Time for Change: Protect Wild Horses

Denver, Colorado’s Huff Post, an online newspaper, reports that in Reno, Nevada the U.S. House approved an amendment on a voice vote that would cut the Bureau of Land Management's budget by 2 million dollars in protest of the agency's wild horse roundups that some people say are too costly and are inhumane.

Over the past 10 years, the cost of BLM's wild horse management program has tripled to 64 million dollars. About 37 million dollars of that was spent last year on housing the gathered horses at BLM corrals and leased pastures, which is a 30 percent increase from the previous year. "Instead of using that to fix this broken wild horse management problem, they permanently removed another 10,000 wild horses and burros and put them into tax-funded long-term holding pens," said Representative Jim Moran. BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington said the agency had no comment on the House vote. Jim Moran said there were once thousands of wild horses in the West, but today there are more in captivity in BLM holding facilities.

Although many people either aren’t aware of the situation of wild horses or believe the Bureau of Land Management protects wild horses, my research has confirmed that the BLM is actually doing more harm to wild horse populations. The government has encouraged these roundups quietly because of the profit they get from ranchers. The BLM says they help the wild horses by keeping their populations in control so that the population increase doesn’t cause some of the horses to starve from overgrazing. But this isn’t true because the BLM clears out the wild horses so large herds of cattle can graze. The cattle aren’t starving though so neither would the wild horses. “If the program isn't funded appropriately and horses are not removed, wild horses will continue to overgraze the range which means starving horses,” said Representative Mike Simpson.  But if the population were to increase and some wild horses were to starve that would be alright because that’s nature taking its natural course which is humane and therefore better than roundups. The BLM’s roundups ruin the lives of wild horses by breaking up their families, injuring them, and sometimes causing their death. So earlier when i asked, should roundups be made safer, the answer is obviously yes. The more I research this issue I have realized my opinion has changed a little bit. Before my opinion was that roundups need to be safer and that the BLM is rounding up too much. But now I'm thinking that wild horses should be left alone and let nature take its course. 
We the people need to help protect the wild horses otherwise they’re fighting for their freedom and families everyday and could eventually cease to be wild horses at all and it’s just not the American west without wild horses.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/17/wild-horse-roundups-in-we_n_824493.html

"Wild Horse Roundups In West Prompt House To Cut BLM Budget." Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.

http://board.horsechannel.com/Topic335530-4-1.aspx

"Exposing the Truth of the BLM Wild Horse Roundups." HorseChannel.com Message Board. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.