Running Wild: The Bureau of Land Management and America’s Wild Horses

Abstract

America’s wild horses have long served as a symbol of the West, of freedom, and of things that cannot be tamed or caged. However, the Secretary of the Department of the Interior (“Secretary”), through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is specifically charged with keeping the wild horse population under control--metaphorically, and often literally, caging the horses in. Recent population control techniques used by the BLM have caused an outcry from supporters of wild horses, although not for the first time. Claims against the BLM have included allegations of inhumane roundups of wild horses, restrictions on the wild horse herd size that interfere with breeding and herd diversity, as well as overestimations of the wild horse population and reproduction statistics. The greatest concern of wild horse supporters is that the BLM is prioritizing the use of public lands for ranchers and attempting to reduce the wild horse population to numbers that resemble those in 1971 when Congress deemed that the wild horse population was “fast disappearing.”