Bureau of Land Management urges wild horse adoption

Call it a case of we scratched your back, now you scratch ours. Or you could call it a case of preserving the Western horse culture’s heritage. Uncle Sam, by way of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and a group of ranchers, is asking Western cattlemen who graze livestock on BLM lands to consider buying older wild horses that have been culled from the range.

By Trey Garrison

The BLM and the Public Lands Council, a ranching trade association, is asking this favor of the estimated 15,000 ranchers who hold BLM grazing permits. The wild horses that qualify-8,000-9,000 head-are more than 10 years old and have been passed over for adoption at least three times. Tom Gorey, a spokesman for the BLM, said the bureau is asking a mere $10 a head for the horses-which are considered “sale eligible”-but the price is negotiable depending on the number a rancher is willing to buy.

Since the BLM was given the authority in 2004, it has sold about 2,200 wild horses and burros. The BLM does not sell to slaughterhouses or “killer buyers.” Proceeds from the sale go back into the agency’s wild horse and burro adoption program.

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