BLM seeks public comment on proposed wild horse gathers in Owyhee County, Idaho

LocalNews8.com - Full Article

By News Team
Published May 15, 2023

BOISE, Idaho (KIFI) – To help healthy wild horse herds continue to thrive on healthy rangelands, the Bureau of Land Management Owyhee Field Office is seeking public comment on the Owyhee Field Office Herd Management Area Management Plan Environmental Assessment for the Black Mountain, Hardtrigger and Sands Basin Herd Management Areas.

The preliminary 10-year environmental assessment addresses potential environmental consequences associated with excess wild horses as well as fertility control applications to help slow future population growth. The environmental assessment is available for comment May 15 to June 13, 2023.

“We are deeply committed to maintaining healthy wild horse herds on Idaho’s public rangelands in the Owyhee Field Office,” BLM Owyhee Field Manager (acting) Ammon Wilhelm said. “As wild horse populations can double in size every four years, the alternatives identified in the draft environmental assessment provide a wide range of options to maintain the appropriate number of wild horses on healthy public rangelands. These options also took into consideration the comments we received from scoping last year...”

Read more here:
https://localnews8.com/news/idaho/2023/05/15/blm-seeks-public-comment-on-proposed-wild-horse-gathers-in-owyhee-county/

Dennis Sun: The Wild Horses Battle Goes On And On

CowboyStateDaily.com - Full Article

Columnist Dennis Sun writes, "Even with aggressive roundups, there are still approximately 50,000 horses above the maximum appropriate management level."

Dennis Sun
May 21, 2023

The issue of wild horses just goes on and on. Literally from the day the Wild and Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 was passed placing management under the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), finger pointing, discussions and lawsuits have been the normal.

At the time, BLM didn’t want to be managers of horses and burros – they are a land management agency – but Congress didn’t know who else to hand the problem over to. So, the BLM established herd management areas (HMA) and began allowing a specified amount of horses in each HMA.

Once they reached this number objective, the horses were rounded up and placed in feedlots or holding pens. However, this got so expensive, the BLM started leasing deeded land to place horses on.

Wild horse numbers need controlled because they have a comparatively large impact on the range.

Over the years, across all of the HMAs, horse numbers have exploded, and the BLM doesn’t know what to do with them...

Read more here:
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/05/21/dennis-sun-the-wild-horses-battle-goes-on-and-on/

Legislator Says Horse Slaughter ‘Worked Well’ Before, Could Be Answer To Wyoming’s Wild Horse Problem

CowboyStateDaily.com - Full Article

Published on February 6, 2023
By Mark Heinz, Outdoors Reporter
Mark@CowboyStateDaily.com

Reopening American horse slaughter plants would be a vital step toward managing Wyoming’s mustang herds, says a Wyoming state lawmaker.

“The next thing that’s really hampering this whole effort (toward mustang management) is the fact that these horses cannot be slaughtered for meat,” said Rep. John Winter, R-Thermopolis. “We used to have a slaughter plant in North Platte, Nebraska, and it worked very well.”

Winter made the remarks during House floor discussion of a bill he sponsored, House Joint Resolution 3. It calls upon Congress to revise management of wild horses and burros, and reopen horse slaughterhouses in the United States.

It passed the House on Monday with nobody speaking against it...

Read more here:
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/02/06/legislator-says-horse-slaughter-worked-well-before-could-be-answer-to-wyomings-wild-horse-problem/

Even the giant new Wild Horse Refuge can’t catch up to the mustang surplus

Beth Clifton photo

Animals24-7.org - Full Article

February 9, 2023
By Merritt Clifton

Sanctuaries & anti-slaughter legislation address the wrong end of the problem

DENVER, Colorado––Wild horse advocates rejoiced on February 8, 2023 when the $29-million-a-year Wild Animal Sanctuary announced the purchase of 22,450 acres near Craig in northwest Colorado, to become The Wild Horse Refuge.

“Spanning 29 square miles, a landmass larger than Manhattan, the refuge will serve to rescue and protect hundreds of wild horses,” enthused Alexander Kirk for 9News in Denver.

“The Wild Animal Sanctuary said the refuge is being created in response to wild horse round-ups conducted in 2021 and 2022 by the Bureau of Land Management at Colorado’s Sand Wash Basin and Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Areas,” Kirk continued...

Read mre here:
https://www.animals24-7.org/2023/02/09/even-the-giant-new-wild-horse-refuge-cant-catch-up-to-the-mustang-surplus/

Are there enough wild horses to bring back equine slaughter for human food?

FoodSafetyNews.com - Full Article

By Dan Flynn on January 20, 2023

A lengthy joint resolution in the Wyoming House calls upon Congress to bring back equine slaughter and processing for markets outside the United States. Wyoming is offering the resolution as a “best management practice” for all those wild mustangs that roam and breed with little effective management throughout the Cowboy State.

By offering the solution to Wyoming’s wild mustang problem, the usual sides are lining up. Wyoming’s Park County Commissioner Lee Livingston sees equine slaughter as “practical and humane.” Grace Kuhn, speaking for the American Wild Horse Campaign, said it’s “impractical and inhumane.”

The slaughter of horses for human food — widely practiced in other parts of the world — ended in the United States in 2007 when Congress prohibited the expenditure of public funds for equine inspections without which its sale for human food is prohibited...

Read more here:
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2023/01/are-there-enough-wild-horses-to-bring-back-equine-slaughter-for-human-food/

The real problem with wild horses is not what you think

Laura Seitz, Deseret News photo

Deseret.com - Full Article

An overpopulation of wild horses is not the problem on the rangelands — and removing them isn’t protecting them

By Scott Beckstead
Nov 3, 2022

Our nation’s wild horses and burros, viewed by most Americans as cherished living symbols of our nation’s frontier history and culture, are facing unprecedented persecution.

The Bureau of Land Management and its livestock industry allies continue to repeat unfounded claims about horses being overpopulated and in danger of starvation and rangelands being devastated by wild equine herds.

But the BLM doesn’t mention the cattle and sheep swarming over our rangelands by the millions, often outnumbering wild horses by dozens to one on designated wild horse and burro habitats, or that wild equines occupy just a tiny fraction of BLM lands. With this misleading narrative, the BLM conducts mass helicopter roundups under the pretext of “emergency” or “drought” conditions, which allows them to proceed without first conducting environmental assessments or taking public comment...

Read more here:
https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2022/11/3/23435597/opinion-wild-horses-endangered-blm

Horse Group Says Wild Horses Aren’t The Problem, It’s Cattle That’s Destroying The Land

Cowboystatedaily.com - Full Article

November 15, 2022

By Mark Heinz, Outdoors Reporter
Mark@CowboyStateDaily.com

Wild horse management in Wyoming will remain business as usual for now, with mustang roundups being the primary means of controlling the horses’ numbers on rangelands and Native American reservations, say Wyoming lawmakers.

However, it is cattle, not mustangs, that are causing most of the damage to the land and conflicts with wildlife, maintains a spokeswoman for a wild horse advocacy group.

Meanwhile, both sides agree that shooting mustang mares with birth control darts could be the best solution to Wyoming’s wild horse quandary.

Combat veterans armed with dart rifles could dispense the birth control among mustang herds, said Chairman Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, during a Tuesday meeting of the Legislature’s Agriculture State and Public Lands and Water Resources Joint Committee...

Read more here:
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2022/11/15/horse-group-says-wild-horses-arent-the-problem-its-cattle-thats-destroying-the-land/