The Bureau of Land Management is reducing Colorado’s wild horse numbers because of the drought and other impacts. Some ranchers want wild horses gone from the Western Slope landscape because they compete for forage with grazing cattle and sheep in the open range. Wild horse enthusiasts say the animals are getting a bad rap for the proliferation of bad BLM grazing policies.
Regardless of the point of view of how many wild horses should be left to roam free on Western Colorado’s four wild horse ranges, nationally there are still 30,000 unadoptable wild horses in holding pens and the number is growing.
Are these wild horses doomed for slaughter? The US Senate has not decided.
Read Part I here about Colorado’s wild horses — too many animals with too few places to go.Wild Horses a Fading Legacy?
“There won’t be any wild horses left in another decade,” Spirit Riders Foundation Executive Director James Kleinert said. His organization promotes the benefits of keeping wild horses free. “The BLM has already removed 200,000 animals, 66,000 since 2001,” Kleinert said.
Kleinert was making the finishing touches on his “American Wild Horse” film that he showed a group of wild horse enthusiasts in Basalt last month. The film will be presented on Capitol Hill on Sept. 26th.
“There are over four million cattle on our public lands, outnumbering wild horses 100 to 1,” Kleinert noted. “And yet the BLM is gathering the wild horse because of overgrazing.”
His opinion is shared. The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, a coalition of over forty wild horse support organizations, is calling for a Congressional review of the government’s wild horse management policies.
From their website:
The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign is coordinating a grassroots campaign in support of:
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