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A Brief History of Wild Horse Legislation

Prior to the mass use of the automobile, horses, wild and domestic, were an economic resource. Ranchers often made use of the wild herds as an important resource, providing new ranch stock as needed. Those living in unfenced rangelands typically allowed their ranch stock to run freely when not being used for ranch work. From the Civil War through the World War I era, the US Cavalry released Morgan, Arabian, and Thoroughbred stallions into the wild herds, and then "harvested" some of the offspring to use as Cavalry mounts. Foreign wars were the source of considerable profit for many Great Basin ranchers, who managed the wild herds for their own purposes and harvested the wild and semi-wild horses roaming near their ranches and sold them at a hefty profit.

The advent of the automobile and motorized tractor, as well as the Depression, resulted in many unwanted horses being abandoned from farms and ranches. Many went to slaughter during this historical period. But if a rancher had access to open space, he often opted to simply release the stock onto the range, to fend for themselves.

Ranchers, hunters and "mustangers" played a major role in harvesting wild horses for commercial purposes.Up until the 1970’s, wild horses were frequently slaughtered for pet food. The capture and slaughter processes were particularly cruel and numbers were decreasing toward a second extinction.

It was Velma Johnston, also known as “Wild Horse Annie,” who became involved in the campaign to save the wild horses after following a truck loaded with horses while driving to work in 1950. The truck was on its way to a slaughterhouse and blood was dripping from the back of the over-crowded truck. She investigated further, collected evidence and brought it to the public. She began speaking to ranchers, businessmen, politicians, and in schools about the ruthless and indiscriminate round-up methods and treatment of wild horses and burros.(Note: the terms “ruthless” and “indiscriminate” come from a BLM article on their website).

On her initiative and Nevada State Senator James Slattery's actions, Nevada passed a bill making mustang roundups by planes and cars illegal on private property. The limitation to private property was a condition of the Bureau of Land Management. This resulted in large parts of Nevada excluded from these restrictions so Johnston continued her fight for a better protection of the mustangs.

The first federal legislation protecting mustangs was passed in September of 1959. Public Law 86-234 banned air and land vehicles from hunting and capturing wild horses on state land. This became known as the Wild Horse Annie Act.

By 1971, the population of wild horses had diminished drastically due to the encroachment of man and the “mustangers” elimination of them. Periodically, the BLM enforced a policy of "zeroing out" horses, which means completely eliminating horses from a particular herd management area, thus opening it up to drilling and the introduction of more cattle. Johnston continued her campaign and in 1971, the Congress unanimously passed Public Law 92-195, The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 (also referred to as the Wild Horse Act). This act prohibited capture, injury, or disturbance of wild horses and burros and for their transfer to suitable areas when populations became too large. The new law became.

In 1971, according to the Bureau of Land Management, approximately 50,000 horses remained. Today, according to the BLM, there are roughly 33,000 on public lands. Wild horse advocates dispute this number and say there are no more than 20,000 still roaming the range. Everyone agrees that the numbers are dwindling and most of these horses are in Nevada.

Under a various management plans and subsequent legislation, the 1971 law meant to protect the horses has been gradually weakened to deal with what are considered to be "excess" horses. The BLM established "herd management areas" and "appropriate management levels" resulting in more and more horses being removed from the range. In 1971, there were 303 herd management areas; today there are 201.

Round-ups, or "gathers" as the BLM calls them, are frequently carried out by helicopter. Although helicopter roundups aren't as traumatic for the horses as the fixed-wing aircraft roundups conducted prior to the Wild Horse Act, horses can instinctively run themselves to the point of injury, if not death.

The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act was later amended by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the Public Rangelands Improvement Act. Public Law 94-579, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, allowed for the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to use or contract for the use of helicopters and motorized vehicles for the purpose of the management of wild horses and burros on public lands.  Public Law 95-514, the Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978, established and reaffirmed:

  1. the need for inventory and identification of current public rangeland conditions (monitoring);

  2. the management, maintenance and improvement of the condition of public rangelands to productively support all rangeland values;

  3. continuance of the law protecting wild free-roaming horses and burros from capture, branding, harassment or death, while at the same time facilitating the removal and disposal of excess wild free-roaming horses and burros which pose a threat to themselves and their habitat and;

  4. the transfer of title after one year to individuals who had adopted wild horses and burros removed from public rangelands, provided the animals had received proper and humane care and treatment during that year.

In November 2005, Montana Senator Conrad Burns attached a last-minute rider to the 2005 federal appropriations bill that Congress approved before their Christmas break. Referred to as the ‘Burns Amendment,’ the rider allows for any horse that is older than 10 (not old for a horse) or has not been adopted after three tries through the adoption program to be sold to the highest bidder with no restrictions on horses being sold to slaughterhouses.

In the fall of 2008, the BLM announced that they were considering euthanizing nearly 30,000 wild horses it was holding in South Dakota, Kansas and Oklahoma and the Southwest. In February 2009, Representative Nick Rahall (D-WV), the ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee (which oversees wild horse policy on federal lands), and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) introduced H. R. 1018, Restore Our American Mustangs (ROAM) Act, along with Representative Ed Whitfield (R-KY) to overturn the Burns Amendment.

The ROAM Act would amend the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act to revise provisions concerning the management of such animals.

More information on the ROAM Act can be found on the Library of Congress website.