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                                                                                                 U.S. NEWS Saturday 28 april 2018


















            U.S. agency may offer $1,000 to


            people who adopt wild horses




            By SCOTT SONNER              posing  more  bad  ideas,    owners often topped 9,000
             Associated Press            including  mass  roundup     annually in the early 1990s,
            RENO, Nev. (AP) — U.S. land  and slaughter to cover for   but have fallen to 3,000 or
            managers  are  proposing  their  incompetence,”  said     fewer in recent years.
            offering  $1,000  to  anyone  Suzanne Roy, executive di-  A  new  incentive  program
            willing to adopt wild horses  rector of the American Wild   offering  providers  $1,000
            gathered from public lands  Horse  Campaign.  Laura       at  the  point  of  adoption
            to  alleviate  a  backlog  of  Leigh, president of the Wild   “would  save  money  for
            mustangs  in  government  Horse Education horse pro-      the taxpayer and the BLM
            corals and shrink what they  tection  advocacy  group,    program in the first year of
            say are badly overpopulat-   said the report ignores the   implementation    alone,”
            ed herds across the West.    impact of cattle and sheep   the  agency  said.  “Over  a    In this May 25, 2017, file photo, wild horses that were captured
            Overwhelmed  by  what  it  grazing  on  public  range-    period of 25 years, holding   from  U.S.  rangeland  stand  stand  in  a  holding  pen,  at  the  U.S.
            characterizes  as  a  $1  bil-  land  and  relies  heavily  on   that same animal in an off-  Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Center in
            lion  problem,  the  Bureau  recommendations  made        range  corral  would  have   Palomino Valley about 20 miles north of Reno, Nev.
            of Land Management pro-      at  a  meeting  in  Salt  Lake   cost  the  taxpayers  nearly                                      Associated Press
            posed the novel approach  City  last  year  organized     $46,000.”  Ranchers  whose  wildlife,  including  the  im-  resources on the range and
            to  Congress  on  Thursday  by  livestock  interests.  “The   livestock compete with the  periled sage grouse.      program costs that are spi-
            and also made requests to  agency repeatedly scape-       horses  for  forage  praised  “We have been in a stale-   raling  out  of  control,”  said
            sterilize, euthanize or sell for  goats”  the  horses  while   the agency for developing  mate on this issue for years  Ethan  Lane,  the  National
            slaughter tens of thousands  “ignoring  extreme  deficits   a range of options to save  in  Congress  and  the  result  Cattlemen’s  Beef  Associa-
            of animals. Under any sce-   within the much larger live-  taxpayers money and bet-    of  that  stalemate  is  un-  tion’s executive director for
            nario, the agency plans to  stock  grazing  program,  di-  ter  protect  rangeland  for  healthy  horses,  degraded  federal lands.q
            use  short-term  fertility  con-  verting  personnel  from  the
            trol  on  the  horses  whose  (horse program) to placate
            population  it  expects  to  other  concerns,  prioritiz-
            grow  to  100,000  by  2019.  ing  existing  funding  based
            But it also recommends any  on  political  pressure  not
            approach  include  perma-    rangeland  needs,” she said
            nent sterilization, something  Friday. The federal agency
            most horse advocates find  estimates 83,000 wild horse
            as  objectionable  as  lifting  and  burros  were  roaming
            current  congressional  pro-  public  rangelands  in  10
            hibitions on selling the hors-  western  states  last  year  —
            es for slaughter.            more  than  three  times  the
            The $1,000 adoption bonus  26,715 animals the agency
            is included in the four man-  says the land can sustain.
            agement  alternatives  the  “As  currently  managed,
            agency is mulling as it seeks  by  the  summer  of  2019,
            a  way  to  address  what  it  there will likely be well over
            admits  is  a  costly,  difficult  100,000 wild horses on BLM-
            challenge.                   managed  land,  with  up
            “Conflict  levels  are  often  to  20,000  more  the  year
            high  and  the  program  is  after,”  said  the  agency,
            controversial and politically  which  says  it  has  the  ca-
            sensitive,” the agency said.  pability to round up about
            The head of one of the na-   20,000 animals annually.
            tion’s largest horse protec-  Last year, the agency spent
            tion  groups  immediately  nearly 60 percent of its $81
            condemned  the  package  million  budget  on  animals
            of alternatives as “a road-  that  have  been  removed
            map  for  destruction  of  from  the  range  and  esti-
            America’s  wild  free-roam-  mates  “the  cost  of  caring
            ing horses and burros.”      for  the  46,000  un-adopted
            “BLM,  the  agency  whose  and  unsold  animals  cur-
            terrible mismanagement of  rently in holding will top $1
            this  program  has  brought  billion over their lifetime.”
            us to this place, is now pro-  Free adoptions to qualified
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