Congressman Cohen Requests Bureau of Land Management Cease Wild Horse Roundup

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a member of the Natural Resources Committee and of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, today wrote to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning with his concern that federal policies for managing wild horses and burros retain outmoded and inhumane plans for mass roundups. Congressman Cohen urged officials to make use of effective fertility control vaccines and reassess the capacity of federal lands to sustain the iconic creatures.

Congressman Cohen's letter reads in part:

"I appreciate the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM's) commitment to increasing the use of fertility vaccines to help manage the wild horse and burro population on federal land. However, I remain concerned that the agency's primary plan for herd management is to use large-scale removals in 2022 and beyond. I ask that you work to suspend all roundup activities until appropriate range assessments have been completed, animal welfare concerns have been addressed, and a robust fertility control vaccine plan has been implemented.

"Americans overwhelmingly cherish wild equines and want to see them protected. These horses and burros are icons and symbols that embody the notion of American freedom. However, the agency's plan to roundup 22,000 wild horses and burros this year, permanently removing 19,000 of them, puts the welfare of these animals in danger and marks a huge step backward for the program. These removals are undoubtedly part of the BLM's controversial plan, "Report to Congress: An Analysis of Achieving a Sustainable Wild Horse and Burro Program," which was released in May 2020 under the Trump Administration. As you know, I have been a vocal opponent of this plan.

"The May 2020 removal plan is unsustainable and comes at great risk to the animals and taxpayers. It merely continues what BLM has always done—removing horses and burros and confining them in holding facilities—but at an accelerated rate. The plan calls for removing 18,000–20,000 per year over a period of 15–18 years, or until the Appropriate Management Level (AML) is reached. In the first five years alone, the plan is projected to cost nearly $1 billion dollars and more than double the number of captive wild horses and burros in government holding facilities, from 59,000 in 2021 to 140,000 in 2025.

"We have seen that removals simply do not work."

See the entire letter here.

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