How much does it cost to round up wild horses? A lot

CASPER — At the halfway point of the North Lander wild horse herd gather, the largest Wyoming roundup in recent memory and second largest nationwide this year, the Bureau of Land Management has so far collected and shipped 750 stallions, 894 mares, and 402 foals, while 13 horses have died.

It gets the agency close to its target herd population of 320 horses — a mere 10% of what it was less than one month ago.

That number is disconcertingly low in the eyes of animal advocates who say mustangs are scapegoated for rangeland degradation caused by cattle.

In addition to the controversy over herd size, the North Lander gather is now raising concerns over its price tag, as program costs have leaped in recent years and promises to get costlier still.

The BLM’s 2024 budget includes $154.8 million for the implementation of its Wild Horse and Burro Management program, $6.9 million above the 2023 level and part of a longer trend in the program’s growing expense, much of which is allocated in Wyoming.

In North Lander, the agency has paid $613,575 to Utah-based Cattoor Livestock Roundup to gather 2,715 horses, according to federal documents.

But much more money will be spent to sustain these horses in long-term off range care.

“The cost of holding and caring for these animals off-range has increased substantially in recent years and remains the largest component of the program’s budget,” the BLM explained in its 2020 Report to Congress.

In fiscal year 2017, for example, the BLM spent nearly 60% of its $81 million expenditure on the care of animals removed from the range, and estimated that the cost of caring for a single unadopted horse for its lifetime is around $48,000.

At the time of the report, there were 46,000 unadopted horses and burros, whose lifetime expenses would run the agency $1 billion, the report said.

Officials with BLM-Wyoming say its cost per horse has since dropped to $15,000; although, the Star-Tribune was unable to independently verify that figure in public records, and the lower cost may actually signal a different problem: Increased scale, as the number of mustangs in long-term holding have risen dramatically.

Wild horses in corrals to surpass counterparts on open range

As of March 1, 2024, there were 58,952 wild horses on public rangelands, 10,264 of which reside in Wyoming, the second most of any state behind Nevada.

There are an additional 14,568 burros on public rangelands, bringing the total charge to 73,520. There are currently 62,000 wild horses and burros in long term holding.

This year the BLM intends to remove an additional 20,000 from public rangelands, with the North Lander animals to account for 14% of those.

If all goes to plan, it will be the first time ever that the number of wild horses and burros in offrange corrals is higher than those on the open range.

While some will be adopted and find second homes, most will spend the remainder of their lives in off-range corrals, at a growing expense to the taxpayer.

“If you go back to the 1970s when the [Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros] act was passed, the model the government believed in was that if we round up a horse then it will be adopted. But that’s not how it fares. There’s simply not the market for it, so they’re piling more and more into holdings,” said Scott Wilson, communications leader for the advocacy group American Wild Horses.

Under a generous scenario in which 1,000 of the North Lander horses are adopted, at the assumed cost of $15,000 per horse, the North Lander gather alone will run taxpayers $26 million.

Using the BLM’s verified figures from the 2020 report at $48,000 per horse, the expense would run well over $100 million. Animal advocates say adoption rates are often below 20%, which means it is likely to cost even more.

“We’ve made it clear that this is a big expense to taxpayers,” said Micky Fisher, information officer with the BLM Wyoming. “We’re making every effort to keep them out of long-term pastures.”

Is fertility control cheaper?

Some argue the agency could achieve that end by cheaper means.

In addition to gathers and adoptions, the BLM will dart wild mares with porcine zona pellucida, a immunocontraceptive that inhibits reproduction.

In one study of Nevada’s Virginia Range wild horse herd, researchers darted more than 70% of the breeding age mares and were able to decrease the herd’s foaling rate by 58% over a four year period, according to peer reviewed findings published in the Journal Vaccine.

With an average treatment cost of $1,400, darting could translate to significant cost savings compared to traditional gathers.

However, the BLM does not systematically implement PZP. The Virginia Range notwithstanding, the agency says darting is strategically unrealistic; wild horses are too skittish and avoidant to methodically dart.

“When you dart a horse, they all scatter. It’s super time consuming and if we used it alone we wouldn’t be able to get our herds to [appropriate management level] any time in the near future, they would just compound and continuously overpopulate,” said Fisher, alluding to agency’s growing sense of urgency as it seeks to bring the nationwide population of wild horses and burros from 73,520 down to a combined appropriate management level of 26,785.

“Darting can help slow population growth, but you’ll be constantly chasing your tail if you’re only working with fertility treatment.”

Advocates reject this logic and say the agency has made no earnest attempt to systematize darting.

The BLM relies largely on volunteer darters who work on a part-time basis deploying PZP. With a trained, dedicated team and implementation program, fertility control may save taxpayers a lot of money, wild horse activists argue.

“It’s baffling that they won’t actually take on a major scale trial of fertility control. If offers a sustainable route to solve their own problem. We’re not saying you have to have a different outcome, but we do have to have a different method because the helicopter and holding method is simply unaffordable for taxpayers,” said Wilson.

This story was published on July 20, 2024.