The 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act designated 242 million acres for use by wild horse (and burro) herds. Since then, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has drastically reduced their use to 27 million acres.
For decades, the BLM has catered to special interests like the agriculture/livestock industry which has been allowed to graze a million cattle and tens of thousands of sheep on taxpayer funded public lands. And for decades they’ve lied and used wild horses as scapegoats for range degradation and over grazing problems.
The current administration fully intends to allow the mass killing of wild horses so that the BLM can balance its budget. There are numerous unused and scarcely used humane solutions to managing wild horse herds. Killing tens of thousands of captured mustangs for a mismanaged Wild Horse and Burro Program is reckless and appalling. Fiscally responsible and humane measures are needed. Americans must speak up clearly and loudly that a “cut and kill” policy of our Western icons is unacceptable.
Taxpayers should be outraged at this horrific use of tax dollars. We stand by America’s flag and don’t burn it. We must stand by our wild horses and burros — living symbols of our history — we don’t murder them!
Read More about this bill here.
For details on taxpayer dollars and livestock grazing on pubic lands, read more here.