These animals were once domesticated, tamed, and used by settlers to travel the rugged countryside on long expeditions. Now, the descendants of those horses and burros are the source of serious political, emotional, and environmental controversy. Over seventy-five thousand wild horses and burros are currently roaming, breeding, and overgrazing on Western rangeland.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency whose mission is to “sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations” (BLM), has set a population limit of twenty-six thousand wild horses and burros to keep the ecological balance. That means that nearly forty-five thousand animals remain unaccounted for. This population will continue to grow if something is not done about it. Wild horses have no natural predators and are protected by law.
The agency is currently holding wild animals in outdoor pens and spending around fifty million dollars, nearly three quarters of their yearly federal appropriation, to feed and care for them. This program is being consumed by captive animals when its priority should be managing the animals left in the wild.
127 our experts are availableright now
The National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board is a group that works closely with the Bureau of Land Management and is composed of nine board members who meet regularly to discuss current issues and advise the BLM. Members of the board include “veterinarians and representatives of the public, the livestock industry, wildlife managers and horse advocates” (Loomis, Brandon). This advisory board recommends selling or killing thousands of horses and burros to protect vital Western rangelands from overgrazing. Horses eat roughly their own weight in dry grasses and shrubs every two months which equates to almost twenty acres of rangeland.
Among countless other negative effects, excess animals in this area has harmed rancher productivity and forced their cattle to compete for water and forage. Board member Robert Cole, an Idaho veterinarian, points out that the penned herds are beginning to die in captivity of old age–a matter that proves to be unethical and show how urgent the timing of this problem is (Loomis). With the clock ticking, a few solutions have been initiated. Solving the problem of an excess number of horses, a case of astounding mismanagement, will be no easy task, but herd thinning, herd management, and selling or adopting the animals are a few solutions that could help solve the matter.
All animals need three basic things to survive: food, water, and space. Unfortunately, due to overpopulation, the millions of acres of Western rangeland are not producing sufficient forage for the horses and other inhabitants. Without all basic needs met, this leads to unhealthy animals and the possibility of disease developing and spreading. It is unfair to leave the animals starving and suffering. Nat Messer, DVM, of the University of Missouri voices what many animal enthusiasts believe—a no kill philosophy is a nice ideal, however, “the reality is that there are too many animals.” Animal welfare should be put first, and in this instance, when some animals are old, sick, or simply unsuitable for adopting due to wild behaviors, how should they be managed?
Herd thinning could be done in two manageable ways: euthanasia or slaughter in a regulated facility. When the last slaughterhouse in the United States was shut down in 2007, the number of American horses that were being slaughtered did not decrease and neither did the risk of humans consuming horse meat with potential residues. Instead, within the span of only seven years, nearly one hundred and twenty-seven thousand horses were trucked to Mexico and Canada to a terrifying end.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture regulates animal treatment and structured American slaughterhouses by attempting to make them as humane as possible; however, once beyond American borders, they have no control, and animals suffer brutal deaths in local abattoirs (Grandin, Mary Temple). These slaughter plants blatantly disregard U.S and international regulations and continue using a “puntilla,” a short knife for severing the spinal cord in animals that remain conscious. Mary Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University and a highly regarded individual in the animal science industry, believes that “the worst outcome from an animal welfare perspective is a horse going to a local Mexican abattoir”.
The advantage of having slaughter plants in the United States is that they would be heavily regulated and monitored. Keeping them within the border would be the safest option. With an equine-specific plan for slaughterhouses, things can be done “humanely in a well-designed facility that has good management” (Grandin). Part of her plan includes video monitoring by a third party, and not using mechanical head restraint devices. Grandin’s understanding of each individual animal species is evident, as she notes that the devices work well for cattle but are not recommended for horses.
Euthanasia, another viable option for thinning the wild horse population, is a fast-acting, controlled, painless way to put an animal down. In many cases, it may be the most merciful end. The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) states that “humane euthanasia of animals is an ethical veterinary procedure” (Corp-Minamiji, Christy). Euthanasia guidelines were written by the AAEP and include putting the animal down for medical, financial, or other reasons that could cause potential harm to the animal or handlers. One injection of sodium pentobarbital to the jugular vein circulates the drug to the brain and causes “rapid cessation of brain, respiratory, and cardiac function” (Corp-Minamiji). The biggest consideration when euthanizing any animal is their overall welfare.
The Bureau of Land Management has asked Congress for permission to kill a number of horses that they have stockpiled in federally managed pens. Adoption rates are not high enough to empty the holding pens which means taxpayer money is going toward their care and wild animals are forced into disease-ridden, insubstantial captivity. The BLM states that they want what’s best for the animals however, in 2016, the agency released a statement saying, “they have not and will not kill healthy horses” (Masters, Ben). Horses of old age and those that have already accrued the cost of fifty thousand dollars will eventually be culled, but the bureau is not considering slaughtering healthy animals. If the BLM budgets for roughly two thousand and five hundred dollars per horse, a cost that accounts for food, veterinary care, and miscellaneous costs, each animal has around twenty years in the agency pens.
Though euthanasia may be advantageous, there are many concerns about the practice. The biggest involves the residues that the euthanasia substance leaves in the animal’s tissue. Sodium pentobarbital is a federally controlled drug, and veterinarians must ensure proper carcass disposal when animals are put down in this way (Corp-Minamiji). Carcass disposal is rather limited and difficult with such large animals. Options include “cremation, burial in landfills, rendering, bio-digestion and composting” (Corp-Minamiji). Each option is expensive for taxpayers and difficult to come across depending upon region.
Euthanasia and slaughtering as herd thinning options worry many animal rights activists because of potential extinction of the animals. Wild horses are a part of America’s history and are protected by law, but if killing them becomes legal, what is to stop their population from being destroyed like that of the American Bison? The Senate realizes that killing these animals is “not acceptable to the American public” (Corp-Minamiji). A humane and socially viable solution must be adopted, and one other option is managing wild range populations with birth control.
Porcine Zona Pellicuda (PZP) is a form of birth control that is darted into mares to prevent them from becoming pregnant in that year. The vaccine would stop more new colts from being born and keep the BLM from doing frequent roundups that put wild horses in holding pens. Its purpose is to level the herd size. Typically, the herd grows at about twenty percent a year, and sometimes doubles within the span of five years (Loomis). PZP fertility control has passed many criteria requirements such as being highly effective, reversible, biodegradable, and unable to pass through the food chain. It also causes no sexual or social behavioral side effects like previous steroid hormones had.
TJ Holmes, a PZP advocate out of Spring Creek Basin, Colorado, grew up around horses in the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area. She fell in love with wild horses and closely monitored their activity on the range. Occasionally, that activity included being rounded up and torn apart from their family. It was a stressful and terrifying time for the animals. Holmes researched a way to prevent the upsetting prospect and was approved to apply PZP to the local herd. Since then, there hasn’t been a roundup in her area, and there won’t need to be one in the next few years. The horses can live wild on the range like they are meant to (Masters).
This method of population control has been used on countless species for decades. The drug “fools the immune system into producing antibodies that attach to the eggs and prevent sperm from entering” (Masters). For vaccinated horses, PZP is roughly ninety percent effective; however, the target animal needs a primer dose, initial booster dose, and an annual booster dose. Booster doses can be given in the same dart-injection method or as slow-release tablets that are given at the same time as the initial vaccination. A herd population and new foal birth was recorded for a period of ten years when the PZP application was being tested. Data points were extracted from a forty-year study of the herd. The results clearly showed that the overall population size began to decline. In years past 2010, the population most likely leveled off lower than the last data point.
For the herd to be managed this way takes a lot of time, documentation, and man-power. BLM officials have argued that this solution is not practical in rugged country, nor is it effective on a herd that is already significantly over target size (Loomis). Idaho veterinarian and board member of The National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory, Robert Cole, supports the use of birth control on wild herds, but notes that it can only stabilize the population. He believes in “radically reducing them” first. Though the dose costs only twenty-four dollars, multiple doses must be applied before PZP is effective, and the methods volunteers use to apply the vaccine are costly as well. On rangeland, animals are followed by helicopter to herd them into a given area where they are vaccinated and set free. Those horses must then be tracked, documented, and regathered every year to receive their booster dose.
America’s public also has a chance to solve this issue. The Bureau of Land Management Adoption and Sales Program has “placed over two hundred and forty thousand wild horses and burros into private care since 1971” (BLM). Owners are challenged and rewarded working with the wild animals and lucky to own a part of America’s Western culture. Wild horses and burros are known for being tough, smart, and sure-footed, making them great candidates for show, work, and pleasure horses. Nonprofit organizations such as the Mustang Heritage Foundation adopt many horses from the BLM to use as horse trainer projects, where if enough work is put into them, a champion horse can be uncovered.
Unfortunately, due to BLM adoption restrictions, adoption papers are not released until a year after official adoption dates. That makes it difficult for the trainer to profit from turnover of the horses, and for private owners, it means their horse is still federal property for that year. It is already a challenge to adopt a wild animal, and the extensive forms required for the adoption process leave very few people as suitable adopters. While the BLM means well with the adoption restrictions, as they are mainly an attempt to keep wild horses from being sold to slaughterhouses for profit (Masters), it turns a lot of potential adopters away. Adoption rates would need to drastically increase for the horse population to be controlled. Roughly two thousand and five hundred wild horses and burros are adopted each year, and that hardly competes with the ten thousand that are being born. Since the domestic horse market is drastically overpopulated right now as well, wild, possibly dangerous mustangs are competing against pleasure and show horses for a home.
Wild horses and burros were originally granted access to occupy public lands through the Wild and Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971. This act requires that the animals are managed in a way that allows for ecological balance. It permits:
…federal agencies to removed animals exceeding the range’s carrying capacity to restore a natural ecological balance and protect the range from deterioration associated with an overpopulation of wild horses and burros. The Appropriate Management Level as defined by the government is 26, 715. The Act directs the agencies to destroy old, sick or lame animals by the most humane means available, remove healthy animals for private adoption, and lastly, if adoption demand is insufficient, the remaining healthy animals are to be destroyed. (American Farm Bureau Federation)
Currently, the Interior Appropriations Act is prohibiting the BLM from following this power. The only way that this population will be controlled is if a combination of solutions can be implemented. Drastic measures need to be taken at this point.
To begin, the wild horse population should be brought back down to the range’s carrying capacity. Old and unhealthy wild horses and burros should be slaughtered. If an American slaughterhouse were to be opened again, it would be regulated under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Following their regulations and Temple Grandin guidelines, transportation to slaughter plants and the entire process would much more humane. When the animal is slaughtered rather than euthanized, the carcass contains zero residues, which would allow for use of the animal.
As wild horses, they also have had no access to any animal medicines that could reside in their tissues. When slaughtering facilities in the United States were running, they sold millions of dollars of horse meat to zoos for carnivore consumption, overseas to Europe and Asia for human consumption, and to companies for many other uses. This would reduce the wild horse population back to a manageable size, use the animal in a non-wasteful way, and generate revenue that could be put back into agencies like the BLM. The Wild and Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act should be re-instated.
Once the herd is back to a manageable size, it would be vital to continuing managing that number. Being proactive with fertility control would prevent the herd population from exploding again and keep the herds wild. There would be no need for rounding up excess wild animals and keeping them in pens. Not enough people adopt the animals for the BLM to continue spending taxpayer money caring for the horses when they could be free on the restored range. Ideally, a fertility control drug would be given that lasts more than a year, as that would reduce the cost of vaccinating mares and the stress they endure, but research could continue to be done from funds that the BLM is not spending on other needs.
The greatest thing that could be done for Western rangelands and its wild inhabitants is to keep it wild. Time is being wasted not solving the wild horse overpopulation issue, and if nothing is done soon, the ecosystem will be destroyed forever. With help from horse advocates and many U.S. agencies, herd thinning, herd management, and selling or adopting the animals are a few solutions that could help solve this crisis.
