Why Thousands of Wild Horses Are on the Government's Chopping Block
Nearly 120,000 wild horses call the Western U.S. home, a number the government says is three times more than what's sustainable, and it's costing tax payers $80 million per year.
To solve the ever-growing equine population problem, the current administration is considering letting the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency responsible for the horses, euthanize or sell the animals to slaughterhouses, to the dismay of animal advocates.
Roughly 46,000 wild horses live in federally funded corrals and holding facilities, while another 73,000 mustangs and burros roam freely across public ranges in Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Oregon-property shared by ranchers who lease the land for cattle to graze on. The Bureau of Land Management spends roughly $50 million a year to shelter and feed those in captivity.
According to BuzzFeed News, many of the animals are descendants of horses used by the U.S. cavalry, ranchers, and even Spanish explorers who came here centuries ago. They have no natural predators. Many people consider these horses icons of the American West.
President Trump's 2018 budget proposal suggests using "humane euthanasia and unrestricted sale of certain excess animals" as a solution, the Washington Post reports.
The proposed solution is technically legal-the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 allows the interior secretary to issue orders for culling of animals by those means-but for the past 30 years, according to the Washington Post, Congress has added provisions (or "riders") to annual appropriations bills to stop the killing and/or sale of wild horses "that results in their destruction for processing into commercial products."
Last week, members of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee reversed this policy by voting to let the BLM begin euthanizing the horses.
A Change.org petition calling for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to prevent the slaughter of America's wild horses was started in May and has more than 83,000 signatures currently.
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