CARSON CITY – The Nevada Association of Counties and Nevada Farm Bureau Federation issued a statement today in response to a story published by the Associated Press and reproduced in media around the country.
The statement comes after the Thursday, March 12 decision by U.S. District Judge Miranda Du to dismiss the 2013 lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Interior asking for an injunction to require the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to manage the horses and burros in accordance with federal law.
“The 2013 Nevada Association of Counties and Nevada Farm Bureau Federation lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Interior aims to protect Nevada’s rangelands, the state’s limited natural resources and the horse and burro populations,” said Jessy Fagundes of the Nevada Farm Bureau*.
The Associated Press (AP) story, however, quoted a horse advocate who issued a press statement after the ruling. The Nevada Association of Counties and Nevada Farm said that they were not contacted for comment by the AP.
A quote from the American Wild Horse Preservation press release is the same as what appeared in the AP story. The Nevada Farm Bureau said the AP story misses the larger point of the lawsuit, which it says is about protecting rangeland ecosystems from too many horses. Wild horses are only managed by removal after horse populations grow beyond appropriate management levels designated by the BLM.
“The significant overpopulation of wild horses and burros in Nevada has severe impacts on the health of horses as well as the ecological health and sustainability of Nevada rangelands. It also results in the degradation of natural springs and riparian areas and negative effects on native wildlife and vegetation,” said the Nevada Association of Counties and the Nevada Farm Bureau. “The lawsuit is intended to have the federal government comply with the Wild Horse & Burro Act of 1971 to ensure that Nevada’s public lands are protected and the wild horse and burro populations are properly managed.”
After the plaintiffs filed suit against the BLM, the BLM responded that it agreed with Nevada ranchers that horse herds are overpopulated and threaten ecosystem health. Federal attorneys said the BLM was unable to manage the horses because of budget cuts, current horse holding facilities were already full and because of the the congressional ban on the sale horses for slaughter.
According to an article in the Elko Daily Free Press:
In its motion, the federal defendants wrote that Congress cut funding for the wild horse program, which compounded the problem.
“[E]ven as populations of wild horses have risen nationwide, Congress has curtailed many of the tools that might prevent and mitigate any deleterious effects of the species on local resources,” it states. “Specifically, Congress has decreased funding available to BLM for horse management — thereby limiting BLM’s capacity to remove excess horses — even as it has forbidden BLM from humanely destroying excess horses stored in BLM’s long-term holding faculties.”
“BLM has been largely unable to dispose of excess horses other than through qualifying adoptions and sales, even as demand for horses has declined,” lawyers for BLM wrote.
“Congress has necessarily funded and endorsed BLM’s use of long-term holding facilities to house excess horses until demand for sale or adoption increases, or until Congress lifts its prohibitions on the humane destruction of healthy excess animals,” the attorneys wrote.
ThisisReno contacted Scott Sonner of the Associated Press for comment. This story will be updated if comment is received.
*Disclosures: Jessy Fagundes of the Farm Bureau also volunteers for ThisisReno. ThisisReno’s news model frequently allows for single-source stories; however, the AP claims that it “routinely seeks and requires more than one source. Stories should be held while attempts are made to reach additional sources for confirmation or elaboration. In rare cases, one source will be sufficient – when material comes from an authoritative figure who provides information so detailed that there is no question of its accuracy.”
RELATED: RESEARCH: The effects of wild horses on western rangelands.
