Call to Action

In the summer of 2004, according to the BLM, the wild horse situation in the state of Nevada reached a critical point: there was no water on the range; wild horses could not survive the drought and had to be immediately removed or face a certain death. So, with the help of another $7.6 million for the year (on top of its allocated $29 million), the BLM came to the "rescue" by rounding up the animals.

On the range, however, a team of wild horse experts found a somewhat different, disturbing reality. Only the HMAs (Herd Management Areas) that did not have cattle grazing on them were without water; those that had cattle had plenty of water. On all the cattle-free HMAs visited, water tanks and troughs were empty and had been for some time; pipes and pumps had been disconnected. Presumably, when cattle are removed from the HMAs, the water sources are disengaged and abandoned until the next cattle-grazing season. It is on those fenced-off HMAs that horse fatalities were found: seven animals were found dead within a couple of hundred feet of each other; another was found on the Ravenwood HMA trapped by a fence keeping him from a water source; the skeletons of six more were found close together on the Pilot Mountains HMA near dried and abandoned water troughs. Meanwhile, on the HMAs where cattle was left to graze, water sources were readily available.

While wild horses were left to literally drop dead next to well-managed cows thriving on the other side of public-land fencing, the BLM was busy removing from desirable areas horses that even they admit were healthy, thriving and sustainable. Their field managers then lamented the condition of horses in drought-stricken areas and moved in to remove these horses as well, on an emergency basis.

The fact is that it would be less costly to manage horses in the wild than to subject them to traumatic round-ups ˜ including in drought-stricken areas, where water pumps could be left on when public land ranchers remove their cattle to send them to market. After all, public land ranchers get some of their grazing fees back to pay for range improvements such as water wells. Wild horses could be granted access to such subsidized range improvements and BLM could compensate ranchers for any increase in their water bills. Furthermore, it is oftentimes public land fencing that prevents horses from accessing scarce natural water sources.

Wild horses have been relegated to some of the most inhospitable land. Still, they adapt and survive. The first photo in this row shows a typical HMA in western central Nevada.

The second shows the desert floor littered with cow manure.

In the third and fourth, you will see some of the few wild horses we found

(note in the last photo just how vast an area very few horses live in).

Today, the BLM continues to conduct indiscriminate round-ups, zeroing out herds in violation of the 1971 Act. In 2001, it obtained a 50% increase in annual budget to $29 million for implementation of an aggressive removal campaign (in 2005, that budget rose to $39 million). Twenty-four thousand horses were slated for capture; no long-term plan was put in place for these horses after their removal.