BLM’s BILLION-DOLLAR Wild Horse DISASTER Plan
The BLM has delivered its 2020 Report to Congress which outlines the ONE-BILLION-DOLLAR plan to put 220,000 horses in government holding facilities. The BLM must wait 60 days (July 7, 2020) to receive the additional $21 million Congress allocated to the agency to begin execution of this Wild Horse Disaster Plan. In the days and weeks ahead, The Cloud Foundation (TCF) will outreach to our supporters to help fight this ill-conceived proposal. If you haven’t already, please sign-up for TCF weekly Action News.
The BLM Report projects that the agency will conduct massive roundups each year over the next 20 years to reduce wild horse and burro populations down to the BLM’s “Artificial” Management Level (AML), which the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) stated is not supported by scientific information.
The BLM set AML at 27,000 wild horses and burros for more than 26.9 million acres of public lands in 10 western states. That’s one wild horse or burro per 1,000 acres or 1.5 square miles. The BLM Report proposes to annually remove 18,000 – 20,000 animals to reach this BLM-created artificial number, starting with 10,000 animals in year 1 – which could begin in July 2020!
The BLM Report clearly states there is no guarantee (1) whether there will be sufficient government-holding facilities to accommodate the huge increase in captured horses or (2) what the actual costs will be for warehousing 220,000 horses.
The BLM Report fails to mention the importance of preserving wild horse natural behaviors – the only factor that distinguishes wild horses from their domestic cousins. Instead, the BLM pushes full steam ahead with destroying natural wild horse behaviors through gelding, ovariectomies and drugs/vaccines like Gonacon which shuts down a mare’s natural cycles.
It goes without saying, the BLM Report did not mention the tremendous public opposition to the agency’s proposed actions – or that every year the agency receives public comments from tens of thousands of American opposing most of their proposed mismanagement actions which are outlined in the Report. Rather the BLM Report incorrectly refers to the “25 million acres of public land now occupied by wild horses and burros” when the BLM’s own complete 2019 HA and HMA Dataset shows that there are more than 26.9 million acres of public lands managed for wild horses and burros.
The BLM projects approximately 50% budget increases each year resulting in having “over 220,000 animals [in government holding facilities] by Year 10.” Following are BLM’s proposed budgets:
Year 1 – $116.81 million
Year 2 – $149.00 million
Year 3 – $185.00 million
Year 4 – $212.00 million
Year 5 – $238.00 million
TCF will fight this ill-conceived plan – we will work to educate legislators on why this is an inhumane plan, how it would violate the intent of the 1971 Wild, Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act which was to preserve and protect WILD horses and burros, and we will work to create Win-Win Solutions for humanely managing our treasured wild horses and burros. Stay tuned …
Click below to read the entire 2020 BLM Report to Congress.