[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 135 (Wednesday, September 23, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2341]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         SUPPORTING NATIONAL WILD HORSE AND BURRO ADOPTION DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 22, 2009

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of our nation's 
wild horses and burros. These graceful and social wild animals have 
captured the hearts and minds of many Americans. They are stunning to 
watch as they roam free on public lands and remain an historical 
national treasure. It is imperative that we protect and ensure a viable 
future for them.
  Ensuring a strong adoption program for wild horses and burros is one 
important step toward addressing the current ineffective, inhumane and 
expensive practices the Bureau of Land Management, BLM, has employed to 
manage the population. As such, I support this bill and will continue 
to work to ensure the success of the adoption program.
  However, adoption alone will not offset the damage caused by the 
failed herd management practices of the BLM. Despite efforts to adopt 
out horses and burros, BLM has more than 30,000 wild horses in holding 
areas. In October 2008, the GAO released a report entitled ``Effective 
Long-Term Options Needed to Manage Unadoptable Wild Horses.'' This 
report affirms that BLM will continue to face budget shortfalls if 
long-term corrections to current management practices are not put in 
place. The bulk of these shortfalls are anticipated to result from the 
current management methods that round up wild horses and burros from 
Herd Management Areas, HMA, to long- and short-term holding areas.
  The BLM maintains that removal of the horses from the BLM lands is 
necessary to ``maintain a thriving ecological balance.'' However, the 
BLM has a history of using this statutory goal as justification for 
failed herd management practices.
  When Congress enacted the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 
1971, 54 million acres were dedicated for use by wild horses and 
burros. Currently, they roam on 29 million BLM acres and 2.5 million 
Forest Service acres. Additional state, tribal, and private lands bring 
the total acreage to 34.3 million, a reduction of 19.2 million acres. 
Approximately 13 million of the 19.2 million closed acres were under 
BLM ownership and closed to wild horses and burros because of new laws 
and regulations as well as BLM's own land use planning decisions. This 
clearly defies congressional intent and shows a pattern of behavior on 
the part of BLM that reduces the land on which wild horses and burros 
roam.
  BLM's decision to reduce land available to the wild horses and burros 
is called into question by the facts. A 1990 Government Accountability 
Office (GAO) report concluded that removals had not been demonstrated 
to improve range conditions, in part because livestock cause greater 
degradation to riparian areas and consume higher levels of forage. 
Furthermore, the Congressional Research Service states that the extent 
of damage by wild horses and burros as compared to livestock suffers 
from a ``lack of definitive data on forage consumed and range 
degradation.'' Yet there are approximately 33,000 wild horses and 
burros on 34 million acres of land, while there are at least 6.4 
million cattle, sheep and other livestock that graze on 160 million 
acres of BLM land. The density of the livestock population far exceeds 
that of the population of wild horses and burros. But BLM continues to 
argue that the horses and burros threaten BLM's ability to maintain 
ecological balance.
  Recently, the BLM justified a roundup of wild mustangs on the Pryor 
Mountain Range of Montana and Wyoming with the ``thriving ecological 
balance'' argument. The Pryor Mountain Range wild mustangs are reported 
to have a genetic link to the Spanish horses of the Conquistadors 
brought to America in 1500. Their DNA makes them a unique wild horse 
that is a distinct part of America's history.
  According to equine geneticist, Gus Cothran of Texas A&M University, 
who has been studying the wild horse population of the Pryor Mountains 
for many years, the single most important factor ``in maintaining 
genetic variation in a managed population is effective population 
size.'' Genetic diversity is vital to the long term survival of any 
herd. BLM's decision to roundup the Pryor Mountain Range horses 
threatens the effective population size which compromises the genetic 
diversity of the herd.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H. Res. 688 
and pledge to continue to work to correct the failed management 
practices of the BLM.

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