Wild horses pose a growing problem in the western states, federal land managers recently told the New York Times, claiming that the number of these horses is double what the land can support.
Federal law protects wild horses, and the federal Bureau of Land Management is responsible for controlling them. Each year, the bureau removes wild horses from the land and offers them for adoption. But the number of adopted horses never equals the number of those captured. Thus, nearly 50,000 horses are in storage, and the bureau does not have enough funds and space to round up and store any more, the article states. (Storing the horses in private feedlots and pastures costs the bureau approximately $50 million each year.)
But leaving the horses on the land without any population controls leaves little grass and water for other animals.
Horse advocates, however, believe the wild horse population problem is overstated and worry that the overpopulation claim will encourage horse slaughter practices. The advocates believe the actual problem is land management, one that could be solved by expanding the horses’ territory to encompass more grazing land, the article states.
