The fate of thousands of wild horses and burros could hinge on an Inland congressman and a few sentences in the upcoming federal budget.
Wild horse advocates say proposed language in the fiscal 2018 budget would open the door for the mass killing of horses roaming millions of acres of federal land. They’re appealing to Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, to strip the language out of the spending bill, which is being crafted this month.
Calvert, who has been honored for his animal advocacy, heads the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees Department of the Interior spending. As such, he could play a key role in whether the department is allowed to euthanize horses and sell them to slaughterhouse buyers.
“Riverside is the center of the political universe when it comes to deciding the future of an American icon,” said Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Campaign.
Horses and burros “are living symbols of the historic spirit of the West,” said Katia Louise, president of the Wild For Life Foundation, a horse advocacy group with an office in Riverside. “They contribute to the diversity of life forms within the nation and enrich the lives of the American people.”
In an email Wednesday, July 5, Calvert gave no indication of where he stood.
“The massive and growing number of wild horses and burros on our public lands throughout the West is a tremendous challenge,” he said. “The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) working together with Congress and other interested parties need to find long-term strategies to address this imbalance.”
Unless things change, overpopulation will lead to wild horses dying of starvation and thirst and widespread environmental damage, said the executive director of a group representing sheep and cattle ranchers with grazing permits on public lands.
“We don’t like the animal welfare disaster we see unfolding and we don’t like the environmental disaster,” said Ethan Lane of the Public Lands Council.
Roughly 73,000 wild horses and burros, including almost 9,000 on 2.5 million acres in California, currently roam public lands, with the population increasing up to 20 percent each year, BLM numbers show.
The national population stood at 25,000 in 1971, and the number that can live harmoniously with livestock and other wildlife on public lands today is just 27,000, the bureau said. Just 2,000 or so horses and burros are adopted each year, according to the BLM, which is part of the Interior Department.
‘Loved to death’
The 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act sets up rules for the treatment of wild horses and burros on federal property. Over the years, House appropriations bills have barred the BLM from killing healthy wild horses or selling them for slaughter. There are no horse slaughterhouses in the United States, but there are in Mexico and Canada.
In 1998, California voters approved Prop. 6, which made it illegal to sell horsemeat for humans to eat. The state ballot measure also banned the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
The BLM has been rounding up wild horses and burros and holding them indefinitely in off-range facilities. According to the BLM, close to $50 million of the wild horse program’s $80 million budget is spent caring for the 46,000 horses in those facilities, and the program’s budget has quadrupled since 2000.
A 446-page document on the Interior Department budget details a $10 million cut to the wild horse and burro management budget. The document described the current horse and burro program as “unsustainable.”
“The BLM must be able to use all of the tools included in the (1971 act) to manage this program in a more cost-effective manner, including the ability to conduct sales without limitation,” the document read.
A May 23 bureau statement on the budget maintains the new budget “would help reverse the declining health of wild horse and burro herds and the public rangelands on which they – and many other species – depend, by allowing the BLM to use the full range of tools identified in the 1971 Act, including humane euthanasia and unrestricted sale of certain excess animals.”
Last September, the bureau’s Wild Horse and Bureau Advisory Board voted 8-1 to recommend euthanasia and unlimited sales as options for unadoptable horses held off-range.
“In a way, wild horses are being loved to death because people focus on their beauty, but not the health of the rangeland they depend on,” Ben Masters, a board member who made a documentary about wild horses, told National Geographic.
“Voting yes on the advisory board’s recommendation was the hardest decision of my life,” he was quoted as saying.
Back in September, the BLM said it wouldn’t accept the recommendation. Since then, there’s been a change in presidents, and the Trump administration is considering drastic changes to how federal lands are managed, including allowing more oil and gas drilling.
Last week, bureau spokesman Derrick Henry said the BLM’s first goal “is to find good homes for the wild horses and burros that we gather from overpopulated herds. To that end, we are increasing our efforts to work with our partners to train and find homes for as many wild horses and burros as possible.”
Reports of starving horses are “fake news” and there’s plenty of room for horses and livestock to co-exist on federal acreage, said Roy of the wild horse campaign. Birth control, Roy said, is a better management option for wild horses and one the BLM doesn’t use enough.
Henry said the bureau is “committed to continuing our research efforts to develop better, longer-lasting birth control vaccines to slow population growth on the range and reduce the need to remove animals.”
Animal lover
Calvert, whose dachshund “Cali” made the Independent Journal Review’s list of cutest D.C. dogs in 2015, has sponsored legislation to curb the use of animals in chemical, drug and food safety tests.
He also co-sponsored a bill to prevent horse slaughter operations from opening in the U.S. and stop the export of horses for slaughter abroad. Calvert’s work on animals’ behalf has earned him awards from The Humane Society and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
While praising Calvert’s record on animals, Roy said: “We’re worried that pressure from powerful but narrow special interests will change his mind.”
The push to kill horses is from ranchers who “view wild horses as competition for this cheap, taxpayer-subsidized grazing,” Roy added.
Lane of the Public Lands Council said wild horse advocates are opposed to “anything other than unchecked, uncontrolled population growth on federal lands.”
“It’s just simply not acceptable for them any longer to view this through rose-colored glasses,” he said. “We love horses too. We just have a more realistic view of the hard work needed to take care of them.”
By the numbers
Some figures about the wild horse and burro population on acreage overseen by the federal Bureau of Land Management.
73,000 – The number of wild horses and burros roaming free on public lands.
27,000 – The number of wild horses and burros that can sustainably roam those lands, according to BLM.
5,088 – The number of wild horses on BLM land in California.
3,657 – The number of burros on BLM land in California.
876 – The number of wild horses and burros at BLM holding facilities in California.
