Wild horse population control methods divide lawmakers, advocates

After a years-long battle over an effective ban on horse slaughter in the U.S., advocates on both sides are grappling with how the federal government should handle the tens of thousands of excess wild horses, largely on western lands.

Some, including top voices on Capitol Hill and in the Trump administration, say the most humane thing to do is for Congress to pass a law clearing the way for excess horses to be sold or euthanized.

Others are urging the Interior Department to look to alternative measures of population control, such as experimentation with birth control methods.

The inherently emotional topic has advocates on both sides, with each saying that they’re looking for the most humane way to solve the problem and that they have the best interests of the country’s wild horses in mind.

Currently, the wild horse population, which was estimated at 73,000 as of March 1, is about three times what’s considered sustainable and healthy, according to the Interior Department. That estimate is presumably low because of mating rates, which likely have added as many as 15,000 horses, said Jason Lutterman, a spokesman for the department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Adoptions, which are one way to reduce the wild population, have been problematic because the numbers dropped dramatically several years ago but now have increased.

“We don’t really have a great tool anymore to manage the horse growth on the range because we’re not placing as many animals as are being born on the range,” Mr. Lutterman said.

Earlier this year, Rep. Chris Stewart secured language in a House appropriations measure that would allow excess horses to be euthanized as long as they meet certain conditions, like certain older horses that have been rejected for adoption multiple times. He insists that it’s the most humane solution at a certain point.

Mr. Stewart said he’d invite people to his home state of Utah and show them hundreds of starving horses — some so emaciated their hips and ribs are visible — to illustrate the unsustainability of the current course.

“It’s important to know that these animals, these horses that are being kept in corrals, that they’re not roaming free on some beautiful Kentucky meadow,” the Utah Republican said. “They’ve shoved thousands [out] together in a little tiny corral, and they can hardly move, and that’s their life.”

Mr. Stewart said his amendment would prohibit the slaughter of animals for any commercial purpose, but it would be done “to maintain the health of the herd.”

“I hate the thought of euthanizing any animal, [but] I hate the thought worse of starving ’em to death,” he said.

Wild-horse advocacy groups have fought horse “roundups,” saying the government needs to find other ways to control the population — such as birth control.

“It’s a model that was successful, and it is showing that there is an alternative way to manage large populations of horses” in large habitats, said Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Campaign.

“It’s pretty clear that pro-horse slaughter forces wanted to shut that down,” she said.

Mr. Lutterman says the federal government has experimented with birth and fertility control, but it’s a temporary solution and it can be difficult to pick out horses in a herd that need to be re-inoculated once the shots expire.

The Trump administration has proposed to cut costs by freeing up more of the horses for sale. Federal law in recent years has banned unrestricted sale of some animals.

There also has been a long-running debate over horse slaughter for meat, with the government imposing, lifting and then reimposing a ban.

A Government Accountability Office report several years ago said the ban led to even worse conditions for horses, and the slaughter ban was dropped for a while. But advocates fought back, and the ban has been revived as part of annual spending bills, which block food inspections of horse meat, effectively prohibiting the practice.

Advocates like Ms. Roy are OK with that status quo but want to see lawmakers pass a permanent ban.

Mr. Stewart said the slaughter issue has become a “political bomb” that can complicate the work he’s trying to do in wild horse overpopulation.

“I’m not looking for the slaughter of these animals for commercial or for consumption,” he said. “I’m looking for [a] compassionate way to manage these herds, and if we intertwine those two issues, my argument becomes much harder.”