Adoptable wild horses at the Palomino Valley Adoption Center north of Sparks, Nevada.
Photo © Stan White
A crisis of sorts has been reached with regard to managing populations of wild horses and burros on public lands in Nevada and other western states where they freely roam. According to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), there are simply too many of them for the range to support without continually removing excess animals. Now, there are too many in holding facilities for the BLM budget to support. Solutions recently proposed by Henri Bisson, BLM Deputy Director, include selling horses to willing buyers "without limitation" and euthanizing animals for which no adoption demand exists. Both of these actions, banned in the original
Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, were made legal in a 2004 amendment to the law.
Learn more about this issue by reading my Nevada's Wild Horses article and viewing my wild horses pictures. How this is resolved is important for Nevada, where about 67% of the land is under BLM management.
Have something to say on this subject? Go to the Reno / Tahoe Forum to enter your comments and vote in the wild horse poll.
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