H.R. 1018, introduced by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee Chairman Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., and Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., requires the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to make humane management of horses an agency priority, diminishing the need for costly roundups and large-scale housing of captive wild horses.

The bill, if adopted by the Senate and signed by the President, is expected to save millions of tax dollars each year, directing BLM to use fertility control more widely and allowing the agency to let horses to occupy more of the public lands they once inhabited.

"BLM's current program of rounding up wild horses and keeping them in federal holding pens is a fiscal and animal care disaster," said Wayne Pacelle, The Humane Society of the United States' president and CEO. "We have got to get off the current treadmill of spending millions of tax dollars rounding up wild horses and caring for them in captivity, and instead make wider use of fertility control as a humane population management tool."

In addition to prioritizing on-the-range management over roundups, H.R. 1018 prevents the commercial sale and slaughter of wild horses, as well as the wholesale killing of healthy wild horses. Last summer, in response to self-inflicted financial problems and mismanagement, the BLM announced that it would consider killing 30,000 healthy wild horses and burros in federal holding centers across the United States rather than implementing common sense, cost-saving management methods.

"It is unacceptable for wild horses to be slaughtered without any regard for the general health, well-being and conservation of these iconic animals that embody the spirit of our American West," said Chairman Rahall. "This legislation will ensure the continued presence of those wild horses that make their homes on public lands."

H.R. 1018 allows horses to occupy lands that they formerly occupied, allowing the BLM to find additional, suitable acreage for these animals. Further, it requires consistency and accuracy in the management of wild horse and burro herds, and creates sanctuaries for wild horse and burro populations on public lands. Other management tools contained in H.R. 1018 - more aggressive adoptions, contraception and other management efficiencies - provide long-term savings.

Source: The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund.

Photo: Humane Society Legislative Fund