Sept. 26, 2009
BYRD'S EYE VIEW: Adopt a Wild Mustang or Burro Day
By Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-WV
Washington, DC (HNN) -- Saturday, Sept. 26 marks the first National Adopt a Wild Horse or Burro Day, a combined effort by the Bureau of Land Management and non-profit groups including Wild Horses 4 Ever, the American Horse Protection Association, the Mustang Heritage Foundation and the Humane Society of the United States to find homes for 1,000 wild horses and burros.
The Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, is charged with maintaining America's wild, free-roaming horses and burros in harmony with the public lands they range. To keep herd sizes from growing too large for the land to support, BLM regularly conducts Agathers@ to remove excess horses; the animals pulled off of the range are then offered for adoption to the general public.
On National Adoption Day, wild horses and burros will be available for public adoption at nineteen locations around the United States. Other adoption events are scheduled for other dates in September and October.
Achieving 1,000 adoptions is a very laudable goal, but still leaves more than 20,000 other wild mustangs in long-term holding facilities at taxpayer expense. BLM needs better options to manage America=s wild horses in order to avoid using its authority to destroy wild horses over the age of ten or which have been passed over for adoption three times.
That is why I have been proud to introduce S. 1579, a Senate bill that matches H.R. 1018, the Restore Our American Mustang Act, introduced by my West Virginia House colleague, Nick Rahall. S. 1579 and H.R. 1018 would provide BLM with additional authority necessary to maintain wild horses and burros living on federal lands in a thriving ecological balance while prohibiting the sale for slaughter of wild horses and burros. These bills would enhance adoption efforts and encourage modern contraceptive methods to limit reproduction, among other equine management methods.
Importantly, S. 1579 and H.R. 1018 would also give BLM the authority to begin restoring wild horse and burro ranges to the 53 million acres they roamed as recently as 1971. That vast rangeland has dwindled over time to just 35 million acres -- isolating herds and creating the need for more >gathers= and more horses filling long-term holding facilities.
Americans value the nation's great Western heritage embodied in a wild horse running free.
While I hope that those up to the challenge will adopt a wild horse or burro, we also need to do more to ensure that this part of our unique American heritage will endure forever free.
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BYRD'S EYE VIEW: Adopt a Wild Mustang or Burro Day
By Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-WV
Washington, DC (HNN) -- Saturday, Sept. 26 marks the first National Adopt a Wild Horse or Burro Day, a combined effort by the Bureau of Land Management and non-profit groups including Wild Horses 4 Ever, the American Horse Protection Association, the Mustang Heritage Foundation and the Humane Society of the United States to find homes for 1,000 wild horses and burros.
The Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, is charged with maintaining America's wild, free-roaming horses and burros in harmony with the public lands they range. To keep herd sizes from growing too large for the land to support, BLM regularly conducts Agathers@ to remove excess horses; the animals pulled off of the range are then offered for adoption to the general public.
On National Adoption Day, wild horses and burros will be available for public adoption at nineteen locations around the United States. Other adoption events are scheduled for other dates in September and October.
Achieving 1,000 adoptions is a very laudable goal, but still leaves more than 20,000 other wild mustangs in long-term holding facilities at taxpayer expense. BLM needs better options to manage America=s wild horses in order to avoid using its authority to destroy wild horses over the age of ten or which have been passed over for adoption three times.
That is why I have been proud to introduce S. 1579, a Senate bill that matches H.R. 1018, the Restore Our American Mustang Act, introduced by my West Virginia House colleague, Nick Rahall. S. 1579 and H.R. 1018 would provide BLM with additional authority necessary to maintain wild horses and burros living on federal lands in a thriving ecological balance while prohibiting the sale for slaughter of wild horses and burros. These bills would enhance adoption efforts and encourage modern contraceptive methods to limit reproduction, among other equine management methods.
Importantly, S. 1579 and H.R. 1018 would also give BLM the authority to begin restoring wild horse and burro ranges to the 53 million acres they roamed as recently as 1971. That vast rangeland has dwindled over time to just 35 million acres -- isolating herds and creating the need for more >gathers= and more horses filling long-term holding facilities.
Americans value the nation's great Western heritage embodied in a wild horse running free.
While I hope that those up to the challenge will adopt a wild horse or burro, we also need to do more to ensure that this part of our unique American heritage will endure forever free.
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
