Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

letters to the editor:

Wild horse saturation has an easy fix

The Sun’s story about the wild horse crisis (“Crisis for BLM: $49M a year for storing horses leaves no money for alternatives,” Oct. 19) was intriguing and invites response. The Bureau of Land Management is faced with a year of housing wild horses that can no longer survive in the wild. Throw in the cost of dealing with burros and horses in the wild and the price is now roughly $78 million a year.

The article notes that the state’s open range has roughly three times the number of horses it can support. Wild horses are starving to death. But they keep coming; the BLM predicts an additional 15,000 horses in the coming year.

The cost of overpopulation in the wild burro and horse herds goes further than a drain on the federal budget; they are denuding our wild lands, taking food away from wildlife and the cattle industry. Obviously, something needs to be done.

The traditional solution is noted by the head of the BLM wild horse program, Dean Bolstad, who said, “We don’t have the resources to respond.” In the past, additional wild horses and burros led to increased funding. The funding has become increasingly problematic. The article notes that the price is “expected to total more than $1 billion over the life of the herds.”

The amazing thing is that there is an easy solution, but it’s rarely discussed. Fertility control drugs are a commonly mentioned possibility, but they are expensive and directed at the largest part of the herd: the females. Butchering the excess is another solution, one that prompts expressions of horror.

There is an easy fix to the crisis — the same way ranchers control domestic herds. Fix the males. It’s an easy fix, doesn’t cost much and never has to be done again. With this solution, there would not be 15,000 new horses in the coming year. Each year would be less expensive through natural attrition. The herds could then be truly managed at sustainable levels.

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