$78M taxpayer dollars spent caring for wild horses removed from public lands

CBS Denver Channel 4 Investigates. By Katy Weis.

In 2021, it cost $78 million in federal taxpayer money to care for nearly 60,000 wild horses and burros that were rounded up out of the wild and moved into holding facilities run by the Bureau of Land Management. Some horse advocates say that’s a waste of taxpayer dollars, but the BLM says it’s a necessary expense.” [Well, they would, wouldn’t they—TH]

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The federal government owns roughly 640 million acres, about 28% of the 2.27 billion acres of land in the United States.

See Federal Land Ownership: Overview (pdf)

Remember. These are your taxpayer dollars at work conducting unnecessary roundups which result in long-term holding expenses. Wild horses belong in the wild, free from human interference.sz

See Wild and Free-Roaming Wild Horses and Burro Act (pdf)

Here is more from the CBS Channel 4 Denver article:

When the BLM rounds up horses out of the wild, they are sent to short-term holding facilities, like the one in Cañon City in southern Colorado.

From there, many horses are adopted, but those that aren’t are sent to long-term holdings, like Haythorn’s ranch.

His ranch holds horses that have been rounded up from Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, California, and Wyoming.

Haythorn’s family has been ranching in Nebraska since the 1800s. He used to ranch cattle but applied for a wild horse contract a few years ago as it became more difficult to make ends meet.

Now he’s been under contract for nearly two years, receiving $1 million a year from the feds, and says it’s been a “godsend.”

UNQUOTE

“$1 million a year from the feds.” Nice, isn’t it?

Related Reading

• “It is time to do something truly good for America’s wild horses,” by guest writer Craig Downer, HorseTalk, 9th May 2021.

Featured Image: Wild mare and foal, Nevada. Photographer not cited. Not filed with source article.

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Tuesday’s Horse

Official Blog of The Fund for Horses