The Wild Horse and Burro Program focuses on two key factors: Management of wild horses and burros whose habitat is on public lands, and programs to deal with excess animals removed from public lands. The federal Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) 2004 wild horse budget is $29 million: “The identified need is for $42.2 million in 2005 fiscal year,” said Jeff Rawson, based in Washington, D.C., group manager for the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program.

“Using private facilities gains some management efficiencies by being a bit cheaper now for storage and allowing us to put less money toward long-term holding,” he added. “We’ll use any money we realize to go toward removal of excess animals from public lands, and apply it to adoption of excess animals.”

Currently, BLM pays approximately $1.25 per day per horse at long-term holding ranches contracted from private individuals. The group projects it will spend $6.8 million this year, or 23% of the bureau’s entire proposed wild horse and burro budget, on holding horses.

“If we can find more economical ways to deal with our storage of excess, undadoptable animals, it could allow more funding to go toward other aspects of our program,” said Rawson. “The issue is that we have to take care of excess horses we gather, and that requires major funding.” BLM rounds up horses when numbers are more than the land can support