Critics assail new wild horse plan

AB509 originally proposed allowing counties to round up wild horses on private and state land. Critics said it would lead to slaughter and abuse of the horses, and Assemblyman John Carpenter, who sponsored it, responded with a revamped bill.

Under Carpenter's new proposal, heard Wednesday by the Senate Natural Resources Committee, landowners would ask the federal government, which has jurisdiction over the animals, to remove them.

If the feds don't respond, the county could file a request in federal court to remove them, with the court giving approval for either the county or state to remove them if federal agencies couldn't or wouldn't. The Bureau of Land Management, charged with managing the horses, doesn't have enough money to handle them.

"Maybe the judge would either tell them to get them off or let the county enter into a cooperative agreement with the BLM so that they could get them off," said Carpenter, a Republican from Elko. "This bill gives the counties and the ranchers a tool to work with."

Supporters of the proposal include Elko County ranchers and the Nevada Farm Bureau, who said they hope it will spur federal action.

"The problem has been there's not any recourse to get the federal agency to do anything," said Farm Bureau lobbyist Doug Busselman. "That's what this bill is about as much as anything, is holding the federal government accountable to do the job that they're supposed to do under their own federal law."

Opponents said the bill will just mean more lawsuits, and it won't help manage the burgeoning wild horse populations that are causing the problem. BLM representative Bob Stewart said the bill would drain resources from the agency's herd management efforts, and the agency would prefer working with local landowners on a case-by-case basis.

State Wild Horse Commission Administrator Cathy Barcomb also opposed the bill, urging lawmakers to instead pursue a national horse adoption program or simply fence off private land to keep the wild horses out.

"It seems like this is just halfway there," she said. "It doesn't address the whole issue."

She said the BLM isn't equipped to find homes for the horses if they are rounded up, but her group could do it.

Sen. Lawrence Jacobsen, R-Minden, asked if the state could establish its own wild horse ranch, and Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, resuscitated what he said is a decade-old proposal to send extra wild horses to Central America.

"There's a tremendous need for transportation," he said. "They frankly need a ride. They don't want to eat them."

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