a private land owner, doesn't have a grazing permit. It's costing him about $250 a year to produce his cow — on both winter and summer grounds. Because you run your cow on public lands for $1.35 per month in the summer, and you only have to run your cow on private land in winter for $10.00 a month (because winter grass is cheaper), your total cost to produce that cow is about $70 per year. Both your cows sell for the same at auction, but you just made an additional $600,000 by having the government remove 200 horses from the public lands you are leasing.

Why would the government help you?

Well, remember, there are nearly 22.3 million AUMs available — along with nearly $500 million in government subsidies (for water, predator control, etc.) — and you begin to get the picture. Factor in that roughly 35% of the cattle ranchers on BLM and Forest Service lands — corporations like Texaco, Metropolitan Life, Anheuser-Busch, Hunt Oil, and the like — dominate more than 80% of the western public range, and you get an even better idea of the kind of money exchanging hands out there.

Oh, and then there are the taxpayer dollars. On top of subsidizing public lands ranchers, it has been estimated that the total cost of the government's grazing programs are 10-20% more than the combined net profits of public lands ranchers.

Can BLM justify spending $3,000 to remove one solitary horse to get back a measly $8.10 in AUMs? You betcha.

Our Plan

When the federal law to protect wild horses was passed, wild horses were managed on 306 Herd Management Areas (HMAs) in 16 states. Since the law, however, the HMAs have been reduced — illegally, mind you — to 195 in just 10 states; six states have entirely lost their wild horse and burro populations. That means that all the horses, once living in viable herds in those management areas (as mandated by law) have been removed. Adopted. And the majority of them sent to slaughter.

Our Proposal

• require that wild horse HMAs be brought back to their original 306, not 195;
• require that 50,000 wild horses be allowed (as intended by existing law) to roam freely on government lands inside those 306 HMAs;
• ask the government to give 600,000 AUMs (of the more than 22.3 million allotted — or less than 3%) back to wild horses (BLM, on the other hand, is gearing up to push the horse onto 1% of the allotted AUMs, even though, under the law, horses, as well as cattle, have a right to be in those allotments);
• offer public lands ranchers a $300 allotment incentive per year per wild horse (the majority of public lands ranchers enjoy a lifestyle that has little to do with making money, but they must still provide for themselves. Nothing in their lives would change. They would continue to pay the government their required grazing fees. But if they allowed wild horses on their allotted AUMs — as opposed to cattle — our proposal would give them a $300 allotment incentive per year per wild horse);
• give private wild horse sanctuaries a tax credit (at the point at which wild horses exceeded their 50,000 level), the "excess" would be rounded up — by BLM — and sent to privately owned sanctuaries, which would receive a tax credit per horse per year in the amount it costs the government to feed that horse for its lifetime. These sanctuaries would be approved by humane groups to make certain they could manage and properly care for the animals. By comparison, government-sanctioned sanctuaries — both currently in existence and in the pipeline — have failed, don't work, or will not help horses.
• and, lastly, require that all wild horses would — whether on federal land or private — continue to belong to the PEOPLE, to the American public — and not to private corporations, organizations or individuals — for the length of their lifetimes. By remaining under the ownership of the American public, wild horses could not be bought or sold, either for use or slaughter.

By giving cattle grazers a larger incentive than sanctuaries to keep wild horses on federal land, we ensure a 50,000 population level of wild horses on public lands, and essentially end the need for mass roundups and adoptions.

Our proposal, therefore, would give public lands ranchers an incentive to keep wild horses on lands they govern, guarantee the lives of horses after they have been removed from public lands to private sanctuaries (not holding pens), save the government millions of dollars annually, and allow 50,000 wild horses to roam freely in viable, family herds, as was intended by the federal law passed by the American people on behalf of wild horses.

If you start to dig, you'll discover the details about how the BLM has and continues to violate the laws designed to protect wild horses on public lands, the history of America's horse and the 40-year war against them. You will also better understand why an allotment incentive and tax credit plan are the only solutions for keeping wild horses on federal land (on behalf of wild horses, there have been more than 40 district court suits and more than 200 appeals of BLM decisions alone since 1971 — to no avail). Our solution also guarantees the lifetimes of horses in private sanctuaries (unlike the BLM's current short-term, open-ended plan which risks the lives of thousands of horses).

We truly hope we'll have your support because we sincerely believe if you take the time to examine the root of this problem, you will agree with us that our proposal once and for all ends mass roundups, puts an end to public adoptions, and secures the already existing rights of wild horses to their place on public lands.

No other issue in America — aside from the Vietnam War — has generated such public outcry as the plight of our nation's wild horses. Get involved today and help us save the American wild horse.

Reproduction authorized solely for educational purposes, provided
www.wildhorsepreservation.org is credited as source.

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