Mustangs

Wild horses - more accurately known as Mustangs - and burros are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

One of the biggest controversies over the BLM handling of Mustangs and wild burros is the practice of "gathers" which involves using helicopters to chase the animals into holding pens. To prey animals like horses and burros, helicopters will be seen as predators. Frightened horses trample each other in their haste to get away from the helicopters, believing the horses in the back of the herd will be the first victims of the predator. Mares and foals are separated from each other.

The horses and burros deemed to be adoptable are offered for a minimum $125 adoption fee. The others are sent to the Midwest to live out their lives in holding pens.

Culling the herd seems to be the answer according to the BLM. By removing some of the animals, that gives those left behind more land and more access to food. The problem is when horses are culled, the number of remaining horses doesn't decrease. It increases. With more access to food and virtually no natural predators left, the remaining horses multiply.

At one point, the BLM had a plan to castrate a group of Mustangs, then release them back into the wild. Wild horse advocates objected, calling the plan "scientifically unsound, controversial, untested and radical." Maybe I don't understand all the details, but if something similar works in cities to reduce the feral cat population, why wouldn't it work to reduce the Mustang population? Mustangs aren't technically wild horses - they're formerly domesticated horses who have gone feral.

There are programs to promote the adoption of Mustangs and burros, but since they're administered by the BLM - a federal government agency - those programs have been affected by the sequester. I've been trying to find statistics to support it, but I have a hunch that there are more Mustangs available for adoption than there are people willing and able to do so.

There are no easy answers to the issues of Mustangs and wild burros. But I do know until both sides are able to talk about it rationally, no answers will ever be found.