One of the arguments used against the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) gross mishandling of the Wild Horse and Burro Program is how the federal agency is hemorrhaging millions of taxpayer dollars.
Well, it did not take one politician in Washington long to exploit this argument to the detriment of America’s wild equines.
Instead of calling for a halt of excessive and unnecessary roundups and an investigation into the BLM’s failed and costly policies, U.S. Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma suggests that the BLM either adopt them out or kill them.
In a report filed by Amy Lester for Channel 6 News, it states:
The cost to keep horses in government run short term corrals is much higher, around $5.50 a day or more than $20 million a year. Senator Coburn said that’s too much money. He insists the law tells the agency to either adopt extra animals or kill them.And this sounds like typical BLM accounting.
“When you have an excess of animals, not humans, animals, above and beyond your capability to care for them, what you have to do is destroy that herd down to a level that we can manage it,” said Sen. Tom Coburn.
“There’s not many things you can do in agriculture to change up your cash flow so this was a good program for that,” said Ladd Drummond, a rancher in northeastern Oklahoma.Wow, $900,000. Those must be some pretty expensive supplements.
Drummond has 2,200 horses on his land. The government pays him $1.30 per horse, per day. That’s $1.04 million a year. Drummond said less than 10 percent is profit, or close to $100,000. He has to dedicate seven acres to each horse. He gives them supplemental feedings in the winter and puts out salt and mineral in the summer.
“You have a lot of expenses that go into it, but, there’s definitely a little profit built in too, it’s hard to do anything without making a little profit,” said Drummond.
Read full report here >>
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