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Good To Know Newsletter>
The Nation's Unwanted Horses By Larry Hyslop
April 1, 2008
No single Western issue generates the emotions of wild
horses, and passions have been building lately. Since
1971, the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act required
the Bureau of Land Management to harm no wild horse and use
only adoption to remove excess horses from the range.
In 2005, the BLM had 24,500 horses in captivity, horses
removed from wild herds to manage population numbers.
Caring for these horses cost $20 million that year.
In December 2004, Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana stirred
emotions to the boiling point when he slipped a rider into
an omnibus spending bill. The rider allowed the BLM to
sell excess wild horses to the highest bidder. Eligible
horses are at least 10 years old and passed over for
adoption three tries.
Sales were immediately brisk, with horses selling for an
average of $20. But some of these horses showed up at
horse slaughterhouses after being resold by their buyers.
The BLM immediately stopped their sales program.
Since slaughterhouses often paid $600 for a 1000-pound
animal, it was a quick profit. At that time, three
slaughterhouses were operating, all foreign-owned and
sending the processed horse meat overseas for human
consumption.
In May 2005, the BLM resumed sales using a revised bill of
sale that required the buyer to not knowingly sell horses
to anyone who would slaughter them. Violators were subject
to fines up to $250,000 and five years in jail. However,
many buyers initially pulled out of their pending sales.
By February 2008, the BLM had sold more that 2700 horse and
burros. They are very careful not to sell horses that will
end up in slaughterhouses nor sell horses to "killer
buyers," who transport the horse to foreign
slaughterhouses.
In September 2006, the U.S. House passed the American Horse
Slaughter Prevention Act. Nevada's Senator John Ensign
cosponsored the same bill in the Senate, but it is still in
committee. The U.S. Congress is also working on
legislation to remove the BLM's sale authority.
In 2007, the country's last horse slaughterhouse closed in
Illinois, when a new state law banned the import, export,
and possession of horsemeat intended for human consumption.
Slaughterhouses like this one had processed 424,000 horses
during the last seven years, 104,899 in 2006 alone. Almost
all of these horses were domestic stock.
Horses exports to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada
jumped 300 percent between 2006 and 2007, with 44,475
domestic horses exported to Mexico in 2007. Congress is
currently working on a ban to stop these exports.
There are more than nine million domestic horses in the
U.S. The Unwanted Horse Coalition estimates the cost of
providing basic care for a horse ranges from $1800-$2400
annually. Hay costs run as high as $200 per ton and the
BLM recently paid $309 per ton.
The domestic horse market has effectively crashed. High
hay costs, along with high feed, corn and fuel costs, have
resulted in a glut of horses for sale. Good horse stock
remains valuable but not the poorer stock. Old or injured
horses are now worth no more than $80-$150, driving down
the market on other horses.
A large number of people recently bought horses and now
want to get rid of them, but have no way to do it. Their
only options are to pay a vet to euthanize their horse and
then find a way to dispose of the carcass, or find an
animal sanctuary to accept it. These sanctuaries are at
full capacity and are strapped for cash over rising
operating costs.
Stories abound of abused, starved and abandoned horses.
Arizona reported a rise in the numbers of starvation cases
during 2007 and found 528 horses turned loose on public and
private lands. Equine Outreach in Bend, Oregon recently
got a call about three tame horses found starving in Ochaco
National Forest. Horse rescue groups around the country
are bracing for future influxes of unwanted and abandoned
horses.
Jim Connelley, administrator with the Nevada Brands
Department, reports Nevada is seeing a rise in the same
problems. A "wild" horse recently walked up to a family's
car near Las Vegas and another "wild" horse was spotted in
western Nevada, wearing horse shoes. Reports of starved
horses come in each winter and Jim feels many of these
people simply cannot afford the high cost of hay. Nevada's
state BLM office has not seen these problems yet, but is
concerned about what the future may bring.
Originally published in the Elko Daily Free Press March 13,
2008. Reprinted by permission from Larry Hyslop.
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