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up front Thursday 24 OcTOber 2019

Official: Solving wild horse problem will take $5B, 15 years

Continued from Front animals must be permitted destruction of the habitat
to roam the range in fed- will continue," he said in a
The Senate Appropriations erally protected manage- statement.
Committee approved $35 ment areas established Conservationists say more
million last month for a new under the Free-Roaming damage is caused by the
package of mustang pro- Horse and Burro Act of cattle and sheep that
posals supported by an 1971. graze on public lands at a
unprecedented alliance They say BLM's population ratio of 15-to-1 mustangs.
including the Humane So- quotas are often outdated "This film is a propaganda
ciety of the United States, and lack scientific data to piece ... that scapegoats
American Society for the support roundups to cull relatively rare wild horses for
Prevention of Cruelty to herd sizes. problems that in truth are
Animals, National Cattle- The $35 million the Senate caused by the domestic
men's Beef Association and committee approved is cattle that are widespread
American Farm Bureau part of the $35.8 billion Inte- environmental problems
Federation. rior Department appropria- across the West," said Erik
They say it would eliminate tion bill. It's not clear when Molvar, a wildlife biologist
the threat of slaughter for the full Senate will consider for the Western Watersheds In this June 29, 2018 file photo, wild horses drink from a watering
thousands of free-roaming the measure. Project.q hole outside Salt Lake City.
horses and shrink the size of Pendley said the agency is Associated Press
herds primarily through ex- spending $50 million a year
panded fertility controls on to house 50,000 captured
the range and increased horses in government cor-
roundups in certain areas. als and another $30 million
The proposal has been in associated costs.
condemned by the largest Alan Shepherd, the head of
and oldest mustang pro- the bureau's wild horse and
tection groups in the West, burro program in Nevada,
including the American planned to join members
Wild Horse Campaign and of the new coalition at the
Friends of Animals. Nevada Museum of Art in
"This proposal, which is re- Reno Wednesday night for
ally a betrayal by so-called the screening of a docu-
wild horse advocates who mentary that blames hors-
are in bed with the meat es for severe degradation
industry, is management of federal rangeland.
for extinction and putting Doug Busselman, execu-
money toward it is a step tive director of the Nevada
toward eradicating these Farm Bureau, said his group
iconic animals from our still wants Congress to allow
public lands," Friends of the government to sell ex-
Animals President Priscilla cess horses without the cur-
Feral said in a statement rent ban on their resale for
Wednesday. slaughter.
In July, then-Acting BLM "As long as the numbers are
Director Casey Hammond so far above appropriate
said the Trump administra- management levels, the
tion won't pursue lethal tools of fertility control and
measures such as eutha- adoption don't accomplish
nasia or selling horses for the needs for having wild
slaughter. horse and burro popula-
But critics say the new plan tions match the carrying
could allow for sterilization capacity of the herd man-
of mares. They argue the agement levels and the