Deporting burros not the answer

The management of the wild horse and burro program is in crisis, with animal advocates rightly fretting over excessive roundups, and ranchers worrying about too many horses on the range and competition for forage in the arid reaches of the West.

Right now, there are just shy of 50,000 wild horses and burros roaming 11 Western states — with three-quarters of the horses in Nevada and Wyoming. At the same time, an additional 50,000 or so captive wild horses are warehoused in holding facilities throughout the United States, with that number growing every year. In fiscal year 2013, the care of these animals cost taxpayers $46.2 million. With the cost of housing animals in government holding facilities comprising about two-thirds of the budget for the entire program, the BLM is no longer financially capable of rounding up and removing horses and burros from the range.

The BLM’s current management program is not satisfying any of the key stakeholders, and it requires a major revamping of its on-the-ground management efforts. The only practical solution — one that will satisfy the majority of animal advocates, in humanely managing the populations, and ranchers, in checking the growth of populations on the range — is fertility control. Roundup and removal is cannibalizing the budget of the BLM, and roundup and slaughter is illegal and broadly opposed by the American public.

In 2013, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report, commissioned by the BLM, which found that the practice of managing wild horse populations through roundups and removals is unsustainable and actually contributes to high horse population growth rates. Instead, the report suggested the BLM use on-the-range management practices, including fertility control, which is practical and can succeed if there are sufficient resources and resolve devoted to it.

Instead of implementing the science-based recommendations included in the NAS report, however, the BLM is undertaking a pilot program, in conjunction with the Department of Defense and Heifer International, to transport up to 100 burros to Guatemala for use as working animals. If successful, one can imagine that more burros and wild horses will follow, while the agency continues to remove more and more animals from the range — quickly replacing the animals exported to Guatemala and other developing countries. In short, it will have no impact on the status quo whatsoever; the agency will continue to spend millions of dollars caring for animals in government holding facilities instead of spending that money to manage these animals on the range. This foreign shipment program of live burros is a distraction at best.

The animal protection community is not insensitive to the challenging lives of people and animals in Guatemala, and we acknowledge the value of working animals worldwide. For instance, The Humane Society of the United States, through our Humane Society International and the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association affiliates, provides robust veterinary care programs and other resources in Central America. But Guatemala has burros of its own and does not need more, compliments of the BLM. This is simply another case of the agency failing to make the real changes necessary to solve population problems on the range and instead pouring precious resources into a pilot project that will have little, if any, impact on the program’s sustainability.

Instead of using taxpayer money to send animals overseas, the BLM must use its dwindling resources to implement aggressive fertility programs — a solution supported by the NAS report and most stakeholders, including ranchers and wild horse advocates. This will reduce the need for costly roundups and removals, and balance the number of animals removed from the range every year with the number of animals the agency realistically can expect to place in forever homes. Over time, it will reduce the number of animals in holding facilities and the costs associated with caring for them.

Wayne Pacelle is president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States.