Wild Horses – An Essay

 By:  Laurel L. Monreal

Imagine it’s a hundred years ago and you’re traveling in a covered wagon across the land into the wild west….as you crest a hill you look down into the valley below and you see hundreds of wild horses…what a site to behold.. Absolutely breathtaking…horses of all colors, paints, appys, gullas, buckskins, and palominos… beautiful mares with adorable frisky foals and big strong bold stallions……for me .. that would be heaven on earth.

Wild horses of the American West are living symbols of a lost time. A time when the west was wild and untamed.  A time when buffalo roamed in the thousands and Indians lived freely on the land.  Wild horses represent freedom…a freedom and free spirit we all want to feel.

Many wild animals fascinate us but nothing surpasses the wild horse. What is more glorious than the image of a lone stallion and his band running unbridled across the open range?  The sheer passion and emotion it evokes in us is unsurpassed. Whose mind and heart do not resonate with joy at the beauty and the freedom of spirit that all wild horses signify?

In the early 19th century more than 2 million wild horses roamed free in the west.  Some were descendants of the Spanish horses that came to the Americas in the 1500’s which became known as “mestengos” or as we call them “mustangs”, some were ranch and plow horses that had escaped or been abandoned.  These wild horses were generally small in stature, very tough and rugged, had extremely strong hoofs and very keen senses.  They had to possess these traits or they would not survive.  The west was a harsh unforgiving land but horses are amazing animals and they adapted to their environment.

Today only about 25,000 wild horses remain in the wild.  The question:  What happen to all the wild horses?

-A lot of ranchers (not all) considered wild horses scavengers of the range. As far as the ranchers were concerned the horses were consuming feed and water that belonged to their cattle and therefore they had to be annihilated.  They would have massive roundups and shoot the horses, poison water holes or run huge herds off of cliffs where they plummeted to their death.  Later when horsemeat became popular in foreign countries and the commercial pet food industry they were rounded up and sent to slaughter most times in deplorable conditions.  Wounded and bleeding they were loaded or literally dragged onto trucks even double decker cattle trucks - where they couldn’t even lift their heads.

In 1950 one morning while driving to work, a woman in Nevada, Velma Johnston, later known as “Wild Horse Annie”, witnessed a gruesome scene – wild horses crammed into a truck destined for a pet food slaughterhouse. Blood oozing from the truck revealed a yearling being trampled to death. She decided to expose this to the public eye.

Annie set about amassing a legion of facts and evidence, which she neatly organized into very effective presentations to all economic and social branches of society. She skillfully cultivated many contacts, from school children to ranchers to businessmen, biologists, and politicians. Both a charming and a commanding public speaker, she delivered her message with passionate conviction, inspiring a sense of justice and compassion for the wild horses in her listeners. She began her campaign in her home Storey County. It was in 1952, with help from prominent citizens and after fiery meetings in Virginia City, that she earned her nickname, “Wild Horse Annie”. In 1955 her campaign in the Nevada State Legislature led to a bill banning aircraft and land vehicles from capturing wild horses on state lands.

However this still left about 86% of the wild horse population that was residing on Federal land unprotected.  Seeing that these indiscriminate wild horse gatherings continued to supply the pet food industry, Annie aroused public indignation and support for the first federal law to protect wild horses. This was accomplished in 1959.  It prohibited the use of any form of motorized vehicles as well as the poisoning of water holes done either to capture or kill wild horses. It is known as the Wild Horse Annie Act.

By the mid-1960s it became apparent that The Wild Horse Annie Act was not enough since wild horses continued to rapidly lose ground in the West. Of pivotal importance in Annie's determination to continue with the fight was the failure to obtain conviction for a well-documented violation of the Act involving a wild horse roundup in Central Nevada and subsequent shipping of the animals to a Fallon slaughterhouse. This inspired her all the more to bring justice for the horses. She felt strongly that they had a right to remain in viable numbers on the public lands.

Annie meticulously organized a campaign which involved many audio-visual presentations to schools and civic gatherings, plus a wide-spread letter writing and illustrated fact sheets distribution, Annie convinced thousands of people of all ages and walks of life to advocate for the wild horses. Congress received more letters on this issue than any other, save the Vietnam War. Annie herself testified before Congress. The result was the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. The bill passed unanimously declaring the “wild horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the nation and enrich the lives of the American people; and that these horses and burros are fast disappearing from the American scene”.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) were appointed to implement the Act.  Most herd areas are under the BLM jurisdiction.  The Act mandates that wild horses and burros are to be managed on 47 million acres of public land in 303 herd areas.

Lets fast-forward thirty years to 2001, after decades of failed herd-management policies, the BLM obtained a 50% increase in their annual budget to $29 million dollars for implementation of an aggressive removal campaign.  In 2004, the 1971 Act was surreptitiously amended, without so much as a hearing or opportunity for public review, opening the door to the sale of thousands of wild horses for slaughter for human consumption abroad.

The current situation is the result of a long history of failed policies, land allocation issues, and an intricate money trail. The BLM and the USFS, among others, are responsible for managing the nation’s public lands and are foremost the managers of wild horses and burros. Their responsibilities also include issuing public land grazing permits to cattle ranchers. These grazing permits cover limited areas of public land that are available for lease. So, for every wild horse removed from a grazing permit allotment, a fee-paying cow gets to take its place, and a public land rancher gets the benefit of public land forage at bargain rates. This is the number one reason wild horses are removed from public lands.  Mind you the rancher is only paying $1.35 per animal per month and the removal and processing of a single wild horse through the adoption pipeline costs about $30,000.  Remember these are YOUR tax dollars at work!

The 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act mandated that wild horses be managed at their then-current population level, officially estimated by the BLM at 17,000 (three years later, BLM’s first census found over 42,000 horses). To the horses' detriment, both sides agreed to allow the government to manage wild horse populations at that “official” 1971 level. Eleven years later, a study by the National Academy of Sciences found BLM’s 1971 estimate to have been “undoubtedly low to an unknown, but perhaps substantial, degree,” given subsequent census results and taking into account the horses' growth rate and the number of horses since removed. But the damage had already been done; management levels had been etched in stone, and processes for removal of "excess" horses were well in place.

The fact is that the 1982 National Academy of Sciences report and two General Accounting Office reports have countered key points in BLM's premise for its current herd reduction campaign. These government-sanctioned documents concluded that:

(i)                  Horses reproduce at a much slower rate than BLM asserts,

(ii)                Wild horse forage use remains a small fraction of cattle forage use on public ranges,

(iii)               “despite congressional direction, BLM did not base its removal of wild horses from federal rangeland on how many horses ranges could support,”

(iv)              “BLM was making its removal decisions on the basis of an interest in reaching perceived historic population levels, or the recommendations of advisor groups largely composed of livestock permittees.”

From over 2 million in the 1800s, America’s wild horse population has dwindled to less than 25,000. There are now more wild horses in government holding pens than remain in the wild, with many of the remaining herds managed at population levels that do not guarantee their long-term survival. Still, the round-ups continue.

Over the past thirty years, federal law enacted by the people on behalf of their wild horses has been ignored. No strategic plan to keep viable herds of wild horses on public lands was ever developed.

Here are a few facts:

§         The BLM plans to remove another 7,000 wild horses by fall of 2007 and 2,000 burros.

§         The current removal policy is costing the taxpayers over 39 million dollars a year.

§         1971 when the Act was implemented wild horses and burros resided in 16 states and 303 Herd Management Areas (HMA’s)

§         Since 1971 6 state have completely lost their entire wild horse population, 111 HMA’s have been zeroed out representing over 12.5 million acres

§         Private livestock number over 6 million, encompass 214 million acres and cost over $130 million dollars a year to manage

§         Private livestock out number wild horses over 200 to 1on public lands.

§         Wild horses account for less the 0.5% of the large grazing animals on public land

§         BLM relies on an annual population increase of about 20% to evaluate population levels and justify rounds-ups, while the National Academy of Sciences estimates that rate to be closer to 10%.

I don’t think the BLM is completely against preserving our wild horses.  I have met some very good and caring people at the BLM.  However they do need to listen to the public.  American and the World look at the American Wild Horses as a cultural icon representing the west and freedom.  Here are a few direct quotes from other countries on how they think of our wild horses and how the US government treats them:

Australia:  I grew up with romantic notions of the American mustang.  In my imagination the wild horses represented a kind of freedom I knew I would never achieve.  I have no idea why America chose a bald eagle as their symbol; to me it should be the wild horse.  You are killing the very best thing about your nation.

Great Britain:  The USA places great value on Freedom – surely the wild horses are a symbol of freedom.  One day I’d like to come visit and see mustangs running wild where they are meant to be.  Don’t loose the embodiment of free spirit that is part of your countries heritage.

Italy:  The history of America was written on a horse’s back – is this your gratefulness?  Don’t steal our children the choice to see the wonder of a free wild horse.

South Africa There is nothing as mystical and beautiful as a wild horse and America should be proud of these magnificent animals. Leave them in the wild as they are meant to be.

New Zealand  I thought the spirit of the West was the American Wild Horse. Please conserve them, don’t destroy them. History should not have to repeat itself.

And there are many more statements from other countries all with a common theme – and that is that Wild horses represent our history and we should value them – that beside every settler, explorers or frontiersmen’s footprint there was a hoof print.

Solutions need to be implemented that will allow wild horses to be managed in the wild, securing a place for our wild herds in the American landscape. The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, which I am a member, is calling for fair and balanced management decisions that are based on accurate, scientific information and that take into account the interests of all parties, including the horses, public land ranchers, and the American public.

§         Self-Stabilizing Herds in Dedicated Wilderness Areas

o       Wilderness areas need to be established that are of sufficient size and habitat composition to provide for the long-term survival of genetically viable self-stabilizing wild horse herds.

o       The design of each area should involve natural boundaries wherever possible, and where necessary, artificial horse-proof barriers. These dedicated wilderness areas should feature restored ecosystems, including wild horse predators such as mountain lions. A stipulation should be that wild horses and burros be the principal species in these areas, in conjunction with all naturally occurring wildlife.

§         Ecotourism

o       As one of our British supporters remarked: “One day I'd like to come visit and see mustangs running wild where they're meant to.” America’s wild horses are universally recognized and cherished as American icons. Yet, our wild herds are a mostly-untapped ecotourism resource.

o       Horse lovers, wildlife enthusiasts, as well as those with an interest in the history of the Old West, should be given the opportunity to enjoy wild horse excursions year-round. In addition to non-intrusive observation of wild horse behavior and herd dynamics, in-the-wild management itself could become part of a unique experience for visitors to herd management areas.

§         Fertility Control Methods

§         To the extent population control is necessary in certain areas, fertility control methods are available whose efficiency has been proven in field studies.

§         Since 1988, the wild horse population of Maryland’s Assateague Island has been successfully controlled using a contraceptive vaccine (PZP) developed with the help of the Humane Society of the United States. Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick is assisting the BLM in implementing this non-intrusive contraceptive method across a growing number of herd management areas.

§         The method has proven very successful, is easy to administer (via remote darting of the mares) and does not disrupt the complex social structure of wild herds. A March 2004 USGS study found that $7.7 million could be saved annually through the use of contraceptive measures alone.

§         PZP should be used judiciously, solely to the extent necessary to maintain healthy population levels, in keeping with the intent of the 1971 Act. The goal is to minimize the need for costly and traumatic round-ups as well as save millions of tax dollars, while ensuring genetic diversity.

§          

§         Cooperation From Public Land Ranchers

§         The BLM has contracted with former cattle ranchers to operate long-term holding facilities in Kansas and Oklahoma. Wild horses removed from the Western range are transported by the thousands to these facilities; operators receive $1.25 a day per horse. The transfer of these horses is costing millions of tax dollars a year.

§         Competition with private cattle for public land forage is often the cause of these relocations. AWHPC believes the BLM could contract with public land ranchers as it currently does with holding-facility operators, eliminating the stress and expense of round-ups and shipping cross-country: the horses would be left where they are and public land ranchers whose allotments include wild horses could be granted a tax-credit or paid a per-horse fee eliminating the need for long-term holding facilities. Ranchers would be expected to allow the horses to enjoy range improvements (for which they receive government range improvement funds) such as water pumps in drought areas, to the same extent as their cattle (with fair compensation for any increase in their utility bills).

§         Cattle fencing on public lands is often the cause of high wild horse mortality during drought episodes, as recently reported in Nevada.  In such instances, cooperation from public land ranchers is also necessary to avoid wild horses being kept from water sources by cattle fencing.

§         Change can only come about if the ranchers as well as the horses are taken into account. Historically however, the horses have been on the losing end of this equation. The AWHPC is working with cattle ranchers on solutions that will not threaten their allotments.

§         Wild Horses reclassified as a Native Indigenous species

§         North America is the birthplace of the horse. The Equidae family began in North America some 50 to 70 million years ago.  The first horse, eohippus, which is also referred to as the dawn horse, was a small fox-like mammal about 12” at the shoulders and had split toes.  Eohippus is the first horse in a long and complex evolutionary process which over the last several million years eventually evolved into the equus species which is the horse as we know it today.

§         The precise date of origin for the genus Equus is unknown, but evidence documents the dispersal of Equus from North America to Eurasia approximately 2-3 million years ago and a possible origin at about 3.4-3.9 million years ago. Following this original emigration, several extinctions occurred in North America, with additional migrations to Asia (presumably across the Bering Land Bridge), and return migrations back to North America, over time. The last North American extinction occurred between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago.1 Had it not been for previous westward migration, over the land bridge, into northwestern Russia (Siberia) and Asia, the horse would have faced complete extinction. However, Equus survived and spread to all continents of the globe, except Australia and Antarctica.

§         In 1493, on Columbus’ second voyage to the Americas, Spanish horses, representing E. caballus, were brought back to North America, first in the Virgin Islands, and, in 1519, they were reintroduced on the continent, in modern-day Mexico, from where they radiated throughout the American Great Plains, after escape from their owners.2

§         The longstanding myth that wild horses are "non-native" species is false. The recently developed technology of mitochondrial-DNA analysis provides incontrovertible evidence that today's wild horses are actually "reintroduced" native wildlife species in North America.

§         The non-native, feral, and exotic designations given by agencies are not merely reflections of their failure to understand modern science, but also a reflection of their desire to preserve old ways of thinking to keep alive the conflict between a species (wild horses) with no economic value anymore (by law) and the economic value of commercial livestock. Native status for wild horses would place these animals, under law, within a new category for management considerations. As a form of wildlife, embedded with wildness, ancient behavioral patterns, and the morphology and biology of a sensitive prey species, they may finally be released from the “livestock-gone-loose” designation.

In conclusion, Wild horses are a vital and integral part of our American history and we, as Americans, need to speak up and be heard in order to save these noble animals from extinction in wild. 

Sources of Information

My main source and an excellent website to keep on current issues effecting wild horses:

The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign 

www.Wildhorsepreservation.com

Nature:  What is a Horse      www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/horses/what.htlm

Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife by Jay F. Kirkpatrick, Ph.D. and Patricia M. Fazio Ph.D.   www.saplonline.org/wild_horses_native.htm

Women’s Biographies – Velma Bronn Johnston a.k.a. “Wild Horse Annie”

www.unr.edu/wrc/nwhp/biograph/johnston/htm