By Deb Galish Mason
January 2, 2021
49 YEARS OF DESTROYING THE PROTECTIONS OF “THE WILD FREE–ROAMING HORSES AND BURROS ACT OF 1971” (WHBACT, 1971).
I have always loved horses since I was a little girl. I was privileged to own my first horse when I was in 7th grade. My parents supported my passion and some of my best childhood years were spent on the back of a horse, in 4-H, and just spending time with my horse. My childhood horse passed away in 2010, just two months shy of her 34th birthday.
I started to search for adoptable horses when I saw advocates pleading for their voice to be heard for the wild horses, known as Mustangs. I started to learn about the WHBACT, and I tried to understand who the person, Velma Bronn Johnston was, and why she was known as “Wild Horse Annie”. Annie was driving to work in 1950 when she discovered a trailer full of horses and blood was dripping from the back of the trailer (Wikipedia, n.d). The trailer was headed to the slaughterhouse, Annie soon learned it was full of Mustangs . This encounter started her mission to fight for the humane treatment and protection of Wild Horses and Burros. She made it her life’s mission to speak up for the voiceless. Annie spearheaded a letter writing campaign by students to the representatives in Congress. This campaign was responsible for The Wild Horse Annie Act, (1959) & (WHBACT, 1971). Part of the ACT prohibited Mustangs from being rounded up by helicopters or motorized vehicles and made it illegal to poison the waterholes frequently visited by Mustangs. She was one of the first true wild horse advocates whose plight to protect our wild horses is documented and her voice was heard on Capitol Hill.
I too, want to have my voice heard, along with other wild horse advocates who have been helplessly watching the eradication of our wild horse herds. We have desperately tried to get our voices heard as our fears go unnoticed and more of our majestic Wild Horses will be sold into slaughter illegally by the BLM (Howell, K (2015). But our voices land on deaf ears, as our representatives side with BLM and the lobbyists.
You might ask how is this possible as the “The Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971” signed into law by President Nixon protected the horses from going to slaughter. “The Burns Amendment” in December 2004, was inserted into a 3,000 page Omnibus Act, which took away 33 years of protections from the wild horses captured during roundups. Basically if a wild horse is more than 10 years old, or has gone through 3 internet auctions without a successful bid, the BLM then can sell the wild horse without restrictions for as low as $10 to $25. Many get bought by commercial buyers which advocates call “kill buyers” who send them to Auction with a bounty on their head. Many ask $800 or more to save the horse from being shipped. Wild Horse Slaughter (SAFE, Burns, Budget)
Furthermore, the BLM has in the past broken federal law by selling a total of 1,794 federally protected wild horses to Rancher Tom Davis in 2009 and 2012, who in turn sent them to slaughter. Tom Davis had connections with the former Secretary of Interior, oops and it was “…determined that BLM did not follow current law while managing WH&B. BLM also failed to follow its own policy of limiting horse sales and ensuring that the horses sold went to good homes and were not slaughtered,” investigators wrote in the report.” (11) Many advocates recall that there were further allegations of BLM breaking the law, and the result was that wild horses were sent to slaughter from 2008-2012.
There are so many wild horses being featured at the auctions right now because sanctuaries and rescues are full, donations are down because of the Pandemic, and many people are struggling themselves to make ends meet. Especially, In a time where our tax dollars are so important, why can’t an injunction be filed to cease this program until oversight and an investigation can be done? Advocates have been trying to get Congress to Pass the SafeAct to stop this horrific fate of both domestic and wild horses. We struggle every four years to get enough sponsors and the bill never gets voted on. The US currently doesn’t allow the operation of horse slaughter plants for human consumption. Horse advocates are often chastised and articles written about this bill usually aren’t in support of the S.A.F.E. Act which would prohibit the transport of horses to Mexico or Canada to slaughter for human consumption. Many American’s do not see the difference between other livestock being slaughtered and the domestic and wild horses being slaughtered. From what I’ve read and researched, Horse meat is toxic for human consumption.
My own experience is that the history of shot records or medical records were not available or proven to ever have existed at the time my rescue horses were purchased at the auction. Many Auctions require the purchaser to obtain another Coggins test before transportation of the horse is allowed. The scam is that the Auction facility already has a current Coggins test, as is required before offering the horse for sale. The reason the Auction facility will not provide the records is they want to keep hidden the origin or prior ownership of the auction horse. Many auction horses aren’t bid for by private persons, or rescues, and get shipped to another auction or are purchased by a kill buyer who will take them to Canada or Mexico for slaughter. Many of these horses are ill, and have had As a horse vaccinations and medications given to them that are labeled not to be given to an animal raised for human consumption. Mainstream media rarely and truthfully covers the subject of horse slaughter and horse meat for human consumption as most Americans don’t eat horse meat and horse slaughter plants for human consumption aren’t legal in the US. This issue was reported in Forbes in 2012 and other publications that may have never reached many US citizens.
Continued changes, amendments, to rules, laws, and regulations of Federal and State Agencies seem to be geared toward tearing apart and abolishing the protections established in 1971. As each year and with each year passing, more of our American Icons are at risk for slaughter (Rivera, Crawford, Lefferman, Effron, 2018).
BLM attributes the rangeland degradation to wild horses when they should be concerned about the unhealthy rangelands that livestock occupy. The number of livestock that graze public lands is alarming as stated by Nicole Rivard. There is no mention of the approximately “…2 million cattle graze public lands, not to mention, sheep — compared to…79,568 wild horses” (Rivard, 2020).
The past year the BLM has conducted one of the most aggressive and deadly wild horse and burros round-ups. In December of 2019, there was such a betrayal by HSUS, ASPCA, and RTF, and others as they decided to work with cattle ranchers to work on a new ‘BLM plan” called “The Path Forward”’ as Craig Downer, wildlife ecologist, explains, if the BLM contractors continue to conduct the massive removals of wild horses from public lands wild horse herds will be decimated and will become extinct. Even during this pandemic, the contractor’s moved forward with the planned round-ups of 12,584, 11,400 were to be permanently removed and the ones remaining on public lands were going to be subject to sterilization or infertility treatments.
These helicopter roundups are dangerous, inhumane, traumatizing, and deadly. If the BLM is allowed to continue the removal of 50,000 wild horses and burros and side with the pro-slaughter groups in favor of for-profit industry, wild horses will become extinct.
In July of 2020, it was reported that the U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved for the fiscal year 2021 Interior appropriations legislation giving the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) $102 million for its wild horse and burro program (WH&B), according to a press release by the American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC), the nation’s leading wild horse protection organization (Irving, 2020).
In November 2020, I was privileged to be invited to a zoom meeting to with Marty Irby, Executive Director, Animal Wellness Action. Amanda Dickinson, along with other wild horse advocates. Irby discussed the Amendment to the Appropriations Bill he constructed, in coordination with American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC). The purpose of this Amendment was to insure that $11 million of the $102 million 2021 BLM WH&B Program Budget (LaConte, 2020) (Irby, 2020) (Sokolova, 2020) would be used specifically for PZP fertility control measures and for humane management of wild horses. Irby, AWCC, Dickinson, and many fellow advocates were fearful that all the money was going to be used solely for roundups and permanent removal of wild horses
Many wild horse advocates oppose PZP fertility treatments, I’m not a fan either, but what we have in common is that we are fighting for humane treatment of the wild horses and to keep them on the range, where they belong. (Irby, 2020). Once removed from the range, one thing we do know, most are permanently removed and those chosen by the BLM for fertility treatment may get released back into the wild. The wild horses that are now permanently removed and in BLM holding facilities have an unknown future, and their fate doesn’t look good.
Sadly, though there was bipartisan support for amendment to the Fiscal Year 2021 Spending Deal Misses Mark in Reining in Cruel & Costly Wild Horse Roundups. The amendment did not pass to utilize $11 Billion on PZP fertility control. Instead my guess is that the BLM is solely concentrating on population management by continuing to conduct massive roundups and removals of wild horses.
My hope, along with fellow wild horse advocates would be to educate the elected officials and the public in order to gain support to halt the wild horse and burro round-ups until an investigation, oversight, audit of populations of both wild horses and livestock, and science-based studies of the multiple uses of the Public Lands can be accomplished.
In 2020 BLM continued with its plans for massive roundups, and despite public comments, despite the pandemic, despite the need to spend our tax dollars wisely. Why would it be an emergency to roundup approximately 1,000 wild horses in the “In the BLM’s 190,000-acre Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area” (Downer, 2020 p. 16-18), which BLM reports as access wild horses. The BLM states this is necessary as, “[the] removal of excess wild horses over the next few years will reduce impacts to private property and promote healthy rangelands.” (Downer, 2020 p. 16-18).
What about a fair assessment of the Herd Management Areas (HMAs)? Sage Grouse was on the Endangered Species list, as noted in the 2014 PEER article; as such, BLM evaluates the sage grouse habitat based on the presence of wild horses and burros within HMA’s in sage grouse habitat, “while it considers livestock impact to have occurred only when livestock grazing allotments fail the agency’s Land Health Status (LHS) standard for wildlife”. BLM’s reporting of livestock leases and conditions of the HMA’s are rarely reported or discussed, lacks transparency, evaluation of the areas in which the livestock are present, or any scientific or factual data supporting the need to round-up and remove wild horses or burros from public lands.
This lopsided reporting and evaluation of the habitats occupied by livestock vs. wild horses is skewed to favor the removal of only the wild horses and burros, as the BLM continues to report these estimated population growths that aren’t feasible or are falsely stated to get approval of appropriation of funds in order to continue the removals of only the Wild Horses and Burros. In the reports and requests for funds, there is seldom mention of the number of livestock and the condition of the HMAs. There is no mention of evaluations being done of the livestock grazing areas and how they are destroying the Public Lands; that all wildlife inhabit. Not only has the BLM failed to provide factual data, some reporters for major publications also fail to fact check, or research this subject, as pointed out by Vicery Eckhoff, as recently published on December 12, 2020, by CORRECTIONS WATCH, Daily PitchFork. (Eckhoff, 2020). I believe it harms all of us when articles are published by mainstream media that lack research or fact checking and seem to try to sway the reader towards forming an opinion in their direction. These are very important issues, opinions, that are based on false information. Which I feel is evident by the unfounded crisis created by the BLM around its emergency round-ups of wild horses and burros, to distract the public and convince congressional leaders to vote for these unnecessary, cruel, abusive, policies, and the from the destruction caused to public lands by livestock.
It is so frustrating that BLM isn’t held accountable and is allowed to continue to report these arbitrary and overexaggerated wild horse population numbers to Congress in order to facilitate billions of dollars being appropriated to the WH&B program to conduct massive round-ups and send the wild horses to an unknown fate. It has been happening for many years that BLM’s Appropriate Management Levels (AMLs) are not supported by science according to many sources including Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF). BLM asserts that wild horses are “overpopulated” based entirely on AMLs, but AMLs have no relation to the carrying capacity of an HMA and do not necessarily indicate that a herd is overpopulated. Each herd is divided into 171 HMAs and each HMA has different ecology and landscape, but BLM lumps them all into one giant number.
Livestock are getting away with taking over our public lands and having BLM go forward with removing entire herds, or leaving such small numbers the herds will not be genetically viable.
Did you know that cattle and sheep outnumber the wild horses on Public Lands? That the BLM sells to congress and the public that these are emergency gathers because the wild horses and burros are starving and destroying public lands? The ranchers are only charged $1.35 per AUM (per cow/calf pair) on Public lands when the average cost on privately owned lands is $23.40 per head. Taxpayers foot up to 90% of the costs for Commercial Ranchers to graze their livestock on Public Lands. There is no benefit to taxpayers as only 2% of our Nation’s Beef comes from Public Lands. (AWHC, n.d.; As reported by the Congressional Research Survey, 2019).
The taxpayers and the wild horses are victims of the BLM and the livestock industry. As the taxpayer funds are fleeced to fund the roundups and subsidize the “Welfare Ranchers”. As the AWHC pointed out that Livestock grazes on 155 million acres and wild horses not only have to share the Public Lands with Livestock, wild horses are restricted to 27 million acres. (AWHC, n.d.) How is that reasonable or fair, or even morally right, or responsible stewardship, of Public Lands?
Livestock harm, pollute, and contribute to climate change. Horses actually contribute to a healthy ecosystem by eating fuel grasses that are a problem as wildfires are rampant in areas wild horses once inhabited and because they don’t fully digest seeds their manure not only spreads the seeds throughout the lands the manure acts as a fertilizer for the foliage as it grows on the range.
Horses also don’t do damage to the foliage as they snip the plants and grasses at ground level, almost like pruning or cutting your own grass. Cattle will pull out the grasses and other foliage out by the roots damaging it and therefore harming the ecosystem. Also, because cattle chew their cud and have such a different digestive system their manure isn’t beneficial because all the seeds are digested. Cattle won’t roam as far as wild horses do and tend to create stomped and destroyed areas in which they are allowed to graze Also the areas in which the foliage is destroyed makes it hard for deer to survive. Deer eat fuel grasses too! Cattle do not eat fuel grasses either.
If everyone knew the Gross Way Water Pollution From Livestock Affects You and how cattle manure contaminates the surface water, and the runoff contaminates the water we drink from wells, rivers, ponds, lakes, etc. 8 Billion Livestock animals are raised in the USA, for human consumption. Cattle, between their hydration needs. and the irrigation of the crops raised to feed the livestock, they are responsible for 50% of our water consumption. All this livestock doesn’t benefit the American Consumer and Trump tried to ramp up exports to the UK when he announce a new trade deal in August of 2019. Up to date figures indicate that the US has exported 2.39 billion pounds of beef so far in 2020. U.S. exported more than 2.30 billion pounds of beef in 2020. Imports probably would of been more if it wasn’t for the Pandemic. Still the agricultural industry received a record number of subsidies under the Trump administration. Again, another misuse of taxpayer funds. Which started at 11.5 billion in 2016, and has grown to $32 billion under Trump’s presidency. In the back rooms and behind our backs the BLM, lobbyists, special interest groups are joining the Livestock industry’s campaign to get rid of wild horses, which is a scam to cheat the taxpayers.
Wild Horse and Burro roundups are fueled by taxpayer funds, misleading statements by the BLM, which are regurgitated by our Representatives who back them. BLM advertises that they have adopted “240,000 wild horses and burros into private care since the 1971 Act. Though there are successful Adoptions and Sales of wild horses and burros and they have the potential to become excellent pleasure, show, or work horses. This isn’t the reality for the majority of them. BLM doesn’t tell you about the wild horse adoption fails, or about the wild horses bought specifically from kill buyers, brokers, who drive up the price at auctions so sympathetic rescues and individuals can try and raise money to save them from shipping to slaughter. The 1971 Act prohibits BLM from legally or directly selling wild horses or burros to slaughter to decrease numbers; the loophole is that if the wild horse or burro is adopted through the internet adoption program or if the wild horse is sold after 3 unsuccessful internet auctions, the wild horse loses its protections from slaughter when the Burns Amendment was passed.
If the BLM continues to roundup and remove wild horses at this rate there will be no more genetically viable herds in 10 years and the numbers left on the range may be as little as 16,000 to 25,000 which were the approximate numbers on the range at the time the 1971 Act was signed into law. The Public Lands Foundation (PLF) Statement of September 2018, Wild Horse & Burro Position Statement 2018-09-14 basically outlines the position of the BLM and lacks research or sources, scientific data, or unbiased opinion, etc. The PLF statement also states that PZP has largely failed to be effective. Yet, our tax dollars are earmarked for the barbaric surgical sterilization of wild horse mares. If the BLM can catch the wild horses and release them after this abusive, experimental, unsanitary procedure, couldn’t they accomplish more by releasing them with PZP treatment? This sterilization procedure was suggested and opposed before, as advocates filed a lawsuit to halt this barbaric field surgery. This sterilization procedure needs to be abolished all together without the need of lawsuits by advocates. What kind of people who are our leaders even believe this is ok to do to any animal? For now it is up to the court as a Lawsuit was Filed to Stop the Barbaric BLM Wild Horse Sterilization Experiments.
If something isn’t done in the coming year for wild horse advocates voices to be loud enough for Capitol Hill to hear, my fear is, the path for wild horses is extinction and our tax dollars will continue to fund the rich.
Very truly yours,
Deb Mason
Wild Mustang Community
Twitter @MustangRehab
Facebook @SaveOurWildMustangs
PUBLICATIONS:
Congressional Research Service (2019, March 4) https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS21232.pdf
Senate Report 116-000, (2020 Draft). 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION
Wikipedia (n.d.) Velma Bronn Johnston
Wild Horse Annie Act (1959, September 8)
Pub. L. 86-234, Sept. 8, 1959, 73 Stat. 470 ( 18 U.S.C. 47)
Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. (1971, December 17), as amended (16 U.S.C. 1331-1340),
REFERENCES
Animal Welfare Council, (2020, January 25), “SAFE Act – Bogus Science and Bad Legislation”.
American Wild Horse Campaign (n.d.) Public Lands Ranching
American Wild Horse Campaign (2020, December 21) FY21 Spending Deal Misses Mark in Reining in Cruel & Costly Wild Horse Roundups
Bradford, A (2014, June 24). Mustangs: Facts About America’s Wild Horses. Published by Live Science.
Downer, C, (2020, August 15). America’s wild horses face elimination in govt’s “path forward” plan: Published August 15, 2020 horsetalk.co.nz
Eckhoff, V (2012, June 18) “How Safe is That Horse Meat?”, Published retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/vickeryeckhoff/2012/06/18/how-safe-is-that-horse-meat/?sh=651aec201c77
Eckhoff, V, (2020, December 12) “Factchecking 9 errors in the Washington Post, Seattle Times and Houston Chronicle”, Published by dailypitchfork.org
Fitch, R.T. (2020). BLM AGAIN Releases Fraudulent Population Statistics for Wild Horses and Burros, Published by Wild Horse Freedom Federation.
Globe Newswire (2020, December 10) Animal Wellness Action Executive Director Marty Irby Named one of The Hill’s Top Lobbyists for 2020”
Horses for Life Foundation, (n.d.) ‘AMERICAS’S WILD HORSES ARE UNDER ATTACK – EVERY HEARD IS AT RISK – BACKED BY THE LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY “10 YEARS TO AML PLAN” WOULD DECIMATE THE HERDS, BURDEN TAXPAYERS AND FUEL THE SLAUGHTER PIPELINE’
Howell, K (2015, October 24) “BLM illegally sold thousands of wild horses for slaughter: report”: Published October 24, 2015, Published by The Washington Times.
Kailimian, (2020, January 7) “Wild Horse Grazing Can Help Our Planet”; Published by Cana Foundation.
LaConte, J. (2020, November 18) BLM seeks to cut wild horse numbers in Colorado by more than half through roundups. Published by Aspen Times
LaConte, J. (2020, November 30) Neguse, colleagues pen letter to Pelosi: Wild horse roundups ‘harmful to health of animals,’ keep PZP in 2021 funding; Colorado wild horse herds will be affected by BLM management program. Published by VailDaily.
(LaConte, 2020) As cited by Irby, M. (2020, December 10, 2020, Horse Protection Groups Back Bipartisan Congressional Letter Supporting Humane Treatment of Wild Horses. Published by Animal Wellness Action.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), PRESS RELEASE, (2004, September 16) “BLM Weighs Wild Horse Impact Much More Heavily Than Cattle – PEER.org”,
PubMed.gov (2014, May) : ”A toxin isolated from Sarcocystis fayeri in raw horsemeat may be responsible for food poisoning”
Rivera, Crawford, Lefferman, Effron, (2014, January 23).
“Wild horses facing slaughter after US government proposes new regulations” Published by ABC News.
Rivard, N (2020, December 10).” OPINION: Wild Horses Aren’t the Problem; The BLM Is.”. Published by Pagosa.Daily, 2020/Environmental/Recreation, Opinion Letters.
Sokolova, D (2020, July 30), Special to the Pahrump Valley Times, “House Appropriation Committee approves BLM funding”; Published by PV Times.
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