Persuasive Piece

Persuasive Piece

Okay... Honestly, I had no idea until just recently about what I should attempt to persuade people in in regards to this project, mostly due to my brain conveniently deciding to be hyperactive and start thinking of too many things. So, I decided to enlist to help of my parents. They had some really good ideas, and the one I will be writing about here is concerning the BLM and the controversy that surrounds it. The BLM is an acronym for the Bureau of Land Management, some oftentimes called the "Bureau of Land Mismanagement," which, according to itself, is "a small agency with a big mission: To sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America's public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations." It manages over 245 million acres of land, more than any other Federal agency in the United States. There are a lot of issues between the BLM and ranchers, environmentalists, lawmakers, etc. But for the sake of not writing pages and pages about this general topic, and in order for this post to be more related to my project, I will be focusing on the BLM and its involvement with wild horses and burros (which are wild donkeys, basically).

Some believe that there is an overpopulation of wild horses because there is not enough land to support both them and livestock. Really, though, there are only 32,000 wild horses roaming free and millions of cattle and sheep on public lands-if anything, there is an overpopulation of livestock. To the BLM, in order to "preserve ecological balance on the public land," they gather hundreds of mustangs and burros every year. These gatherings are called roundups, and in them they basically chase the wild horses with helicopters across miles of land into small holding pens. Laura Leigh, of the advocacy group Wild Horse Education, says that she has spent about 500 days documenting injuries and deaths in these roundups. She says, "I've seen broken legs. I've seen legs ripped up by barbed wire. I've seen horses kicked in the head. I've seen animals dragged by the neck with a rope. I've seen a helicopter hit horses." The way in which these horses are "gathered" is, simply put, inhumane. Unsurprisingly, bad injuries, trauma, abortions, and death are common in the roundups. For example, only about two months after the Calico (Nevada) roundup ended in 2010, 86 of the 1,922 captured horses had died and 40 pregnant mares had spontaneously aborted.

Some of the less gory pictures of roundups

After they're caught, closely-knit families quickly get split up, with the mares, stallions, and foals all going to different holding facilities. Ginger Kathrens, a filmmaker who has documented mustang herds, says, "I know how much they love their families and their freedom. And in an instant they lose both." Now, there are more than 50,000 wild horses living in captivity, with just 32,000 left on the range. In the 19th century, the number of free horses was 2,000,000.

BLM holding facilities

It is agreed by both critics and supporters of these roundups that the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Program is "out of control" and heading towards crisis. With the limited desire of adoption from the public, at least $50 million is spent on the captured horses every year. 72% of the BLM's budget for wild horses is spent on roundups and permanently housing them, while less than 1% is spent on fertility control. The government even acknowledges that "the current path is not sustainable for the animals, the environment, or the taxpayer."

The BLM is quickly running out of places to put the captured horses. The suggested solution? Federal law actually allows the sale of wild horses by the government to citizens "without limitation." This includes sale for slaughter. Between 2009 and 2012, 1,794 federally-protected wild horses were sold to a known kill buyer who then sold them to slaughter. He made over $136,000 in profits, and "is not being prosecuted for violating his contractual obligation to not sell the horses for slaughter," says Suzanne Roy, Director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC). "There will be no justice for these mustangs, who suffered a brutal death in Mexican slaughter plants. No one at the BLM is being held accountable." 

Ginger Kathrens said, "The BLM would like to see wild horses gone, because with no wild horses, end of problem ... Wild horses will be managed to extinction."

Clearly, these wild horses and burros are not being handled correctly. Why doesn't the BLM focus more on fertility control so that the mustang population does not grow as quickly, and therefore can remain free? If they insist on rounding them up, why are they not handling them like the wild animals that they are-with respect? And, of course, if they care so much about these horses like they want for everyone to believe, wouldn't you agree that maybe they shouldn't sell the living creatures that they are responsible for to ones they know will put them to slaughter?

Works Cited

 Myers, Lisa, and Michael Austin. "Cruel or Necessary? The True Cost of Wild Horse Roundups." NBC News. NBC News, 14 May 2013. Web. 30 Apr. 2016. 

 "About the BLM." About the BLM. Bureau of Land Management, 26 Jan. 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.

 Howell, Kellan. "BLM Illegally Sold Thousands of Wild Horses for Slaughter: Report." Washington Times. The Washington Times, 24 Oct. 2015. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.