Park Service signs deal to round up Death Valley’s wild burros

A wild burro stands in Death Valley National Park. The agency has entered into a five-year agreement with a nonprofit rescue group to remove all burros from the park. (National Park Service)

By Henry Brean
Las Vegas Review-Journal

Death Valley National Park hopes to be burro-free within the next five years.

The National Park Service said Thursday it has entered into a contract with Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue, a Texas-based nonprofit, to round up and remove up to 2,500 wild burros from the park 100 miles west of Las Vegas.

The animals are not native to Death Valley, but they have made themselves at home there, said park Superintendent Mike Reynolds. They damage springs and vegetation, create a safety hazard on park roads and compete for food and water with desert bighorn sheep and other native animals.

“Burros are not part of the natural California desert ecosystem,” Reynolds said in a written statement. “With this partnership, we have created a win-win situation for the burros, the park and taxpayers.”

Starting later this month, Peaceful Valley will lure the animals with food and water or drive them with wranglers on horseback into temporary pens. The burros will then be trucked out of the park to training centers to be prepped for adoption.

“Our main objective is to protect our wild burros. If they must be removed, we want to ensure that it is done safely with as little stress possible,” Mark Meyers, the rescue group’s executive director, said in a written statement.

“This is what they do,” Death Valley spokeswoman Abby Wines said of Peaceful Valley. “Their main mission is to rescue burros and put them up for adoption.”

Wines said the group has agreed to find room at one of its sanctuaries for any animals that can’t be trained or placed in new homes.

Pleasant Valley also plans to remove up to 2,500 wild burros from nearby Mojave National Preserve in California under the same five-year contract.

The operation is being paid for with private donations and grants to the group. Wines said the cost to the federal government is “pretty close to zero.”

Eliminating wild burros from Death Valley has been the Park Service’s stated goal since the adoption of a master plan for the 3.4 million acre park in 2002, but no roundups have been conducted since 2005.

So why now? “They’re multiplying,” Wines said. “We don’t really know what our population is, but we think it’s in the neighborhood of 2,000.”

The largest concentrations of burros can be found in Saline and Butte valleys and in the Wildrose area, she said, but the animals also have recently shown up in the Black Mountains south of Dantes View for the first time since the 1940s.

The National Park Service is allowed to remove them because it is not bound by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, which requires the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to manage and maintain the animals on public land.

The wild burros of today are not related to the larger animals used in the 20-mule teams that famously hauled borax out of Death Valley in the late 1800s, but Wines said they may be the descendants of old pack animals once used by prospectors in the region.

“That’s the foundation of the wild population in the West,” she said.

The Park Service doesn’t expect the upcoming roundup to eliminate the burro problem entirely.

For one thing, Wines said, “it will be very hard to get all of them.”

And there is nothing to stop burros from neighboring parts of Nevada and California from making their way into Death Valley some day.

“We’re not going to fence the park,” Wines said.

BLM to remove fewer mustangs across West

In this June 5, 2013, file photo, horses stand behind a fence at the Bureau of Land Management's Palomino Valley holding facility in Palomino Valley. (Scott Sonner/AP file)

Martin Griffith
Associated Press

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management says it will remove fewer wild horses and burros from the range across the West this summer because of budget constraints and overflowing holding pens.

Under its roundup schedule announced this week, the bureau plans to gather 2,400 of the animals through the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. All but 215 of them will be horses.

Plans call for removal of 1,535 horses in Wyoming, 285 in Nevada, 200 in Utah, 75 in Oregon, 50 in California and 35 in Idaho. The bureau also plans to gather 140 burros in Arizona, 50 in California and 25 in Oregon.

The announcement comes at a time when the bureau has been under increasing pressure from Western ranchers to step up removal of horses they say threaten livestock and wildlife on drought-ravaged rangelands.

The bureau estimates 40,600 of the animals — the vast majority of them horses — roam free on public rangelands in 10 Western states. The population exceeds by some 14,000 the number the agency has determined can exist in balance with other rangeland resources and uses.

Bureau officials said aggravating the situation is severe drought that has resulted in reduced forage for the animals. The agency also faces limits on the number of horses and burros it can remove because holding facilities are at capacity. Some 49,000 of the animals are being held in government-funded short- and long-term facilities.

Removal of fewer mustangs from the range "will exacerbate the difficult challenges we face in nearly every aspect of the wild horse program right now," BLM officials said in a statement.

But the bureau's actions contradict recommendations of an independent panel of the National Academy of Sciences released last year, said Deniz Bolbol, spokeswoman for the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign.

In a report, the panel said the bureau should invest in widespread fertility control of the mustangs instead of spending millions to house them. It concluded the bureau's removal of nearly 100,000 horses from the Western range over the past decade is probably having the opposite effect of its intention to ease ecological damage and reduce overpopulated herds.

"The BLM already warehouses more wild horses in holding facilities than remain free in the wild," Bolbol said in a statement. "The agency's plan to remove thousands more mustangs and burros from the range makes no ecological, scientific or fiscal sense."

Horse defenders also dispute the bureau's position that mustangs are overpopulating the West. They say the vast majority of forage on the range is being allocated to privately-owned livestock, and public rangelands are being overrun by livestock instead.

"The hyper-focus on mustang numbers is a concerted effort to scapegoat wild horses and distract attention away from the massive level of livestock grazing that is occurring on our public lands," said Suzanne Roy, director of the AWHPC.

After removing horses from the range, the bureau places them in short-term corrals until they're either adopted or shipped to government-funded pastures in the Midwest where they spend the rest of their lives.

Support flows in for sick desert tortoises

In this Aug 22, 2013, photo, research Associate Pamela Flores conducts a health assessment on a desert tortoise at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in Las Vegas. Federal funds are running out at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center and officials plan to close the site and euthanize hundreds of the tortoises they've been caring for since the animals were added to the endangered species list in 1990. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)(Credit: AP)

BY HANNAH DREIER
Salon

LAS VEGAS (AP) — News that hundreds of threatened desert tortoises face euthanasia with the pending closure of a refuge near Las Vegas has generated a storm of reaction that has government officials scrambling to find alternatives and fielding offers from people wishing to adopt the reptiles or make donations.

The Associated Press reported this week that the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center, which has sheltered thousands of displaced tortoises for 23 years, is scheduled to close in 2014 as funding runs out.

As the location just south of Las Vegas begins to ramp down, it is euthanizing tortoises deemed too unhealthy to return to the wild. Healthy tortoises won’t be killed.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service desert tortoise recovery coordinator Roy Averill-Murray estimated last week that about 50 percent to 60 percent of the 1,400 tortoises that live at the refuge were sick. Such tortoises cannot be released into the wild because they could infect their healthy wild brethren.

The estimate prompted a public outcry and debate among the various agencies connected to the refuge about the number of at-risk tortoises. It also forced the agency to issue a statement assuring the public that no healthy tortoises will be killed but saying that euthanasia is the only option for many of the animals because they are sick. Fish and Wildlife also assigned four people to field calls and put a message about the situation on its spokeswoman’s answering machine.

Deputy Fish and Wildlife Service director Carolyn Wells said Wednesday that the 50 percent estimate of sick tortoises at the facility may be correct, but added that not all of the ailing animals will be killed. Some of them could potentially go to research facilities, she said, though she could not say how many, and she does not yet have commitments from biologists.

Fish and Wildlife operates the center in conjunction with the San Diego Zoo.

Allyson Walsh, associate director for the zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research, said just 30 percent of the residents are receiving medical treatment, though some others have been quarantined and need new evaluations.

“The ones that don’t get better and that are sick and suffering will probably be euthanized because that’s the sensible thing to do,” she said.

She disputed the notion that budget cuts are forcing the reptiles to be put down. Although the center has housed sickly tortoises for years, Walsh said they eventually would have been euthanized anyway.

Walsh said sick tortoises cannot be adopted out and she has not been contacted by any researchers interested in taking in the sick animals.

“That’s a possibility but we wouldn’t transfer an animal to anyone who was doing destructive research,” she said.

The right thing to do for a sick animal is euthanize it, she said.

Seth Webster disagrees.

Webster, a 36 year old programmer from New York, created a Change.org petition that together with a similar one on the site has drawn more than 3,000 signatures. He said he is working with a Florida tortoise refuge that recently bought land in Nevada to see if Fish and Wildlife will transfer the tortoises, or at least let an outside evaluator decide which animals are so sick they should be killed.

“Animals have a very strong will to survive,” he said. “These tortoises live to 100 years. If we euthanize him, are we robbing him of 30 years? It doesn’t seem fair to euthanize them just because the tortoises are sick and someone ran out of money.”

Desert tortoises have made their rocky homes in Utah, California, Arizona and Nevada for 200 million years. But the prehistoric animal has some unfortunate evolutionary quirks, including a susceptibility to flu-like respiratory infections and difficulties settling in to new homes. They are also sensitive to change as the tortoises sometimes dehydrate themselves by voiding a year’s worth of stored water when handled.

These weaknesses have combined with widespread habitat destruction in the quickly developing Southwest to dramatically reduce the tortoises’ numbers.

The Bureau of Land Management has partially funded the conservation center through fees imposed on developers who disturb tortoise habitat, but when the housing bubble burst several years ago, that funding dropped far below what was needed to run the center.

“Here’s an upside to this. It’s gone international,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Jeannie Stafford said. “We have gotten hundreds of people saying they would like to adopt. Thousands of people signing petitions. It’s been people wanting to help us with the situation.”

But most of the would-be tortoise Good Samaritans cannot actually adopt the animals. Federal laws intended to protect the reptiles ban their transportation across state lines.

People who live in Nevada can adopt the slowpokes through the Desert Tortoise Group. But they should know that owners who kill or release their long-lived pets could face prison time.

The Humane Society of the United States is setting up a fund this week for out-of-staters who want to help but cannot take a tortoise home.

Despite the overwhelming response, the Bureau of Land Management is not reconsidering its plan to pull funding that goes toward the center’s $1 million annual budget.

“Although it’s wonderful that people want to give money, it won’t change the outcome for the Desert Conservation Center,” BLM spokeswoman Erica Haspiel-Szlosek said. “There just isn’t money to keep it going, nor is it really the best use of conservation funds.”

The agency plans to redirect the $810 fee that developers pay for each acre of tortoise habitat they disturb to environmental preservation efforts.

The center has historically taken in about 1,000 tortoises a year, but will stop accepting new residents in coming months.

Tortoise rescue in Hi-Desert investigates Nevada kill-off

A male desert tortoise that is about 40 years old was rescued by the Joshua Tree Tortoise Rescue and is held by director Rae Packard. (Omar Ornelas, The Desert Sun)

Hi-Desert Star
Staff report

MORONGO BASIN — The headline read, “Hundreds of desert tortoises to be euthanized by 2014 at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center just outside Las Vegas.”

“My heart just sank,” Rae Packard, executive director of the Joshua Tree Tortoise Rescue, said after hearing the news. Since then, Packard says her rescue line has been ringing non-stop.

“At first, people thought it was us,” Packard said. She has had to explain that the tortoises marked for death are in Nevada.

Not believing the numbers, Packard called the man who was interviewed for the story, Roy Averill-Murray, head of the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center.

Averill-Murray told her while the situation is dire, the numbers in the article were exaggerated, and only six tortoises are scheduled to die. Averill-Murray said those tortoises have been diagnosed with upper respiratory disease syndrome and are failing to thrive.

When Packard asked if she could pick up those tortoises and rehabilitate them at her facility, Averill-Murray said both Nevada and California state laws absolutely prohibit the interstate transport of desert tortoises.

“The fear is that if they escape from a rescue facility or adoptive home, the sick tortoises may contaminate healthy ones,” Packard explained.

She heard surreptitious talk of an underground movement to take the tortoises, Packard said by phone Wednesday. However, she cautioned no one should get involved in something like that. Transporting desert tortoises across state lines is a federal offense, and the fines reach into the tens of thousands of dollars.

“I know that it’s an important law that went into effect to protect what is remaining of an already declining tortoise population,” Packard said, “But I believe an exception should be made in this case, especially if a cure for URDS is possible. That’s why the tortoise adoption programs were invented.”

Packard encourages those who have been moved by this story to reach out to federal legislative officials to urge them to continue funding the conservation center and to state officials to suspend the interstate transport law to stop this life-or-death crisis.

Conservation Center Tortoises Will Be Released

Desert tortoises are threatened by their own conservation center. (Desert Tortoise Conservation Center)

CBS KXNT

Las Vegas – Southern Nevada’s 17-year-old Desert Tortoise Conservation Center will close by the end of 2014 as the funding that supports it dries up.

There are 1,400 desert tortoises living at the center, where management and wildlife officials were scrambling on Monday to correct the misconception that the animals will be euthanized on a large scale.

Jeannie Stafford of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the national press misreported the center’s intentions. The center is working to get some of the tortoises adopted through the humane society. Some could go to private land that can accommodate them, the remainder, if they are healthy, will be released into the wild.

The center has so many tortoises because people find them and take them home as pets, only to have a change of heart later.

Stafford urges parents, kids, and anyone else who might get the urge to adopt — if you see a tortoise in the wild, it’s best to leave it there.

MOJAVE DESERT: Reward offered in burro death

Burros rounded up from public land in the West are held in BLM corrals until adopters can be found. (File photo)

BY David Danelski
Press-Enterprise

The federal government is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever killed and butchered a wild burro on public land in northeast San Bernardino County.

A biologist found the carcass earlier this month in the Ivanpah Valley, near the site of a solar energy project under construction next to Interstate 15 a few miles from Primm, Nevada.

The animal appeared to have been cut up at the site for its meat, said David Briery, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman. Whoever killed the burro left behind its head and ribcage.

Burros are protected under the federal Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. The law makes it illegal to kill them.

“We are working with other agencies to bring the responsible parties to justice and hope members of the public will provide us with helpful information,” said Amy Dumas, a BLM wild horse and burro specialist, in a news release.

Anyone with information about the dead burro can contact Chief Ranger Brad Baron at 760-326-7000.

The bureau regularly uses helicopters to round up wild burros on public land in Southern California and throughout the West when theirs ranges are deemed to be overpopulated. Some of the animals are taken to holding corrals in Ridgecrest and later offered for adoption.

The BLM regularly brings horses and burros to the Sundance Ranch off San Timoteo Canyon Road in Redlands for adoption events.

As of November, about 1,100 burros rounded up in the West were being held in federal corrals, according to a BLM website.

Feds Plan Roundup for 3,500 Wild Horses, Burros

A wild stallion runs for freedom after jumping over the fence of a holding area during a wild horse roundup in the Clan Alpine Range in Fallon, Nev., about 120 miles east of Reno, Nev. (AP file photo)

Paul Foy
Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — Federal officials plan to round up thousands of wild horses and burros across six Western states starting today, Monday.

The roundups will take place through February on drought-stricken range lands in Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.

Contractors for the Bureau of Land Management will use helicopters plus bait- and water-trapping methods to corral 3,500 wild horses and burros, officials said.

In addition, more than 900 other horses will be captured for birth control injections and returned to range lands.

The government is already holding 47,000 horses, most of them on green pasture in the Midwest. Bureau of Land Management officials said it was a popular misconception that they send horses to slaughterhouses. The animals are protected under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

A small number of horses are put up for adoption, but most horses are kept until their final days in permanent corrals, officials said.

Owners of adopted horses must swear under the penalty of law that they do not plan to send horses to slaughter, said Heather Emmons, a BLM spokeswoman in Reno, Nev.

The BLM's ability to care for ever-rising numbers of wild horses is a decision left to Congress, she said. The BLM says there are 11,000 more wild horses roaming public lands across the West than belong there.

In all, there are 37,300 wild horses and burros on public range lands across 10 Western states, the government says.

Officials said they have no choice but to cull wild horse herds. With virtually no predators, they say, the herds can double in population every four years.

Horse advocacy groups have been critical of government roundups and what they call the rough treatment of horses gathered up.

"They aren't placing enough wild horses through adoption so they need to put a freeze on roundups," said Anne Novak, executive director of Berkeley, Calif.-based group Protect Mustangs. "Killing them is not a solution. Selling them to slaughter is not a solution. They need to be responsible for their actions and stop the gluttony of roundups at taxpayer expense."

BLM officials say comments suggesting they kill horses are irresponsible.

"We do not send horses to slaughterhouses," said Chris Hanefeld, a BLM spokesman in Ely, Nev. "You can quote me."

Several multi-month roundups will get under way across Nevada starting Monday. Officials plan to hold those horses at pens at Palomino Valley near Reno or at Utah's Gunnison Correctional Facility until they can be prepared for adoption or sent to long-term pasture in the Midwest.

Utah

One 400-horse roundup is planned for the Cedar Mountain herd, known as "Utah's Rainbow Herd" because of its high number of pintos, roans, buckskins and grays. The herd is thought to be related to the mounts that the Standard Horse and Mule Co. supplied the U.S. Cavalry in the late 1800s.

Officials say they will release 250 of the Cedar Mountain horses after injecting them with a contraceptive. Roundups also will take place in two other Utah locations.

New Mexico

Officials say 102 horses will be rounded up — and 66 later released — on the Carson National Forest. Another roundup will take place for 365 horses in the high desert of the Jiicarilla Wild Horse Territory. Ninety of those horses will be returned to the land after fertility injections.

Oregon

105 horses will be removed from the Murderer's Creek management area near Mount Vernon. None will be returned.

Idaho

274 horses will be captured — and 137 released — on national forest land along the East Fork of the Salmon River. The BLM says this herd is comprised of a hardy, genetically diverse stock roaming across more than 240 square miles of mountains.

Wyoming

810 horses will be rounded up — and 580 released — near Riverton. Another roundup is planned for 90 horses in the McCullough Peaks region near Cody. Twenty of those horses will be released to the range.

This is of the government's most widespread roundups. Horse advocates say the practice should be scaled back.

"Rounding up only the number of wild horses they can adopt out is a viable solution that makes fiscal sense," Novak said.

Burro traps go up in Fort Irwin area this week

Burro trap.

By DAVID DANELSKI
The Press-Enterprise

The federal Bureau of Land Management this week will begin trapping wild burros at a spring near Fort Irwin used by an array of wildlife.

BLM officials said they expect to capture 30 to 40 burros at Owl Hole Spring, located about 40 miles northwest of Baker on a strip of public land between Fort Irwin Army training center and Death Valley National Park.

BLM wranglers will use what they call a "water bait trap."

It consists of temporary steel-pipe fencing set up around the spring. Burros, lured by hay and water, are expected to enter the trap through a "trigger gate" that doesn't let them out. The trap will be checked daily and captured burros will be taken to BLM corrals near Ridgecrest to be put up for adoption, BLM spokesman David Briery said.

The trapping is part of a larger effort to remove burros that stray onto Fort Irwin and into the national park. Helicopters will be used later this month to round up an estimated 160 burros in the Slate Range east of Death Valley and the Chemehuevi area near Needles.

Burro advocates say the animals are harmless and should be left alone. Instead of rounding them up, the BLM should take water to them, said Linda Lee, of Costa Mesa. The roundups injure animals and the adoptions break up burro families, leaving them depressed, she said.

Burros have roamed California deserts since miners used them in the region more than 150 years ago. Federal land-use plans dating to the 1980s call for no burros in Death Valley and BLM-managed land west of the park.

Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, said Friday she supports the roundups because burros drink scarce water and foul sources with their manure. The water is needed by bighorn sheep, deer and other wildlife, she said.

House sides with wild horses, burros

GOP criticism of bill may foretell troubles in Senate



The Associated Press







WASHINGTON - Galloping to the aid of the nation's wild horses and burros, the House voted Friday to rescue them from the possibility of a government-sponsored slaughter and give them millions more acres to roam.

But the effort may get penned up in the Senate.

The bill passed the House, 239-185, with Republican opponents arguing that it underscored wrongheaded Democratic priorities by focusing on animals instead of people at a time when the nation's unemployment rate is approaching double digits.

An estimated 36,000 wild horses and burros live in 10 Western states. Federal officials estimate that's about 9,400 more than can exist in balance with other rangeland resources. Off the range, more than 31,000 other wild horse and burros are cared for in corrals and pastures.

The plan aims to reduce the number of animals kept in holding pens awaiting adoption and to reduce the stress on land currently set aside for them.

Supporters mobilized after the Interior Department announced last year that it might have to kill thousands of healthy wild horses and burros to deal with the growing population on the range and in holding facilities.

'Disgrace to our heritage'

Republicans dismissed the measure as welfare for horses, but Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said a majority of Americans would not support slaughtering healthy animals or keeping them in holding pens for years at a time.

"The status quo is a national disgrace," said Rahall, chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources. "It is a disgrace to our heritage."

However, no comparable bill has been sponsored in the Senate, which doesn't bode well for final passage of the measure. Both houses would have to approve the legislation before it could be sent to the White House for President Barack Obama's consideration.

Some lawmakers from Western states said Congress is mismanaging the nation's wild horse population by preventing the Bureau of Land Management from keeping populations at a level that's appropriate for the environment. They said more horses will just make the problem worse.

"This bill is based on emotion and not science," declared Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., saying the bill would elevate wild horses above threatened and endangered species in her state.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that enacting the Restore our American Mustangs Act would cost about $200 million over the next five years. Currently, the wild herds roam over about 33 million acres of Western land.

To comply with the bill, the Bureau of Land Management would need to find an additional 20 million acres, primarily after 2013, at a cost of up to $500 million, according the CBO. But Rahall said those estimates don't reflect new language in the bill that makes adding millions of acres of rangeland a goal rather than a legal requirement.

Rahall said the bill would actually save the government money by reducing the amounts now devoted to caring for the animals in corrals and on pastures. He said slaughtering healthy animals to control their population should not be an option.

"How in the world can a federal agency be considering the massive slaughter of animals the law says they are supposed to be protecting?" he said.

While Rahall said the cost estimates were overblown, Republicans weren't buying it. House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said even debating the bill was an insult to people looking for work and small businesses trying to keep their doors open.

"It doesn't make any sense that we're debating a welfare program about wild horses when the American people really want to know, 'where are the jobs?"' Boehner said.

'Animal care disaster'

The bill would give the government authority to enter into cooperative agreements to establish wild horse sanctuaries on nonfederal lands. It also would attempt to bolster an adoption program and sterilize more animals. It would prohibit the killing of healthy wild horses and burros and restrict time spent in holding pens to six months.

The Humane Society of the United States supports the legislation, saying the current program of rounding up wild horses and keeping them in holding pens is a "fiscal and animal care disaster."

"We have got to get off the current treadmill of spending millions of tax dollars rounding up wild horses and caring for them in captivity, and instead make wider use of fertility control as a humane population management tool," said Wayne Pacelle, the organization's president and CEO.

In Friday's vote, 206 Democrats supported the measure and 47 opposed it. Among Republicans, 33 voted for it and 138 against.

Dramatic rescue for doomed horses

Animal-rights groups celebrate as billionaire's wife plans to adopt 30,000 animals


Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post


Photo: Horses romp and play late Sunday at the government’s National Wild Horse and Burro Center at Palomino Valley, north of Reno, Nev. Madeleine Pickens, wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens, made known her intentions Monday to adopt most or all of the 30,000 horses and burros kept in federal holding pens. Bonnie Jo Mount/Washington Post

The unwanted horses seemed destined for death. The wheels had been set in motion to put down about 2,000 healthy mustangs, those in a federally maintained herd of wild horses and burros that no one wanted to adopt.

The Bureau of Land Management knew that euthanasia was a legal alternative, but officials were proceeding slowly, afraid of an intense public outcry. The wild horses had become too expensive to maintain, and cattlemen argued that turning them loose would be a drain on the already scarce grazing lands of the West.

Then Monday, at a public hearing in Reno, Nev., to discuss the issue, a solution arrived on a white horse, so to speak.

Madeleine Pickens, wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens, made known her intentions to adopt not just the doomed wild horses but most or all of the 30,000 horses and burros kept in federal holding pens. Lifelong animal lovers, the Pickenses just a few years ago led the fight to close the last horse slaughterhouse in the United States.

Madeleine Pickens is looking for land in the West that would be an appropriate home for the horses.

She is working with the BLM staff to adopt the horses, said Henri Bisson, the bureau's deputy director, while the agency persuades Congress to shift $20 million in funding to feed and protect the horses now in captivity for another year. As backup to Pickens' offer, he said, two other groups, both animal rescue organizations, have expressed similar interest in adoption. "We are very hopeful that euthanasia won't be necessary this year," he said.

The news that Pickens and others intend to adopt the wild horses and burros was celebrated by animal rights groups, several of which were preparing legal challenges to prevent the government from putting the horses to death.

"Of course, I'm thrilled, obviously, that these horses are getting a reprieve," said Shelley Sawhook, president of the American Horse Defense Fund. "At the same time, we need to address the basic issue of how these animals got in this position in the first place."

Bisson said policymakers have to resolve the conflict between a law that permits euthanasia and a nation that is opposed to it. "This is a situation where we have to have a conversation about what the law requires," he said. "We're hearing from members of Congress they don't think euthanasia is an appropriate solution, but the law says, 'You shall.' " If people don't like what the law says, they need to address it. We hope we will find homes for all of these animals before the year is out and Congress will decide what it wants to do about the law."

Long an American icon and inspiration for song and story, the wild horse has special protection under a 1971 law. The federal statute calls wild horses "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West" that should be "protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death." But the same law also requires the government to achieve "appropriate management levels" of roaming horses so they don't overwhelm federal lands — and that's the part that has been vexing for bureau officials.

About 33,000 horses still roam wild on federal lands in 10 Western states. About half of those are in Nevada. The federal agency believes the range can accommodate only about 27,000 horses, and each year government-hired cowboys round up 7,000 to 13,000 horses and take them to holding pens in several states.

Right now, there are just over 30,000 horses in holding facilities awaiting adoption. Those 10 or older or those who have not been adopted after three tries can be sold without restriction under 2004 legislation.

Wild horses compete with cattle and wildlife for food and water. Horse advocates say federal officials have made faulty assumptions about the number of horses that can be accommodated on federal land, tilting those findings in favor of cattle interests.

"We're livestock people. We know animals live and die. And we take that as a very normal part of life. We fully realize animal rights people hate that aspect of the livestock industry. We don't particularly seek the euthanization. What we seek is the management of the population," said Jeff Eisenberg, director of federal lands for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, an industry lobbying group.

The federal government has been rounding up wild horses since the 1980s, putting them in holding facilities and offering them for adoption to horse lovers, who promise not to sell them for slaughter. But the roundups became aggressive under the Bush administration. As of June, BLM was holding 30,088 animals, more than triple the 9,807 held in 2001.

Bisson said Monday that the BLM would limit the roundups next year to about 5,000 horses.

Meanwhile, the pace of adoptions has been falling as the cost of feeding and caring for the wild horses has skyrocketed. The price tag to federal taxpayers for maintaining the horses tripled from $7 million in 2000 to $21 million in 2007. Hay prices for one short-term holding facility in Nevada rose from about $160 per ton in 2007 to almost $300 per ton in 2008, for example.

In a report released last week, the Government Accountability Office called the situation a "crisis" and said the bureau needed to exercise its options, including euthanasia and the practice of selling the wild horses "without restriction," meaning they could be sold for slaughter.

In the first analysis of BLM's wild horse program in 18 years, the GAO found that the agency lacked a coherent nationwide management policy. The GAO recommended that the bureau investigate alternatives to euthanasia and adoption.

Animal rights groups say the government ought to sterilize horses and return them to the wild to live out their lives. In addition, they say, it should offer tax incentives to landowners who allow wild horses to live on private land.

Virginie L. Parant of the American Wild Horses Preservation Campaign, a coalition of about 45 groups, said the BLM does not use a scientifically sound method to estimate the size of horse herds or the number of horses that can be sustained on the range. That makes the roundups arbitrary, she said.

What's more, about 19 million acres of land where wild horses once roamed have been removed from the program, reducing the amount of land available to the horses and increasing their concentration elsewhere.

People on all sides of the issue recognize some fundamental changes are needed.

"It's intractable," Eisenberg said. "The animal rights people put the BLM in a box. We are seeking a balance in the land. Congress doesn't want to put more funding into these holding facilities, especially when times are tight. It's a problem nobody likes."

Horse Advocates Decry Government Euthanasia Option

Wild horse advocates decry govt. proposal to euthanize symbol of American freedom

By SANDRA CHEREB
Associated Press

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is proposing to kill or allow unrestricted sale of wild horses captured from western public land because of budget constraints. About 33,000 wild horses roam the open range in 10 Western states. The BLM has set a target "appropriate management level" of horses at 27,000. (Justin Sullivan/Getty)

RENO, Nev. - A stampede of opposition is growing over a proposal by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to kill or allow unrestricted sale of wild horses captured from western public land because of budget constraints.

Tens of thousands of horse advocates have voiced outrage at the idea of slaughtering what many revere as romantic symbols of the American West.

"Most Americans view these horses as the greatest symbols of our American freedom," said Ross Potter of Phoenix.

"If we kill them now without exhausting all other possibilities, we are telling the world that we have no respect for our own heritage," he said in a recent letter to the BLM. "I don't think that is an image we can afford to project."

The BLM's nine-member National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board is scheduled to consider the proposal at a meeting Monday in Reno.

About 33,000 wild horses roam the open range in 10 Western states. The BLM has set a target "appropriate management level" of horses at 27,000.

Many critics say inept bureau management created the problem that has led to nearly as many horses being kept in long-term corrals as remain on the range.

Karen Sussman, president of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros, said the BLM has never considered the health of herds when conducting roundups.

She and others say large-scale roundups upset a herd's social hierarchy, leading to unchecked breeding that threatens their gene pool and accelerates population growth.

"They are mandated by law to protect these horses for American citizens. They have not done that," she said.

"And now, on the backs of these horses that should never have been removed, they want to kill them."

Critics also argue that, when it comes to public land, wild horses get short shrift to the benefit of livestock and wildlife. They claim that since 1971 about 20 million acres originally designated as herd areas have been withdrawn from that use. They say reopening those areas to horses would alleviate the need for boarding.

"While forage and water are rarely an issue for the established livestock and big game interests, these same resources are almost always portrayed as being too little for the relatively tiny members of our nation's remaining wild horses and burros — who are too often scapegoated for ecological destruction caused ultimately by man," wrote Craig Downer, a wild horse ecologist.

A report issued last week by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said the BLM needs to consider euthanizing horses or selling them to reduce spiraling costs of keeping them in long-term holding pens.

Wild horses and burros are protected under federal law. Most captured horses are placed for adoption, but those deemed too old or otherwise unadoptable are sent to long-term holding facilities — some for 15 to 20 years.

The BLM says demand for horses has declined, and the cost of caring for geriatric equines is devouring its budget.

The GAO report said costs of caring for wild horses likely will account for 74 percent of the program's overall budget this year, or more than $27 million. That percentage will climb, it said, unless alternatives are found.

Continuing current practices would require a budget of $58 million next year, escalating to $77 million in 2012, the BLM estimated.

The BLM already has authority to use euthanasia for horse management but has been reluctant to do for fear of public backlash.

"We have a responsibility to balance the budget, so we are going to have to make some tough choices," BLM Deputy Director Henri Bisson said when the proposal was first aired in June.

"We don't want to do this at the last minute. So we need to have a conversation with horse advocates and try to share the pain a little bit so people understand that if we have to make those tough changes it's not because we want to," he said.

BLM aims to tame cost of caring for wild horses

The BLM hosted a wild horse adoption last year in Herriman. The agency cares for growing numbers of animals in captivity and in the wild. (Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)

By Lee Davidson
Deseret News

To protect Utah rangelands from overgrazing, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management removes 300 to 400 wild horses and burros a year, but it is able to adopt out only 250 of them. The agency will not destroy the rest for fear of public outcry — so it cares for escalating numbers of them in captivity.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said Monday such practices throughout the West have reached a crisis point, where BLM officials now manage "almost the same number of animals off the range as they do in the wild."

It says the agency must either destroy or sell for slaughter thousands of the horses in captivity — or run out of money to care for horses in the wild, where neglect could increase horse deaths from effects of drought or starvation.

"BLM decided not to destroy excess unadoptable animals (beginning in 1982) ... because of public dismay," when it killed 47 horses the previous year, said the GAO, a research arm of Congress.

Because of that, the BLM now cares for just over 30,000 wild horses and burros in captivity. The GAO said the BLM manages about 33,100 horses and burros in the wild in the West — or just a bit more than it now has in captivity.

In Utah, the BLM estimates about 3,100 wild horses and burros are on open ranges. Gus Warr, BLM lead in Utah for its wild horse and burro program, says short-term holding facilities in Herriman, Delta and Gunnison currently hold 1,300 animals total, while others have been transferred to long-term holding facilities elsewhere to seek adoption.

The GAO noted that the cost of caring for the animals in captivity has grown from about half of the wild horse and burro program's costs in 2000 to two-thirds of its total in 2007.

Costs of caring for animals in captivity climbed from $7 million in 2000 to nearly $21 million last year.

"BLM must now choose between either managing the range to prevent overpopulation or exercise one or both or its other options — destroying animals or selling them without limitation" on such things as allowing them to be slaughtered for meat or used as rodeo bucking stock, the GAO said.

It added that the BLM finally "is considering euthanizing about 2,300 horses from short-term holding. ... In addition, they are considering selling without limitation (thus allowing slaughter for meat) about 8,000 animals from both short- and long-term holding."

In response, the BLM issued a written statement that it concurs with the GAO report and its findings — but said it has made no final decisions about euthanizing horses or allowing their slaughter. It said no such decision will be made until after its National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meets next week in Reno.

Besides slaughter or expensive continued care in captivity of horses, the GAO said the BLM and Congress might consider some alternatives not now allowed by law.

For example, GAO said several state directors of wild horse programs suggest giving tax deductions or one-time lump sum incentives to ranchers to care for unwanted wild horses. "Implementing tax deductions would likely require changes in tax law," the GAO said.

It also said that the law governing wild horses now "does not allow BLM to relocate wild horses and burros to areas of public lands where they were not found when the act was passed. To date, BLM has not sought the legislative changes that would make these suggestions possible" — even though some BLM officials have offered it as a partial solution.

GAO analysis: Wild horses in captivity giving feds fits

30,000 animals being held; last year's cost was $21 million

By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is struggling to pay for the upkeep of 30,000 wild horses and burros in captivity and hasn't figured out how to deal with the animals in Utah and across the West - short of increasingly rare adoptions or selling them for slaughter, a new federal report says.

The Government Accountability Office on Monday released its first analysis in 18 years of the BLM's actions under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. While the GAO acknowledged the BLM's progress, it also found the agency still hasn't developed a coherent nationwide management policy.

Advocates for the animals, considered symbols of the West as important as bald eagles for the nation at large, were outraged in June when BLM Deputy Director Henri Bisson suggested euthanizing 6,000 animals to bring the herds to healthy levels.

None of the animals Bisson wanted to kill was in Utah, where more than 3,000 horses live across 2.7 million acres of public land. Bisson backed off the proposal in August, saying he would wait for the GAO study and next week's meeting of the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Council in Reno, Nev.

But an official with a national wild horse and burro advocacy group said Monday the BLM's approach was fundamentally unsound environmentally and legally because the agency has neither properly maintained the herds' genetic diversity nor monitored the range to determine whether the animals are causing damage.

The GAO found the price tag for keeping horses in centers for future adoption or other means has jumped from $7 million in 2000 to $21 million in 2007. This year, those costs could eat up three-quarters of the BLM's wild-horse and burro program budget.

The GAO also said the BLM has resisted selling wild horses with no limitations on their use afterward, including slaughter, "due to concerns about public and congressional reaction to the large-scale slaughter of thousands of healthy horses." Such resistance is illegal under current law, the GAO noted.

In 2004, Congress amended the 1971 law to allow "excess animals" to be sold for slaughter or other commercial use.

BLM national spokesman Tom Gorey said the report was correct when it said the BLM has limited options for dealing with unadopted and unsold animals.

"The GAO recommends - and the Department of the Interior and the BLM agree - that the bureau should initiate discussions with Congress on addressing the BLM's noncompliance with these directives in the 1971 law, as amended," Gorey said.

But Karen Sussman, president of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros - the South Dakota nonprofit group that initiated and helped push through the 1971 law - said Monday that the BLM has acted illegally by rounding up the horses without first determining whether they had damaged the range.

Sussman said a 1990 GAO report recommended that the BLM also curtail the number of livestock on the range. "If you want to improve habitat," she said, "you need to remove livestock."

The 6,000 horses that would have been slaughtered under Bisson's proposal are held in grassy pastures in the Midwest between Kansas and Oklahoma, Sussman said.

She criticized the federal determination that Utah's maximum horse population should be 2,151 across 2.7 million acres of BLM and other lands, where 3,096 horses now live.

The real way the census should be managed is for genetic diversity, Sussman said.

Every herd should have 150 breeding adults; but under the BLM's culling process, only about a quarter of all the herds have that breeding capability.

Highlights from the horse report

• The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has removed 74,000 wild horses and burros from the range since 2001, but only 46,400 have been adopted or sold.


• As of June, the BLM had more than 30,000 animals in holding areas, up from 9,807 in 2001.


• Utah has 3,096 horses in 21 horse-management areas across 2.7 million acres of BLM and other lands. The BLM says the maximum population should be 2,151. (As of Oct. 27, the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Center in Herriman held 320 animals.)

Source: Government Accountability Office

Advocates say government should save wild horses

By Oskar Garcia
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS – Federal agencies should change the way they manage wild horses on public lands to prevent the animals from going extinct in five years, advocates said Monday.

Karen Sussman, president of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros, said the group plans to approach Congress within 30 days to plead for the lives of horses that federal officials are considering euthanizing.

“At the rate that the government is reducing these animals, within five years they are going to be extinct,” Sussman said. “Within five years these animals will cease to exist on public lands.”

Wild horse enthusiasts met in Las Vegas over the weekend to discuss solutions to protect the horses and keep them on public lands. Sussman said the groups will suggest lawmakers redistribute federal money to wild horse programs, return wild horses from federal pens to open land and consolidate federal agencies to free up money for wild horses.

“This is our American heritage right here,” she said. “These animals represent the last living symbol of the American west.”

There are an estimated 33,000 wild horses roaming in 10 Western states. About half are in Nevada, with most concentrated in northern Nevada. About 30,000 more horses are in holding facilities, where most are available for adoption.

The federal agency responsible for overseeing the wild horse population has said it may be necessary to euthanize horses to prevent many more from starving to death on overpopulated ranges. The Bureau of Land Management has said it can't afford to keep growing numbers of horses in federal facilities and that budget drain is keeping the agency from other responsibilities.

The agency has set a target number of wild horses at 27,000.

Last year, about $22 million of the agency's entire wild horse $39 million budget was spent on holding animals in agency pens. Next year, the costs are projected to grow to $26 million with an overall budget that is being trimmed to $37 million.

A spokesman for the BLM in northern Nevada did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The office was closed for Columbus Day.

Sussman said wild horses don't get treated fairly by government officials, despite laws meant to protect them. She said that the wild horse population has dropped by half since 1971, when BLM began managing the population.

As Inland residents give up costly horses, U.S. government puts more up for adoption in Norco

By ALICIA ROBINSON
The Press-Enterprise


Terry Pierson / The Press-Enterprise
A burro sounds off during the preview showing of animals available in this weekend's BLM wild horse and burro adoption at Ingalls Park.

Federal efforts to find homes for wild horses may find there's little room in the Inland area, where residents are already trying to get rid of horses they can no longer afford.

The federal Bureau of Land Management rolled into Norco on Friday with 50 horses and burros, but adoptions have been declining -- falling more than 16 percent in 2005 through 2007 -- which the bureau attributes to higher fuel and feed costs. For that reason, at least 30 fewer animals than usual were brought to the annual Norco adoption event.

"There have been less people adopting because they're looking at their bank account," said Art DiGrazia, who heads wild horse and burro operations at the BLM's Ridgecrest office.

If the ads posted on the free Web site Craigslist can be seen as a sign of the times, high hay and gasoline prices are causing tough times for Inland horses and their owners.

The Craigslist Inland Empire page features dozens of listings of horses for sale, often noting that owners must sell "due to financial reasons," "because we need to downsize" or simply "can't afford to feed them all."

Norco boarding stable owner Kevin Bash said he's seen hay prices climb from around $15 a bale in 2007 to $18 or more today, and he hears they may go as high as $25 a bale by this fall.

"It's not just middle-class people (being affected), it's everyone," said Kim Reynolds, who placed several online ads to sell the rescued horses she keeps at her ranch in Murrieta in southwestern Riverside County. "The prices have decreased, and there's not a lot of people standing there wanting them."

Rescues Overwhelmed

While Inland animal control officials said they haven't seen a dramatic increase in horse neglect cases, some rescue operations have seen a spike in need. San Bernardino County Animal Care and Control handled twice as many stray or abandoned horses in the year ending June 30 as it had the previous year, Division Chief Brian Cronin said.

When Cronin's agency can't find homes for horses, it turns to private rescue groups, some of which are swamped.

"The need for helping these animals has far exceeded their ability," he said of the rescues.

Colton boarding stable operator Cheryl Musee has been selling horses whose owners have failed to pay their bills and stopped returning her calls. State law permits this.

"Everybody that was boarding the horses decided that feeding their families was more important than feeding their horses so I kind of got stuck with them," she said.

One customer with five horses gave three of them away because he couldn't afford the board bill, Musee said.

The Bureau of Land Management hasn't resorted to giving horses away, but its budget is being taxed by the 33,000 roaming horses and burros and the 30,000 animals in holding facilities on federal lands it manages in 10 states.

That has put more emphasis on adoptions. Early interest seemed high Friday at Norco's Ingalls Park, where about a dozen people were viewing the wild horses before the scheduled preview event even began. But several of the visitors said they were just looking.

"There's no market for horses of any kind right now," said Cindi Paine, a resident of Pedley in northwestern Riverside County who had stopped by Ingalls Park to see the wild horses but didn't plan to adopt one. "I hope they all get homes but with the recession going (on), I just don't see it."

Some commodities experts predict that development of farmland, drought and growth of grain for biofuels will keep hay prices high in the near future, and other costs of keeping a horse such as farrier and veterinary bills have risen.

But opinions are mixed on the long-term effect on the recreational horse industry.

"I think it's going to go on a straight downhill slide," said Rick Boenisch, a livestock auctioneer in the High Desert community of Pinon Hills. He also helps place unwanted horses for a small fee.

"The average homeowner that just wants to have a horse for their kid, it's just not going to happen," he said.

Others said people who truly want to keep their horses will find a way to do it, regardless of their economic situation.

Corona resident Alesha Watts, a self-described housewife and mother, already has one horse, and she visited Ingalls Park to pick out a mustang to adopt. The expense isn't a concern, Watts said, because she's willing to make sacrifices.

"I'll eat beans and drink water to make sure my animals eat," she said.

They Shoot Horses?

By Dana Gentry
Las Vegas Sun

Wild horses may be the symbol of the Wild West and the image chosen by the state's children to grace the Nevada quarter, but no one has figured out how to make a buck off of these noble creatures. That's why the future of the wild horse is shaky. Unlike cattle, which can bring a hefty profit to the state's ranchers, wild horses are viewed by many as a nuisance. They are healthy breeders, have few predators and compete for grazing land with profitable species.

Now, the Bureau of Land Management, which has federal authority to euthanize horses more than 10 years old which have been passed over three times for adoption, is considering euthanization as a new herd management tactic. The BLM admits it could do more to increase adoptions, but they are time consuming and a lot of work. Euthanization is quick, and best of all, it's cheap. In case you're wondering, the BLM is considering three methods - a gunshot to the brain, an overdose of barbiturates, or a bolt to the skull, the killing technique portrayed in the movie "No Country for Old Men."

BLM official Mike Holbert cited drought as a reason for thinning the herds, but was at a loss to explain why the BLM, as illustrated in a report by Channel 8 I-Team reporter George Knapp, would deny the horses access to a rural watering hole by fencing it off. Holbert claimed ignorance of the well's location, despite Knapp's precise directions on how to locate it.

Knapp gives his take on why he believes the BLM is out to cull the population, and it has little to do with necessity. Also on the program, horse advocate and former Harry Reid aide, Jerry Reynoldson, who points out the wear and tear caused by 33,000 wild horses on Nevada rangelands pales in comparison to that of more than half a million head of cattle. Reynoldson says animal activists are planning a legal assault against the BLM to challenge the science the Bureau cites in its arguments for euthanizing thousands of wild horses.

Government considering euthanizing wild horses

By SANDRA CHEREB and SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press


Wild horses make their way north of historic Virginia City in Nevada.

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Federal officials are considering euthanizing wild horses to deal with the growing population on the range and in holding facilities, authorities said Monday.

Wild horses have overpopulated public lands and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management can't afford to care for the number of mustangs that have been rounded up, said Henri Bisson, the agency's deputy director. Also, fewer people are adopting the horses, he said.

Monday's announcement marks the first time the agency publicly has discussed the possibility of putting surplus animals to death.

The agency is also considering whether to stop roundups of wild horses to save money, a move that would be criticized by and from sheep and cattle ranchers who see the mustangs as competition for feed on the open range.

"Our goal is supposed to be about healthy horses on healthy ranges. But we are at the point we need to have a conversation with people about pragmatically what can we do given the financial constraints of our program to meet the goals we have," Bisson said.

There are an estimated 33,000 wild horses on the range in 10 Western states, Bisson told the organization's National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board. About half of those are in Nevada.

The agency has set a target "appropriate management level" of horses at 27,000.

About another 30,000 horses are in holding facilities, where most are made available for adoption. But those deemed too old or otherwise unadoptable are sent to long-term holding facilities to live out their lives — some for 15 to 20 years.

The board will consider the alternatives at its next meeting in September.

Last year about $22 million of the entire horse program's $39 million budget was spent on holding horses in agency pens. Next year the costs are projected to grow to $26 million with an overall budget that is being trimmed to $37 million, Bisson said.

"We have a responsibility to balance the budget, so we are going to have to make some tough choices," Bisson said.

Bonnie Matton, president of the Wild Horse Preservation League, said she wasn't surprised by the agency's predicament.

"They really do have a can of worms," she said.