BLM Advisory Board Recommends Increased Management Of Exploding Wild Horse Population

Sep 15, 2016

The Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, made up of a wide range of stakeholders, recommended last week significant management changes to address the exploding population of wild horses and the resulting animal welfare catastrophe. Dave Eliason, Public Lands Council president said this is a step in the right direction.

"As a stakeholder group that both cares for animals professionally and works the very rangelands currently being degraded by this growing problem, we are glad to see the Advisory Board take heed of this epidemic and recommend plausible management changes," said Eliason. "Watching these horses starve to death or die of dehydration because the population has exceeded what the range can hold is simply unacceptable. The Department of Interior must bring these populations back to a sustainable and responsible level."

Currently, BLM estimates the population of free roaming horses and burros at 67,000 - nearly 40,000 or 150 percent over the appropriate management level and growing at 20 percent per year. Additionally, 45,000 horses and burros remain in long-term storage at a cost to taxpayers of $50,000 per animal. The Advisory Board recommended BLM sell horses for private ownership and euthanize those that cannot be sold.

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