Latest in the horse crisis: Wild horses, burros are so numerous, feds may have to kill some

When I was a kid in the 1960s, my father was a car dealer, and his prize in a sales contest was a trip to Las Vegas. He took a tour of the Basin and Range country and heard about the Bureau of Land Management adoption program for wild horses and burros, which keeps their populations to manageable levels. So my brother and I got a burro, and we named him Rawhide, for the TV show that brought Clint Eastwood to stardom. Now more kids will need to get some burros, or the BLM may have to start killing them to keep their numbers in check.

"We know this is not a popular option, but we are at a critical point where we must consider using the legal authorities allowed us," the agency said this week. Another option is to "sell older and certain other unadopted animals without limitation to any willing buyers," which presumably would send them to slaughterhouses in Mexico or Canada. For information on the current sale program, click here. Wild horses and burros have no natural predators, and the BLM said "the cost of keeping these animals in holding facilities is spiraling out of control and preventing the agency from successfully managing other parts of the program." (Read more)

BLM auctions of horses and burros are attracting fewer buyers, because of recent increases in hay and energy prices and the closure of all U.S. horse slaughterhouses, which has led to a surplus, Marty Durlin reports for High Country News. For her video report, click here. The progam is not limited to the West. For example, the Mid-Atlantic Wild Horse & Burro Show will be held Aug. 2-3, at the Delaware State Fairground in Harrington. For a list of shows, click here.

Some horses in the wild were domesticated but abandoned, Pat Dawson reports for Time magazine. Montana livestock transporter John Chaffee told Dawson, "What can you do with all these horses? You can't bury 'em all. I have nothing against eating horse meat. I wouldn't eat it, but millions of people in the world do." Chaffee told Dawson he has stopped taking horses to a slaughter plant in southern Alberta, because of new trucking regulations and pressure from Canadian humane societies at border crossings. (Read more)

For an article from Feedstuffs FoodLink on a recent meeting in Washington on the horse crisis, click here. For a PDF of proceedings of the meeting, sponsored by the American Horse Council, click here. UPDATE, July 20: In The New York Times, Felicity Barringer's situation piece includes this graf: "Some environmentalists and scientists have come to see the mustangs, which run wild from Montana to California, as top-of-the-food-chain bullies, invaders whose hooves and teeth disturb the habitats of endangered tortoises and desert birds."