Humane Society- stop wild horse roundups

Nov. 24 - Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of The Humane Society of the U.S. joined the growing chorus of animal rights groups calling for an immediate moratorium on the removal of wild horses from their home rangelands.

"It's never enough to pass a law." said Pacelle, "The agency assigned to enfore the law must work to implement it properly.  And for a classic case example of how poor implementation can undermine the original intent of legislation, look no further than the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and it's efforts to protect wild horses and burros under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act."

Earlier this year HSUS was encouraged by Department of Interiors  newly announced plan to manage the nations wild horses with an "on-the-range" policy using fertility control methods to keep their population in cheque.  After several meetings with Department of Interior, which oversees the BLM, HSUS now supplies the BLM with PZP, a highly effective immunocontraceptive.   The HSUS research team has collaborated with BLM for  several years on the use of PZP for controlling widlife populations. Buffalo that roam Catalina Island off the Southern California coast are soon to be injected in order to stabilize their numbers.

"All of that sounds great," said Pacelle on the HSUS website, " and for those elements of the program, we at the HSUS are on board.  But the massive roundups and removals of horses must be curtailed.  This administration does not appear prepared to do that and we are seeing a pattern of behavior similar to prior Administrations."

In referring to the Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, Pacelle's statement makes a strong point.  "The original Act never contemplated 40,000 captive wild horses and the use of funds to care for them." he said, "If you just look at spending priorities, it's become the Captive Horses and Burros Act..."

In a letter written to Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Pacelle makes the HSUS position quite clear

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...Given that the Congress provided the program with a 30% budget increase, we had hoped to see a major realignment... However, much to our dismay, instead of using the majority of the increased funds to move in a new and mnore effective direction, it appears that the agency intends to continue the same, short sighted management policies and procedures that have led to the current broken program and fiscal crisis that virtually guarantees another fiscal crisis in a year or two...

...Clearly the management plan for the Calico Complex and many of the other HMA's (herd management areas) on BLM's gather schedule for FY 2010 does not demonstrate the kind of change The HSUS, legislators, and others have been advocating for and that were expected from the new strategic plan...

... For these reasons we respectfully request that the Department of Interior place an immediate moratorium on the gathers scheduled to begin at the Calico Complex next month..."

HSUS is not the only organization to come out against the BLM roundups. In recent days, over 150 organizations, scientists, celebreties, and wild horse advocate groups have come together in a unitedt call for a moratorium  on the removals.  Just today, actors Sir Paul Sorvino, Viggo Mortenson, Mariana Tosca and Kevin Nealon joined Shery Crow, Ed Harris , and Wendie Malick in their opposition to the roundups.

In Defense of Animals (IDA), an international animal rights organization, and well known ecologist Craig Downer have filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in an attempt to stop the Calico Round Up

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