SALON

Friday, Feb 1, 2013 3:30 PM UTC

New federal focus: ‘Compassion’ for wild horses

By

Topics: From the Wires,

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is issuing new policy directives emphasizing “compassion and concern” for wild horses on federal lands in the West, in response to a growing public outcry over alleged abuse during roundups of thousands of mustangs in recent years.

Federal laws protecting wild horses since the 1970s require the government to treat them humanely when culling overpopulated herds to reduce harm to public rangeland.

But BLM officials said a series of new internal policy directives announced Friday will better protect free-roaming horses and burros by centralizing oversight and stepping up daily reports at each individual gather across 12 Western states.

“Press/media, congressional and public attention to recent gathers have compelled the BLM to provide the most accurate and up-to-date information,” one of the new directives states.

Among other things, helicopter contractors will have to take extra care not to separate slower young animals from their mothers during roundup stampedes.

The new orders also require the agency to do a better job of making sure the public has reasonable access to observe the roundups, in compliance with federal law. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco recently granted a horse advocacy group’s appeal and ordered the BLM to review its practices to ensure it didn’t violate the First Amendment by keeping some critics away from a controversial gather in northern Nevada a year ago.

“At all times, the care and treatment provided by the BLM and contractors will be characterized by compassion and concern for the animal’s well-being and welfare needs. Effective immediately, all state, district and field offices must comply within this (memorandum) for all gathers within their jurisdiction,” wrote Edwin Roberson, assistant director of the BLM for Renewable Resources and Planning.

Acting BLM Director Mike Pool said the changes represent “significant and substantial improvements” aimed at ensuring the “humane treatment of animals that are gathered on public rangelands.”

“Increasing public transparency is a cornerstone of this administration’s approach to our work,” he said.

“At the end of the day, we need to find better ways to manage for healthier animals and healthier rangelands so that we can keep these symbols of the American West on our nation’s public lands.”

BLM spokeswoman Michelle Barret told The Associated Press, “All of this is in response to public concerns that were raised in a number of gathers. … The welfare issues, the humane animal treatment during gathers, we realized that we needed to step it up here and address some of the public concerns.”

More By Matthew Daly And Scott Sonner.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
209 points210 points | 9 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
181 points182 points | 29 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
156 points157 points | 91 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
70 points71 points | 15 comments
vote
Doug Henwood: Capitalism Thrives on Class Exploitation
40 points41 points | 5 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations