Page 24 GAO-11-228 Horse Welfare had their animals seized by local authorities because they were not properly caring for them, and others in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania closed due to financial difficulties. In addition, the increase in unwanted domesticated horses available for sale or being abandoned on public lands is affecting the federal government’s ability to manage wild horse and burro populations. Most of these wild animals are found on lands managed by BLM and USDA’s Forest Service in the western United States.13 From 1971 through 2007, BLM removed over 267,000 wild horses and burros from these lands, and during the same period, approximately 235,700 of these animals were adopted by the public under a BLM program that promotes these adoptions. As we reported in 2008, BLM has, however, experienced a steady decline in adoptions in recent years, which agency officials attributed, in part, to the large number of domesticated horses flooding the market.14 More recently, BLM officials said that annual adoptions had fallen from about 8,000 in 2005 to about 3,000 in 2010. In an October 2010 Web message, the BLM Director estimated that the number of horses and burros on lands the agency manages exceeds by about 12,000 the number that would allow these lands to remain sustainable for other uses and species.15 According to BLM officials, in addition to natural reproduction in wild horse and burro herds, the increasing number of domesticated horses being abandoned on public lands has contributed to this overpopulation problem. Other officials, including those from animal welfare organizations, questioned the relevance of the cessation of domestic slaughter to the rise in abandoned and neglected horses, which they attributed more to the economic downturn. For example, in March 2010, Animal Welfare Institute representatives said that since a 1998 California ban on dealing in horses intended for slaughter, their organization has offered a $1,000 reward for 13BLM estimates, as of October 2010, that it is managing about 38,400 free-roaming wild horses and burros on these lands, and it also is holding about 37,000 additional horses and burros removed from these lands in short- and long-term holding facilities. BLM estimates its feeding and care of animals in holding facilities cost the federal government more than $36 million annually, more than half the wild horse and burro program’s budget in fiscal year 2010. 14GAO, Bureau of Land Management: Effective Long-Term Options Needed to Manage Unadoptable Wild Horses, GAO-09-77 (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 9, 2008). 15This Web message is available at blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/ wild_horse_and_burro/national/about/director.print.html.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:59:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015