Officials visit BLM wild horse facility

By Ed Vogel
Donrey Capital Bureau

      PALOMINO VALLEY -- Members of a national board grudgingly acknowledged that euthanasia could be the final solution for America's unwanted wild horses as they watched a veterinarian brand frightened mustangs.
      "Before I came here two days ago, I couldn't even talk about (euthanasia)," said Jack Artz, a retired University of Nevada, Reno professor. "But keeping them in sanctuaries is a tremendous expense."
      Artz and other members of the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board earlier this week toured the Bureau of Land Management's wild horse adoption center at Palomino Valley, 20 miles north of Reno.
     

Wrangler Mike Myers freeze-brands the neck of a newly captured mustang at the Palomino Valley Wild Horse Adoption Center 20 miles north of Reno earlier this week. Photo by Geoff Dornan/Associated Press

Here, 2,096 wild horses, gathered off public ranges in Nevada, receive ample hay, water, vaccinations and free-brand identification numbers as they wait out the winter.
      Come spring many will be loaded on trucks and hauled east where the BLM hopes to find people to adopt them for $125 each.
      In the meantime, the care and feeding of each horse costs taxpayers $3 per day.
      Board member Fred Burke, of Wickenburg, Ariz., does not hide his leanings.
      "I'm opposed to feedlots and sanctuaries," said Burke, who served in the old U.S. Cavalry during World War II.
      Burke said he sees the need for no more than 15,000 wild horses in America, not the more than 40,000 now on public lands in the West.
      "Most ranchers don't object to a few horses, but there now are just too many," he said.
      As the board members gawked at the animals awaiting branding, a truck arrived carrying 37 more wild horses.
      These animals were prodded off the truck and then down a chute to where the veterinarian and several wranglers waited with shears, a freeze-brand device and needles holding vaccinations. Some climbed on the backs of horses ahead of them as they struggled down the chutes.
      Considered misfits by their critics, these mustangs looked in surprisingly good shape. The veterinarian said virtually every mare is pregnant.
      Board member Dawn Lappin of Reno, a director of the Wild Horse Organized Assistance group, doesn't want one healthy animal to lose its life.
      Before the board looks at euthanasia as a viable option, Lappin said the BLM needs to carry out an exhaustive search for an effective horse birth control vaccine.
      "I'd much rather treat 1,000 horses (with birth control) and then bring in a hundred a year and make sure the hundred get excellent homes," Lappin said.
      Now horse populations can double in three years.
      The end result has been that the BLM cares for 6,500 horses and burros at various corrals and sanctuaries across the nation. Its annual roundups take about 10,000 horses off the range, but not all find homes.
      About 43,000 wild horses and animals live on public lands in the West, with more than half in Nevada. The BLM has projected 27,000 animals as the appropriate management level.
      A federal law passed in 1971 protected mustangs, recognizing them as living symbols of the American West.
      Over the next two years, the advisory committee will examine the BLM's adoption program and recommend changes.
      BLM Director Pat Shea said Monday he would ask Congress to allow euthanasia as an option for unwanted horses -- as long as the board proposes that change. His agency received $17 million from Congress for this year's wild horse adoption budget, although it requested $19.5 million.
      But board member Robin Lohnes said it is premature to discuss what recommendations the board may make. Members next meet April 24 in Washington. They may not issue a report for nearly two years.
      Board member Nat Messer, a veterinarian from Missouri, said ultimately the BLM must reduce the wild horse population and still live within its budget.
      "Euthanasia is one of the issues we must consider," he said. "That may be the most difficult to decide."