Wild Horse Numbers Are 'Unsustainable'

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From


0:00pm UK, Tuesday October 13, 2009

Sally Arthy, US news editor

Wild mustangs in America have become so abundant that their numbers are no longer 'sustainable for the horses, the environment or the taxpayer', according to the US government.

With no natural predators remaining, the number of wild horses that roam federal lands has grown from 25,000 in 1971 to 69,000 today.
They compete with other wildlife and with cattle for food and water, and they have been blamed for damaging their surroundings.
Since the 1980's, some horses have been rounded up and held in facilities like the Palomino Valley centre near Reno in Nevada, where horses await adoption or shipment to less crowded lands further east.
A year ago the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) suggested culling the herds but the proposal proved so unpopular it has been shelved.

Every year a horse has a baby so when it is 2 or 3 years old they start to reproduce until they die and so the only way to slow it down is birth control.

Betsy Brownfield, Hidden Valley Wild Horse Preservation Fund

Alan Shepherd, from the BLM in Nevada said: "Euthanasia isn't liked in the outside advocates.
"Population control in general isn't but we need to be able to control the population growth in order to achieve a thriving ecological natural balance in areas that we manage."
In Nevada, inmates at Carson City Correctional Centre break-in mustangs and ready them for sale to the general public.
At one auction in Reno, Brandon Sherman put his horse, 'Midas', through his paces before he was snapped up at auction.
"It's a programme that benefits both horse and trainer," said Brandon. "It teaches us patience, anger control and emotional control.
"You can't be too highly strung with these horses - you have got to have lots of patience with them."

Helicopters round up wild horses

But as the economy has nose-dived, so has the number of people willing and able to afford to adopt wild horses and get them off the government's hands.
Now the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, has announced plans to introduce fertility controls and spend millions to buy land in the Midwest and East to create two preserves for horses, away from the drought stricken West.
Betsy Brownfield from the Hidden Valley Wild Horse Preservation Fund, agrees something has to be done.
She said: "We agree they need to be managed.
"Every year a horse has a baby so when it is 2 or 3 years old they start to reproduce until they die and so the only way to slow it down is birth control."

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