Ranchers asked to buy wild horses

BILLINGS, Mont. — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management and a ranchers' group are asking thousands of Western cattlemen to consider buying older wild horses that have been culled from the range.

Letters are being sent to more than 15,000 ranchers with BLM grazing permits or leases in an effort to help the agency sell the roughly 7,000 "sale-eligible" wild horses it has in holding areas. BLM says it is required by law to sell the horses, which are older than 10 years or have been passed over for adoption at least three times.

Tom Gorey, an agency spokesman, said Tuesday that BLM has reached out to advocacy groups, ranchers and others since the law was passed in December 2004 and considered it logical also to appeal to those who graze livestock on BLM lands. The program is in partnership with the Public Lands Council, a ranching trade association.

Gorey said that, while the price is usually negotiable, the BLM will ask $10 per head to be consistent.

As of January, BLM had sold more than 1,500 wild horses and burros of the 8,400 that were immediately affected by the sale law, he said.

Sales of the animals were halted temporarily last spring, after the discovery that 41 horses the BLM sold were slaughtered and dozens more were on their way to slaughter. The bill of sale for wild horses and burros has been strengthened as part of the bid to keep that from happening again, he said.

Protecting the animals from slaughter is a big issue for The Humane Society of the United States, said Nancy Perry, vice president of government affairs for the group. She said taking wild horses off the land is like "rolling the dice with their lives."

"We think the best and safest haven is in the wild," she said. Perry believes BLM needs to be more cautious in deciding how many horses are rounded up from the range.

Based on a 2005 census, there were about 32,000 wild horses and burros on BLM lands in the West, roughly 4,000 more than what the agency believes can exist "in balance" with other interests, according to the agency.

BLM says it spent $39.6 million on its wild horse and burro program for fiscal year 2005 and $20.1 million of that to keep animals in holding facilities.

The cost associated with caring for horses rounded up from the range is "enormous and strains the BLM's ability to deliver other services," wrote Mike Byrne, president of the Public Lands Council.

"Interest and advocacy groups' response to the purchasing of older animals has been very limited," Byrne wrote. "Now more than ever, we need stewards from the ranching community and other supporters who care about public lands to step up and purchase these horses."