[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 127 (Thursday, September 10, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9257-S9258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



  (At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)

                     RESTORE OUR WILD MUSTANGS ACT

 Mr. Byrd. Mr. President, on August 5, I was pleased to 
introduce a Senate companion to H.R. 1018, the Restore Our American 
Mustang Act that was introduced by my good friend, Representative Nick 
Rahall, in February 2009. On July 20, the ROAM Act passed the House of 
Representatives and was referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources. I hope that Senator Bingaman and Senator Murkowski, 
the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Energy and Natural 
Resources, and Senator Wyden and Senator Barrasso, the chairman and 
ranking member of the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests, will 
consider the merits of this bill and move it to the Senate floor.
  S. 1579 and H.R. 1018 address a dilemma faced by the Bureau of Land 
Management and the Forest Service, which since 1971 have been charged 
with overseeing the Nation's herds of wild, free-roaming horses and 
burros.
  In 1971, wild horses and burros roamed across 53.5 million acres of 
largely Federal lands in the western United States. Since that time, 
the range available to these wild herds has decreased, dwindling to 
some 34 million acres, much of it very arid, with sparse vegetation. 
Yet the wild herds have not only managed to hold their own in these 
rugged conditions, they have grown. When the populations exceed the 
carrying capacity of the land, the BLM conducts ``gathers'' or round-
ups, and removes horses and burros from wild. These wild equines are 
then offered for adoption to the general public.
  That sounds like a storybook solution to the management of the wild 
herds: save wild horses from starving on the range and place them in 
caring homes with horse-loving American citizens. The problem is, in 
2009, BLM estimates that more than 10,000 wild horses and burros need 
to be removed from Federal rangelands. That is in addition to the 
31,000 wild horses and burros that have already been pulled from the 
range and that are being held in short- and long-term holding 
facilities by the BLM. There are as many wild horses and burros being 
held off the range as live on the range, according to BLM statistics 
cited by the Government Accountability Office.
  Even in the best economic times, there are not 10,000 people, let 
alone 30,000 people, willing to take on the challenge, rewarding as it 
might be, of bringing a wild horse home to live with them. And these 
are not the best economic times. Horse rescues and sanctuaries are 
overwhelmed by horses donated by owners unable to care for them. The 
news services report regularly on horses that are rescued from starving 
conditions or which have been abandoned by their owners.
  Adopting a wild horse or burro is not to be undertaken lightly. BLM 
requirements for housing a newly adopted wild horse call for sturdy 
wood or pole fencing at least 6 feet high. BLM staff or contractors 
will load the adopted horse into an open stock-type trailer only, 
because these are not horses that can be led gently up a ramp into a 
divided stall type trailer like a domestic show horse. Once they arrive 
home, adopters must face the challenge of unloading a scared and wild 
animal from the trailer and into its new enclosure.
  It may be months before the proud new owner can even put a hand on 
his new horse to begin its training for a life of pleasure riding. 
Mustang adopters who lack the experience to train a wild horse 
themselves or who lack the resources to pay for expert help may be 
overwhelmed, often to the detriment of the horse. For these reasons, 
older mustangs, those adult horses that have spent 5 or more years 
living in the wild, are among the least adoptable of BLM's charges. 
These adult horses make up the bulk of the 22,000 mustangs in long-term 
pasture holding facilities.
  So what are we to do about these beautiful icons of the American 
West?
  The law provides the BLM with the authority to kill those excess 
horses and burros that are not adopted after three attempts or which 
are older than 10 years old. The BLM also has the authority to sell 
those animals ``without limitation,'' meaning without restrictions on 
those horses being sent to slaughter plants in Mexico or Canada. The 
BLM has hesitated to use these authorities because of the public's 
revulsion to the idea of their government killing otherwise healthy and 
beautiful wild horses. The Government Accountability Office has pointed 
out that this puts BLM out of compliance with the law and raises the 
program's costs.
  I share in the revulsion of the prospect of killing wild horses, as, 
I suspect, many in the BLM do as well. But the consequence of that 
revulsion is the climbing costs to house and feed what is now a 
population of 22,000 wild horses in long-term holding facilities. The 
long-term holding facilities are already over capacity and the costs 
are consuming most of BLM's funding for the wild horse and burro 
management program, and they are only going to rise. The solution to 
preventing wild horses and burros from overcrowding the open range is 
not to overcrowd them in fenced-in pastures.
  S. 1579 and H.R. 1018 would revise the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and 
Burro Act to provide BLM and the Forest Service with additional tools 
to manage the wild horse and burro populations in ways that preserve a 
thriving ecological balance. They also prohibit the killing or sale for 
slaughter of wild horses and burros.
  The bills give the BLM the authority to restore wild horse and burro 
ranges by purchasing or acquiring equivalent land, with a goal of 
returning rangelands to something approaching the 53 million acres 
available to the wild herds in 1971. Current law does not allow BLM to 
acquire land for horses and burros that might not be in the same 
location occupied by wild horses prior to 1971.
  Increasing the size of the range available to the herds means that 
fewer animals will need to removed in order to maintain the land in 
good health. Free-roaming wild horses and burros do not have to be fed 
and maintained in long-term holding facilities. This also would reduce 
the number of wild horses and burros available for adoption, bringing

[[Page S9258]]

the supply of wild horses in line with the more limited number of homes 
available to them.
  S. 1579 and H.R. 1018 also provide BLM managers with enhanced 
management tools and greater emphasis on emerging medical controls like 
long-term contraception to help keep herd sizes proportionate to the 
available grazing. It also puts greater emphasis on the adoption 
program by encouraging greater involvement from private, not-for-profit 
organizations that specialize in equine adoption and therapy programs.
  Most Americans value our Nation's great Western heritage. Our idea of 
the wild, wild West is synonymous with wild horses thundering through 
great open spaces. Our images of dusty, scruffy prospectors are not 
complete without the requisite patient burro at his side. A hundred 
years ago, 2 million wild horses lived on the range--now, there are 
fewer than 35,000. We want to preserve our wild herds and to keep them 
forever wild. We can achieve that goal, but we need to provide BLM and 
the Forest Service with a more robust toolkit for long-term sustainable 
herd management.
  I urge my colleagues to support S. 1579 and move to ensure the long-
term future of America's wild horses and burros.

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