Wild horse advocates condemn Home Office’s population control plan

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) — Animal rights groups are contacting the Biden administration, condemning their latest move to control wild horse overpopulation in the West, including in Nevada.

“We are going to fight as hard as we have ever fought before,” said Marty Irby, executive director of Animal Wellness Action.

Irby said he was sickened to hear Interior Secretary Deb Haaland detail the Biden administration’s policy on dealing with the wild horse overpopulation in the West.

“We agree with the previous administration’s plan,” she said during an April 20 appropriations hearing. “We’re going to let science guide us.”

Within these policies, the Wild Horse and Burro program will continue to use a combination of measures to manage the population, including helicopter roundups to round up and lock horses into pens, fertility checks and breeding programs. adoption and sale.

After legal challenges, the Home Office said in April it would not proceed with a plan to test a controversial sterilization method that involves forcibly removing mares’ ovaries.

Irby said population control actions like helicopter roundups are inhumane, unnecessary, and disrespectful to a US treasure.

“This country was built on their backs,” Irby said. “They deserve a special place, they deserve to be protected.”

Another advocacy group, the American Wild Horse Campaign, is also urging the Biden administration to better manage wild horses. You can listen to an excerpt from the interview with Executive Director Suzanne Roy below:

But the Biden administration has support from farm groups like the Nevada Farm Bureau. Nevada Farm Bureau President Bevan Lister said birth control alone won’t get herds to a manageable level fast enough because resources are limited on the range.

“We support all means possible to bring wild horse and burro populations to an appropriate level of management,” Lister said.

Lister said exceptional food, water and drought conditions are currently threatening the health and safety of thousands of horses. He explained why stabilizing the population as soon as possible is crucial.

“We’re seeing range degradation at a rate never seen before,” Lister said. If you have never seen an animal suffocated from lack of water or starved to death from lack of food, that is an ugly, inhumane and unacceptable thing.

Secretary Haaland and White House officials declined repeated interview requests about the details of their plan.

Experts say we will learn more details about the administration’s goals for the Wild Horse and Burro program after the confirmation of a Bureau of Land Management director and the reveal of the detailed White House budget later this month. this.