FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 10, 2010

Contact:
Sue Wallis
307 680 8515
sue.wallis@unitedorgsofthehorse.org


President's Budget Proposal Includes Separate $42.5 Million Request for Wild Horse Preserve

The proposed $75.7 million 2010 BLM budget proposal includes a funding request for a wild horse preserve to be built in the Midwest or Eastern portion of the United States.

CHEYENNE - The federal government already owns 90% of Nevada, 50% of Wyoming, and comparable percentages of every Western state--and yet they are now proposing a massive land grab in the Midwest and East. All to house excess feral horses that they do not have the moral fortitude necessary to control.

The Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro Program already spends 75% to 80% of its budget on excess horses held in private feedlots and long term holding facilities off of the federal lands they are mandated to manage.

In addition to a $12 million increase from the President's 2009 $64 million BLM budget proposal, separate funding totaling $42.5 million has been requested to purchase land for a wild horse preserve. The preserve would relocate wild horses to the Midwest or eastern portions of the United States in order to attain the appropriate population levels and remove the wild horses from the western rangelands where the wild horse have caused substantial environmental degradation .

While the intention of the BLM is to better manage the horse population is laudable, spending taxpayer's money to build horse preserves is not the solution. "The United Organizations of the Horse believes moving the horses to a different geographical area will not solve the problem, but will only spread the environmental degradation and increase an unnecessary burden on the taxpayer," says Sue Wallis, executive director of the United Organizations of the Horse, "reinstating humane horse processing in the United State is the only moral and ethical solution to management of the growing number of excess wild horses."

The BLM also intends to use aggressive fertility control measures to slow the increasing number of wild horses, but this will not reduce the current number of wild horses that is already too large. Unmanaged horse herds double in population every four years. The Wild Horse and Burro Management program has been facing decreasing adoptions of wild horses and higher costs associated with the feeding and housing of the horses.

Leaving too many horses on the land will only result in thousands of horses dying of starvation. Dr. Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University has noted that "Mother Nature is cruel." She has also been heard to say that "Death is not abuse. Abuse is dying of starvation and having your entrails torn out by coyotes because you are too weak to get up."

The current state of the U.S. economy is already unhealthy and to expect taxpayers and the government to pay for increased costs associated with an issue that has an easy solution is irresponsible. Wild horses have become a political pawn for the animal rights movement and this is not only doing an injustice to the horses, it is causing an increased burden on taxpayers and the United States government. These misguided management practices must be stopped and a practical solution that will actually decrease the number of wild horses and provide relief must be implemented.

"The last thing this country needs right now," says Wallis, "is a welfare entitlement program for animals that uses taxpayer dollars to line the pockets of so-called animal advocates while exacerbating and prolonging the suffering of horses."

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About United Organizations of the Horse:
The United Organizations of the Horse, a mutual benefit corporation, is a gathering of like-minded individuals and organizations who support the incredibly complex and diverse world of horses. Members and supporters are committed to the well-being and humane treatment of all horses, and the viability of the equine industry in the United State of America.

For additional information, please contact Sue Wallis or visit www.UnitedOrgsoftheHorse.org.

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