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Wild Horses
Horses first originated on the North American continent more than 55 million years ago. Over millions of years, they roamed the grasslands, slowly extending their range to most continents on earth. Around 8,000 B.C. they disappeared from the North American continent completely, succumbing to climate change and human predators. The horse was reintroduced to North America via Spanish explorers who came to the New World in the 16th century.
Modern American wild horses—also called mustangs—are descendants of these Spanish forbearers as well as horses who wandered from wagon trains, farms and ranches. Roaming free over the public ranges of the western United States, they were respected by ranchers for their strength and speed, and were an integral part of the building blocks of America. However, the 1920s saw tractors begin to replace horses on American farms, and since they were no longer a necessary resource, wild horses began to be considered a nuisance.
In the 1930s, the U. S. Government authorized the removal of wild horses from the public range, and they began to be killed in large numbers. Today, these beautiful and majestic animals have dwindled from an estimated 2,000,000 at the beginning of the twentieth century, to a little over one-hundredth that number. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency within the U. S. Department of the Interior, was authorized by the 1971 Wild Horses and Free-Roaming Burros Act to manage free-roaming wild horses on public rangelands. Periodically, the BLM removes large numbers of these horses and makes them available for adoption or sale.
Today, wild horses are at the center of a raging debate. Many horse and animal advocates actively oppose BLM policies and procedures in the management of wild horses and burros, citing inhumane methods of gathering and management, and the danger of eradicating one of America’s cultural icons. Governmental agencies and some environmental groups allege these horses are non-native to United States, and are destroying fragile ecosystems and the habitat of native species, and therefore need to be controlled. The specter of slaughter also hangs over these horses, since they comprise a significant percentage of the approximately 90,000 horses that are slaughtered in the United States every year, to satisfy the foreign demand for horse meat.
The ASPCA recognizes that wild horses and burros occupy a special place in our country’s history, and deserve to be protected. As such, we work with several horse advocacy and protection groups, as well as with legislators nationwide, to produce viable and long-term solutions that will not only preserve one of our most beloved species, but ensure they are treated with kindness and compassion.
Sources:
- Nebraska Studies "Horses Change Native Lives"
- American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
- Bureau of Land Management National Wild Horse and Burro Program
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