Peter Getty delivers the sad truth about the current state of American Wild Horses and how this problem is a true reflection of the way we treat our environment.

1. Wild Horses
The Coming Extinction
of American
Peter Getty

2. The image of horses running free over wide open
land is inextricably tied with America’s birth. But
that image has become gravely threatened due
to the U.S. government’s recent alignment with
‘Big Cattle.’

3. Today,
there are more American wild horses being held
in facilities than are currently in the wild. Since
the 19th century, the number of wild horses free
in the West has declined by 90%. According to
American Wild Horse Organization, the practices
of removing American horses off public lands
has decimated their numbers and raised
taxpayer costs by $80,000,000 each fiscal year.

4. Thousands of wild horses are
being herded by helicopters
and vehicles into holding pens
annually. The ones who
survive separation from their
families, substandard
veterinary care, electric cattle
prods or other horse
‘management’ techniques are
stockpiled until they’re sold at
auction or die, never to run
wild again.

6. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) which
oversees the once healthy and thriving wild
horse and burro population in the western
United States is leading wild horses and burros
to their executions.

7. Though BLM has claimed there have been no
deaths or injuries to wild horses or burros
during the roundups, NBC correspondent Lisa
Myers’ exposé on wild horses gruesomely
captures on film a foal being trampled to death
in a BLM holding facility.

8. Much of the culpability points to the Cattle
Industry, which claims that wild horses and
burros are a nuisance on public land, though
cattle drastically outnumber wild horses and
burros. 240 million acres (82.5%) of public land
are leased to private companies for grazing,
and less is being shared with wild horses every
day.

9. Government agencies, like the Bureau of
Land Management and Department of
Fish and Game, are opting to favor private
interests over the protection of wild
horses and burros.

10. In fact, the population of horses and burros are
so low, BLM’s own lead equine geneticist, Dr.
Gus Cothran, has stated that the reduction in
the U.S. burro population is resulting in
inbreeding due to a lack of genetic variability.
The burro population has only 20 out of the
70% needed for a healthy genetic variability.

11. Such figures led the National Academy of
Sciences (NAS) to warn in its 2013 report that
“removing burros permanently from the range
could jeopardize the genetic health of the total
population.” So far, those warnings have done
nothing to curb the roundups.

12. Ironically, 40% of America’s wild horses’
habitat had been lost since President
Nixon passed the Free Roaming Wild
Horse and Burro Act in 1971.

13. Laura Leigh of the advocacy group Wild Horse Education doesn’t
think the Act has provided any such protection to the wild
horses, “It’s my observation that the government continually
violates the provision of the act that requires humane handling
of these animals.” Leigh has taken BLM to court four times
armed with her own footage of cruelty to the wild horses, and
has won two temporary restraining orders against BLM.

14. As a big blow to advocates of wild horses, on
July 1, the United States Fish and Wildlife
Service decided not to grant endangered
species status to wild horses.

15. Singer, songwriter Carole King added,
“Americans love freedom. These
horses are the embodiment of
freedom.” But the wild horses are no
longer free, and may never be again.

16. Please visit petergetty.net for more
information on this important topic.