GOP lawmakers call for new approach to wild horse overpopulation

Republicans in Congress want the Bureau of Land Management to answer for an "ineffective" strategy that has failed to halt the explosion of wild horse and burro populations both on the range and in captivity. In a Nov. 4 letter to BLM director Neil Kornze, Sen. Dean Heller and Rep. Mark Amodei from Nevada and 18 other lawmakers requested a detailed report on what the agency is doing now and what it plans to do in the future to bring horse populations under control. According to the letter, current strategies "have been largely unsuccessful" across the West, leading to overcrowding in BLM herd management areas and holding facilities, poor herd health and damage to range land. "Almost half of the 100,000 horses under the purview of the Bureau of Land Management are located in holding facilities off the range, and adoptions have fallen by almost 70 percent in the last 10 years," the letter says. The lawmakers are asking the BLM for details on birth control treatments, "humane euthanasia," roundups, adoptions and other efforts to shrink herds to the agency's own "appropriate management level" for the West, which calls for a total population of no more than 26,715 horses and burros across 10 states. As of March 1, there were some 58,150 horses and burros living free on the range, more than half of them in Nevada, according to BLM estimates. In addition to information on current efforts, Congressional Republicans want Kornze and company to produce four to six detailed plans, including timelines and cost estimates, to "effectively curb the overarching trend of overstocked" herd management areas...more