All of the 27 former wild horses, removed from the Little Bookcliffs Wild Horse Range last month, were adopted yesterday according to a story posted yesterday by KJCT8, the ABC affiliate in Grand Junction, CO. It was not a cash-and-carry event, which bypasses customary rules for wild horse ownership.
The WHR contains just 36,000 acres and is one of only three areas in the western U.S. managed ‘principally but not exclusively’ for wild horses. The AML is barely large enough for genetic viability of the herd. Would be nice if the so-called advocates pushed for more territory, at least 150,000 acres, instead of helping the BLM set the traps.
Congress intended that all lands where wild horses and burros were found, when the WHB Act became law, be managed principally but not exclusively for those animals (in keeping with the concept of multiple use).
Today, 40% of that land, perhaps a bit more, is no longer managed for wild horses and burros, and livestock vastly outnumber them on western rangelands, marking a return to the ‘fast disappearing’ days of the Act.
RELATED: Little Bookcliffs Adoption This Weekend.
Western Horse Watchers Association 