BLM: Don't Kill Our Wild Horses
- by: Care2.com
- recipient: Director James Caswell, Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced plans to kill America's wild horses rather than effectively manage our wild natural heritage.
BLM claims it can no longer afford to round up wild horses and confine them until it finds people to adopt them, and the agency wants to euthanize these majestic wild beauties or sell them to the highest bidder "without limitation" - meaning sell them to anyone, even if the bidder also plans to kill these horses.
Why does BLM need to round up wild horses and send them to slaughter? The BLM claims that the agency can't "allow horses to multiply unchecked on the range without causing an environmental disaster." But there are less than 30,000 wild horses on the range versus at least 3 million grazing cows. So rather than address the environmental damage caused by cattle overgrazing and expanding oil and gas exploration on our public lands, the BLM would rather placate corporate cattle ranchers who view mustangs as competition for forage, and drive wild horses - our country's symbol of freedom and independent spirit - to extinction.
This plan is simply outrageous. Stand up for our wild horses and send a comment to BLM today. Urge our government to abide by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act of 1971 and effectively manage the land to preserve wild horses rather than kill them!
Dear Director Caswell,
I am deeply disappointed with your proposal to kill or sell-off wild horses in confinement rather than develop a management plan to return these majestic animals to the range where they belong.
There are over three million cattle grazing on federal land, while fewer than 30,000 wild horses roam free. Your agency has more wild horses in confinement than on the range. I urge you to strike a better balance between cattle ranching and wild horses that will truly preserve our wild horses. Please consider alternatives such as expanded birth control programs, working with the National Park Service to add land to the range in areas where the horses already currently reside, and limiting the number of permits granted for mountain lion hunting to allow natural predation to control the herd population.
The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act of 1971 has protected wild horses for over three decades. The Act states that "wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West" and mandates their preservation. Under that law, horses are to be "considered in areas where presently found as an integral part of the system of public lands." If the BLM's annual budget is really at issue for effective management of wild horses, then the government should ask Americans to donate to the cause of preservation rather than cave to the livestock lobby.
