Nevada Legislation Threatens State's Iconic Wild Horses and Burros

Two Nevada State Senators -- one a cattleman, the other a wildlife trapper -- have teamed up with a coalition of commercial interests to push for the removal of 85 percent of Nevada’s iconic wild horse and burro population. They want the lands where the wild horses roam for cattle grazing, even though cattle grazed on Nevada public land produces less than .1% of America's beef supply.

They’re asking the Legislature to pass SJR3, a resolution calling on Congress to fund massive helicopter roundups over the next six years to remove as many as 43,000 wild horses and burros from public lands in Nevada. This would decimate wild populations, leaving behind as few as 7,100 wild horses and under 500 burros on 14 million acres of public land in the state.

Worse, they want you - the American taxpayer - to pay more than $1 billion for the plan. And they’re deceiving Nevada lawmakers to get what they want.

Like the bald eagle, wild horses and burros are protected under federal law as important symbols for our nation. 86% of Nevadans want these iconic animals protected and humanely managed on our public lands. SJR 3 places special interests above the public interest and must be rejected. 

UPDATE!

(April 21, 2021) SJR3 is dead! It did not advance out of committee for a floor vote, which is good news, because even as amended, the resolution was still problematic in that it blamed wild horses for damage to public lands caused by livestock grazing and other commercial activities. Thanks to all who weighed in against this resolution - you made wild horses a top most popular issue in the Nevada legislature, currently second only to guns!

(April 7, 2021) We are happy to report that in collaboration with the committee chair and vice-chair, and with support from Congresswoman Dina Titus, we were able to secure an amendment to SJR3 that would prioritize fertility control efforts over brutal wild horse roundups. 

Even better, we struck the language urging the BLM to reduce populations to the unscientific “Appropriate” management level of as few as 7,100 wild horses and 452 burros on 14 million acres of public land in Nevada. 

Wild horses are now the most popular issue in the Nevada legislature with opinions running 3-1 against the Resolution as originally written. 

The next stop is a vote on the floor of the State Senate next week! Stay tuned for next steps! 

Top 8 Things You Need to Know About  SJR3

1. It claims that wild horses are overpopulating and starving…. But they’re not.

The claims about mass overpopulation and starvation are grossly exaggerated. The reports by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency that manages the majority of the nation's wild horses and burros refute these assertion. Documentation from BLM wild horse roundups shows that the vast majority of wild horses and burros captured from public lands are in good body condition. Incidents of wild horses suffering from lack of forage are the exception, not the rule. 

PROPERTY OF AWHC​

Wild horses from the Triple B Complex in Nevada being rounded up and removed while tax-subsidized privately-owned cattle graze in the horses' habitat. State Senator Pete Goicoechea and his family graze cattle and sheep within the Triple B public lands area. 

That’s why SJR 3 proponents resort to using misleading photos of emaciated horses to try to “prove” their claim that wild horses are starving due to overpopulation. One photo shows one emaciated horse, likely suffering from worn teeth or parasites, with a group of horses who otherwise look healthy.  Another is a photo of an emaciated mare and her foal taken at emergency roundup six years ago. This very same photo has made its rounds in legislative hearings for the past six years, wielded by wild horse opponents as evidence that these animals are starving. But if that were true, why are they relying on the same outdated photo over and over to make their case? 

2. SJR3 blames wild horses for environmental impacts, but turns a blind eye to the much larger impacts of livestock on western public lands.  

Commercial livestock grazing is authorized on 43 million acres of Bureau land in Nevada, while federally-protected wild horses and burros are allowed to live on just 14 million of those acres. And, the majority of forage on those 14 million acres is allocated to privately-owned cattle and sheep, not federally-protected wild horses and burros. Wild horses aren't asking for the whole range; their habitat is just a slice of public lands in Nevada. They should not be scapegoated for the impacts of a much larger number of cattle and sheep that have a much larger footprint on the public landscape.  

In testimony against SJR3 at a hearing before the Senate Natural Resources Committee, wildlife biologist Erik Molvar, Executive Director of Western Watersheds Project testified that his research showed that 14.8 times more cattle use than wild horse use on western public lands. Molvar challenged SJR3 proponents for completely omitting cattle and sheep impacts when discussing wild horses and public lands. "Wild horses are not the problem. Livestock are the problem. Wild horses are the scapegoats," he said.  

3. SJR3 advocates for the most inhumane way to manage wild horses - helicopter roundups. 

Helicopter roundups are brutal - wild horses are stampeded for miles over rough terrain, often in extreme temperatures. Elderly horses, tiny foals, heavily pregnant mares, and ailing horses are chased along with the fit. The roundups kill and injure wild horses and shatter their close-knit family groups. Worst of all, they deprive these wild free-roaming animals of their freedom - forever. This inhumane management system has its roots in the brutal mustanging practices of decades ago. It has no place in Nevada today.

2020 Roundup Related Deaths Obtained Through FOIA

 

4. SJR3 seeks federally funding for a management practice that does not work. 

PROPERTY OF AWHCRoundups simply do not work. The BLM has been managing federally-protected wild horses by rounding them up with helicopters for decades and has never achieved its population goals. In fact, wild horse and burro populations continue to grow despite the roundups.  

This is because the roundups are actually causing more reproduction on the range. In other words, removing horses repeatedly from their habitats in such large numbers causes compensatory population growth from decreased competition for forage. That’s what the  National Academy of Sciences warned eight years ago, concluding that the BLM’s “management practices were facilitating high population growth” in wild horse herds.

 

5. SJR3 wants the public to pay so private interests can profit.  

PROPERTY OF AWHCRounding up wild horses and incarcerating them in holding pens and pastures is expensive. In fact, it costs approximately $1,000 per horse to round them up with helicopters and up to $50,000 per horse to maintain them in holding facilities for life. ​

This is the bill that SJR proponents want to send taxpayers so that commercial can profit from the removal of our wild horses and burros. In addition, a large network of livestock operators profits from the wild horse roundup system itself, including the helicopter wranglers who secure million-dollar roundup contracts, to the cattlemen who make millions annually warehousing wild horses in holding pens. 

“The system is bad for wild horses, bad for American taxpayers but it’s good for the special interests and that’s why it’s continued for so long. But it’s time for our elected representatives to stand up for the American people and the iconic wild horses and burros they love by demanding change.” - Suzanne Roy, AWHC

 

6. The basis of these overpopulation claims, the so-called Appropriate Management Levels, has been disputed by science. 

PROPERTY OF AWHCSJR3 asserts that Nevada’s wild horse and burro populations must be reduced to the BLM’s so-called “Appropriate” Management Levels of just 7,597 - 12,811 animals on 14 million acres of public land in the state. It claims that the AML represents the carrying capacity of the land for wild horses and burros. ​

It doesn’t. Instead, AML is the number of wild horses and burros the BLM has decided to allow after giving away the majority of forage resources in designated habitat to commercial livestock. The AML has no scientific basis. This was affirmed by the National Academy of Sciences, in its 2013 report “Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Way Forward,” which concluded that AMLs were “not ... supported by scientific information, or amenable to adaptation with new information and environmental and social change.”

7. SJR 3 ignores the humane and cost-effective solution -- fertility control --  even though it’s being proven effective right in the legislature’s backyard. 

The use of humane immunocontraceptive vaccines, delivered by hand injection or remote darting is a scientifically recommended solution that can reduce population growth large wild horse populations in large habitat areas. This has been proven right in Northern Nevada by the Virginia Range Horse Fertility Control program, which is now the largest free-ranging horse fertility control program in the world. Despite the benefits of fertility control, the BLM spends less than 1 percent of its budget on this method, while 73 percent is spent to round up and warehouse wild horses and burros in holding facilities. The PZP vaccine utilized in the Virginia Range program is 97 percent effective in preventing pregnancy, costs $35 a dose, and can achieve permanent sterility in wild mares after 5 inoculations. By contrast, the average cost to round up one horse is $1000 and lifetime holding for that horse could cost as much as $48,000 (BLM estimate).

Fertility control represents a long-term solution because it addresses reproduction on the range. When combined with other win-win solutions like habitat restoration, reduction of livestock, and protection of predators, fertility control provides a modern and scientific approach that can stabilize wild horse and burro populations, while achieving the goal of true Thriving Natural Ecological Balance on western public lands.

 

8. Nevada businesses and organizations oppose SJR3.

Wild horses are a defining symbol for Nevada and the West, and are part of the brand that's drawing new businesses and residents to the state. That's why local businesses, including the Carson Chamber of Commerce and local ecotourism companies are joining wild horse protection organizations in opposing SJR3. 

As Ronni Hannaman, Executive Director of the Carson City Chamber of Commerce says, “Nevada isn’t Nevada without its wild horses.”

View the letter of opposition here.

 

  • American Wild Horse Campaign, Carson City, NV

  • Animal Kindness Foundation, Las Vegas, NV

  • Animal Protection Affiliates, Las Vegas, NV

  • Chris and Camille Bently, Minden, NV

  • Bently Ranch, Minden, NV

  • Bently Enterprises, Minden, NV

  • Carson City Chamber of Commerce, Carson City, NV

  • Chilly Pepper Mustang Rescue, Golconda, NV

  • Christine Dallas Photography, Carson City, NV

  • Country Excursions, Minden, NV

  • Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund, Reno, NV

 

  • JT Humphrey Photography, Carson Valley, NV

  • LBL Equine Rescue, Silver Spring, NV

  • Least Resistance Training Concepts, Stagecoach, NV

  • Let ‘Em Run Foundation, Reno, Nevada

  • Nancy Hulsey Photography, Carson Valley, NV

  • Terri Farley, Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, Verdi, NV

  • Karen Street Photography, Reno, NV 

  • Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Assoc., Virginia City, NV

  • Wild Horses Carry Me Away Tours, Reno, NV

  • Wild Horse Connection, Reno, NV

  • Wild Horses in Need, Golconda, NV

  • Wild Horse Preservation League, Dayton, Nevada