March 20, 2002

Wild Horses won’t be going to foreign countries

By Sandra Chereb
Associated Press

Wild horses gathered from public lands around the West won’t be exported for adoption by foreign countries anytime soon, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management says.

"We have had interest from several nations to adopt or otherwise have wild horses and burros in their countries," said John Fend, the BLM’s wild horse program manager in Washington, D.C.

There are too many legal and financial hurdles to begin international adoptions now, Fend said during a Reno meeting Tuesday of the agency’s Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle, he said, is the Wild Horse and Burro Act itself, which requires the BLM to monitor and enforce care requirements for the animals for one year after they are adopted.

Fend said an informal opinion by the Interior Department’s solicitor general concluded that the agency — charged by Congress with protecting and managing the animals — lacks authority to enforce the law outside the United States.

Besides legal constraints, BLM Deputy Assistant Director Elena Daly said there also are financial considerations.

"Compliance checks take money . . . especially out of the country," she said.

The BLM’s oversight has been criticized by animal rights groups and others who say the agency has turned a blind eye while adopted horses, seen by many as a symbol of the American West, were sent to slaughter houses.

Trinidad and Tobago, the two-island nation off the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean, had expressed interest in adopting some animals for use by mounted police.

Other countries, Fend said, have inquired about using mustangs or burros from the rural West as work animals and to improve the gene pool of their own horse populations.

Most of the queries have come from developing nations, Fend said.

Fend said the obstacles could be overcome through international treaties, but added it would be up to the foreign country to initiate those efforts with the State Department.

Despite the difficulties, some members of the board suggested international adoptions be explored as a way to decrease the number of horses being held at BLM adoption corrals or in permanent holding facilities around the country.

The BLM estimates as many as 48,000 wild horses and burros roam freely across 10 Western states. Nearly half are in Nevada.

Thousands of animals are gathered each year, either routinely to keep their numbers in check, or on an emergency basis when lack of water or forage threatens their health.

Healthy animals are placed in the BLM’s wild horse and burro adoption program. Others deemed undesirable for adoption because of age or other ailments are sent to long-term holding facilities to live out their lives.

In 2000, the BLM rounded up 7,041 horses and 1,627 burros from the range. That same year, 5,080 horses and 1,122 burros were adopted.

Maxine Shane, a BLM spokeswoman in Reno, estimated 9,500 horses are being held in corrals for adoption. About 7,000 are in long-term facilities.