Last week’s meeting of the BLM’s National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board resulted in the following recommendations:
- phase out all wild horses and burros in long-term holding facilities within 3 years;
- achieve an on-the-range population goal of 26,715 wild horses and burros within 3 years (meaning tens of thousands would have to be killed);
- allow international adoptions and sales (which have never been allowed). Several board members repeatedly referenced a proposal to ship 20,000+ wild horses to Russia to serve as prey for big cats. U.S. taxpayers would fund the cost to ship the horses to Russia.
If Congress allows the BLM to follow through on the board’s recommendations, the government could be killing off at least 90,000 healthy animals.
This isn’t the first time a majority of the BLM’s advisory board has made irresponsible and inhumane recommendations. We must ensure it is the last!
It is not too late to send your own written comments pertaining to the October 18-19, 2017 Advisory Board meeting.
Our tax dollars should never support the mass killing (or any inhumane killing) of America’s wild horses and burros!
The BLM needs to manage budget cuts with practical, humane solutions which include alternatives such as:
- Management on the range utilizing the millions of acres of public lands allocated to them by law;
- Reintroducing captured horses to previously zeroed out areas;
- Moratorium on further roundups and allocate funds to humane, safe population control (PZP which has a proven success rate and has been under-utilized by the BLM);
- Allocate more funds to gentling/training programs to increase adoption rates;
- Increase the number of public-private partnerships based on successful models already working.
Mail comments to the National Wild Horse and Burro Program,WO-260, Attention: Ramona DeLorme, 1340 Financial Boulevard, Reno, NV 89502-7147.
You can also email to: [email protected].
Please include “Advisory Board Comment” in the subject line of the email.
Continue to speak up for wild horses and burros to Congress.
Contact the Senate Appropriations Committee members to oppose any language in the FY2018 Interior Department’s budget bill which would allow unlimited sale, killing or slaughter of wild horses and burros.
The markup on this bill is coming anytime now (it has been postponed several times already).
Committee members can be reached via https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/about/members?inf_contact_key=0d8c756daa927097ab1844b3ca80559460643499280535dd5dfec446d917d3aa