BLM Budget Cuts Put Wild Horses at Risk, Advocates Say

Proposed budget cuts would save $4 million by eliminating restrictions on horse sales and other management options.
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Under President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would save $4 million on wild horse and burro management by eliminating restrictions on sales and other management options. But some advocates say the cuts put those equids at risk for euthanasia and slaughter.

The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 protects wild horses and burros and places them under BLM jurisdiction. The act does not contain language prohibiting the agency from selling wild horses and burros without reservation—that is, to any buyer—or euthanizing animals for which there is no adoption demand.

From 1988 through 2004 and in 2010, appropriations bills forbid wild horse and burro euthanasia or their unrestricted sale. The current BLM adoption contract forbids buyers from knowingly selling or giving away animals for processing into commercial products; those who do sell or otherwise transfer horses for processing face federal charges. In 2013 the agency stiffened its purchase requirements after reports surfaces that a Colorado livestock hauler purchased more than 1,700 BLM horses and subsequently sold them for slaughter in Mexico.

The fiscal 2018 proposed federal budget reduces the BLM’s budget for its wild horse and burro program to $79 million from $80.4 million in fiscal 2017. About $4 million of the $10 million reduction would be derived from “savings resulting from unrestricted sales,” the administration’s 2018 Budget Justifications document said. The remainder of the funding decrease would be achieved by reducing gathers, reducing birth control treatments, and other activities

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Written by:

Pat Raia is a veteran journalist who enjoys covering equine welfare, industry, and news. In her spare time, she enjoys riding her Tennessee Walking Horse, Sonny.

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