Publisher’s Notebook

•Malibu Celebrates a Win for the Wild Horses •

ANNE SOBLE

Victories don’t come easily in public policy battles against entrenched special interests that dominate the American political process with generous campaign largess and “good-old-boy” relationships that can transcend the dollar. Thus, even the smallest wins, whenever and wherever they occur, are savored by all who share a cause. As has been noted in articles in this publication and others, the plight of the native American horse, yes, it is a native species, is lamented by many of us who are equestrians, as well as those who have never ridden but revere the wild horse as the icon of our cultural heritage and history that it is.
We don’t know whether Federal District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer spends any of her spare time in the saddle, but she ruled last week that the Bureau of Land Management exceeded its authority when it planned to remove all of the wild horses in a small herd in Colorado without justification. Giving voice to creatures who have no voices, a number of wild horse and burro proponent organizations want the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, not perfect legislation but at least some semblance of protection, to be enforced.
BLM, which is often more concerned with assuring that ranchers and energy speculators have low-cost to no-cost access to public lands that should be shared with the nation’s wildlife, was going to remove the herd by various forms of trapping with varying degrees of brutality. That what the court called “eventual destruction” would be the end result for many of these animals was the anticipated consequence.
Although the law allows for some forms of herd management, slaughter of sustainable animals is not supposed to be one of them. Congress has put limits on how to determine if excess population is detrimental to the environment. But the Roaming Horses and Burros Act would be honored more in the breach, if it were not for the equine advocacy groups, such as the many state wild horse and burro coalitions, the American Mustang and Burro Association, and numerous regional and local equine rescue groups and foundations that are active on these animals’ behalf.
Judge Collyer importantly said whenever a herd—and this might apply to any animal, the coyote, the mountain lion—exceeds capacity because of a shift in behavior or locations, development occurring in the area should be taken into account...and behavioral patterns that are caused by human development, as opposed to overpopulation, should be addressed differently when assessing management options.
This is but one small herd. Many thousands of wild horses and burros face similar threats throughout the west. The groups that do battle in their name need the help of us all so that the hoofbeats of America’s cultural heritage will continue to be heard.