Animal moving proposal opposed

SPARKS -- Dozens of wild horse advocates plan to go before a federal advisory panel Monday to try to persuade public land managers to change their plan to relocate thousands of the animals from the West to preserves elsewhere.

They plan to press the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board for alternatives to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's plan to move about 25,000 wild horses to preserves and pastures in the Midwest and East. They insist the plan is based on faulty government data that exaggerates the damage the horses do to the range, as well as the extent to which they are suffering from a lack of forage.

Horse defenders have stepped up their efforts, suing to block a proposed roundup of 2,700 horses in Northern Nevada and lining up the support of celebrities such as Sheryl Crow, Lily Tomlin, Bill Maher and Ed Harris.

Crow took her concerns directly to Salazar in a telephone call this past week.

"One of the first things he said was something must be done because the horses are starving. We don't believe it," Crow said.

"Part of the problem is the information he's getting is skewed. My main concern is that the horse numbers not be dwindled down to the point where they can become extinct. I think he's very concerned about it as well."

Salazar made no commitment on ending the roundups, but he pledged efforts to have a horse advocate appointed to the national advisory board, she said.

"I'll still be pulling and working for an end to roundups," said Crow, who has adopted a wild horse herself.

Ginger Kathrens, executive director of the horse advocacy group Cloud Foundation based in Colorado Springs, Colo., said advocates believe the BLM's figure of 37,000 horses in the wild is grossly inflated.

Kathrens said their own analysis indicates there may be only 15,000 horses on the range. She fears herds will no longer be healthy and genetically viable if too many horses are removed.

Kathrens is calling for an independent audit to determine the number of horses in the wild and in holding facilities.

BLM spokesman Tom Gorey said a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office last year found his agency was undercounting wild horses.

"There's no evidence for the (advocates') position. It's mere speculation," Gorey said. "We're certainly open to refining our counting techniques, but there's no indication an outside audit is needed."

BLM officials said they plan to remove 11,500 wild horses and burros from the range throughout the West over each of the next three years because booming numbers of the animals are damaging the range.