The Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 (WFRHBA), is an Act of Congress (), signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon on December 18, 1971. The act covered the management, protection and study of "unbranded and unclaimed horses and burros on public lands in the United States."
By the 1900s, feral horse populations were in decline, and there was concern that the horses were destroying land and resources wanted by ranching and hunting interests. Pressure on federal agencies from the 1930s on led to a series of policies which severely reduced herd numbers. By the 1950s, modern practices for capturing horses came to the attention of individuals such as Velma Bronn Johnston, also known as "Wild Horse Annie," who felt the measures were extreme and cruel. Their activism resulted in the Hunting Wild Horses and Burros on Public Lands Act in 1959. However, the 1959 Act did not resolve all the advocate's concerns, leading to the passage of the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and US Forest Service manage these herds. Although the BLM struggled to implement adequate herd management in many areas, in 1973 they began a successful program for rounding up excess numbers, and adopting out these captured horses and burros to private owners. This remains the primary method of removing excess horses and burros from managed land, though in recent years the adoption rate has not kept up with the removal rate, and most horses are currently diverted to long-term holding facilities. Administrative challenges to BLM's management and implementation of the act have been made to the Department of the Interior's Board of Land Appeals.
The act has also been challenged in court. Objections have been varied, focusing on constitutionality, and legal status of the animals, but the Act has been upheld in all instances, including Kleppe v. New Mexico, before the United States Supreme Court. Charges have also been made that the BLM has turned a blind eye to the practice of private investors adopting feral horses for the purposes of slaughter, and courts have determined that the BLM may not ignore the intent of adopters. Congress has taken several actions that affect the act by including provisions in other bills. These provisions have addressed the manner in which horses may be rounded up and the method by which horses may be offered for sale or adoption.
Contents The act provides specific protections to "all unbranded and unclaimed horses and burros on public lands of the United States," Sec. (2)(b) and makes it a crime for anyone to harass or kill these animals on federal land. It requires the departments of the Interior and Agriculture to protect the animals. Beginning with its enactment, it required studies of the habits and habitats of free-ranging horses and burros, permitting public land to be set aside for their use.Naughton, James M. "President Signs Bill to Protect Wild Horses on Federal Lands." New York Times. December 18, 1971.GAO-09-77, p. 13 In addition, the act required that these horses and burros be protected as "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West." The BLM was tasked with identification of the areas where free-roaming horses and burros were found; there was no specific amount of acreage set aside, and the Act required management plans to "maintain a thriving natural ecological balance among wild horse populations, wildlife, livestock, and vegetation and to protect the range from the deterioration associated with overpopulation."Iraola, p. 1056. Although wild horse ranges were principally for the protection of the horses, the land was required to be maintained for multiple use. The BLM was also permitted to close public land to livestock grazing to protect wild horse and burro habitat.
History
Although the Act uses the technical language "wild free-roaming" to describe the horses and burros protected under the Act, the BLM notes that "today's American wild horses should not be considered 'native'." All protected animals descend from domesticated horses and burros brought to the Americas beginning in the 1500s. Some escaped to the wild while others were released, and over the ensuing centuries, these feral animals adapted to the Western range. Due to the Act, the BLM manages horses and burros as "wild" regardless of their native or non-native status.
Free-roaming horses could once be found throughout much of the American frontier west of the Mississippi River, and may have numbered as many as two million around 1850. However, no comprehensive estimate of free-roaming horse numbers was done until 1971, and thus early estimates are speculative. Horse numbers were in decline as domestic cattle and sheep competed with them for resources.Lynghaug, p. 104. Ranchers shot horses to leave more grazing land for other livestock, other horses were captured off the range for human use, and some were rounded up for slaughter.
By the end of the 1920s, free-roaming horses mostly lived on United States General Land Office (GLO)-administered lands and National Forest rangelands in 11 Western States. Their genetic origins were diverse, reflecting the American westward expansion from the mid-1800s on.Mustang Country, pp. 2-3 Their bloodlines included horses of Spanish-Barb descent as well as draft and saddle horses turned loose on the open range.Mustang Country, p. 4
Management of horses running on the range was initially left to Mustangers and local ranchers, but in 1934, the Taylor Grazing Act (TGA) established the United States Grazing Service (Grazing Service) to manage livestock grazing on public lands. The TGA authorized the Grazing Service to grant ranchers individual grazing allotments and set fees for grazing. The fee to graze a horse was twice that for a cow, and as a result, ranchers allowed unbranded horses to run loose rather than pay for them. At the time the Taylor Grazing Act was passed, it was estimated that 50,000-150,000 horses roamed wild on public land subject to the Act.Wyman, p. 161 The Grazing Service, along with the Forest Service, was committed to removing the free-roaming horses, which were viewed as mavericks, from the lands they administered. In 1939, the Grazing Service began to directly hire people to remove horses from public land.Wyman, p. 170 The United States Forest Service periodically gave ranchers notice to round up their strays and thereafter shot any remaining horses.
In 1946, the BLM was formed by combining the General Land Office and the Grazing Service. It no longer directly removed horses from the lands it administered, but issued permits to hunters. It is unknown how many free-roaming horses were on the public lands at that time, and it is not clear if there were too many horses, or if the land was incurring damage due to the presence of the horses,Ryden, p. 211 but removal probably exceeded the animals' reproductive rate, resulting in a decline in numbers. After World War II, captured horses were often slaughtered to meet the demands of the pet food market.
By the 1950s, the free-roaming horse population was down to an estimated 25,000 animals. Horses were being chased to exhaustion by airplanes, poisoned at water holes, and removed with other inhumane practices. Between 1950 and 1959, led by Velma Bronn Johnston—better known as "Wild Horse Annie,"—animal welfare and horse advocates lobbied for passage of a federal law to prevent the capture of wild horse by inhumane methods. Their efforts were successful. On September 8, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Hunting Wild Horses and Burros on Public Lands Act, , also known as the "Wild Horse Annie Act", which banned the hunting of feral horses on federal land from aircraft or motorized vehicles.
Ownership of free-roaming herds remained contentious, and ranchers continued to use airplanes to gather them.Ryden, p. 233 Horses were still subject to individual states' estray laws,Fischamn, p. 120 and no law prevented the complete elimination of horse herds. Federal agencies also continued to try to eliminate horses from areas where they were perceived to be causing resource damage. Under BLM policy, ranchers could release a branded mare into a herd then later round up not only the mare, but the band the mare ran with, for slaughter or sale. In Nevada, state law permitted ranchers to round up any unbranded horses on their private land and slaughter or sell them. Concerned about these practices, and about continuing horse hunts in unprotected areas, International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros of which Johnston was the first president, began working to pass federal legislation to protect feral horses throughout the U.S. She was joined by a number of prominent people, including country music singer Judy Lynn, Gunsmoke actress Amanda Blake, and Manchester Union Leader publisher and conservative William Loeb III, who continued to lobby for federal rather than state control over the disposition of free-roaming horses.
In 1962, public pressure lead to the establishment of the Nevada Wild Horse Range, and in 1968, the Pryor Mountains Wild Horse Range was established. In 1969, the National Mustang Association, headquartered in Utah, persuaded Senator Frank Moss to introduce a bill (S-2166) to protect the remaining mustangs of Spanish descent under the Endangered Species Act of 1966. However, since the bill also called for the removal from public lands of all non-Spanish horses, it came under heavy opposition.
Federal protection for all free-roaming horses was ultimately accomplished by the passage of the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, which specifically states: "A person claiming ownership of a horse or burro on the public lands shall be entitled to recover it only if recovery is permissible under the branding and estray laws of the State in which the animal is found." which alleviated the problem of horses being rounded up under the auspices of belonging to local ranchers. Ranchers were given a specified time period following passage of the Act to claim their horses, and any remaining unbranded and unclaimed herds roaming BLM or Forest Service became the property of the federal government.Mustang Country, p. 5
Implementation
The Act gave jurisdiction over challenges to BLM and Forest Service management of wild horses and how the act is implemented to the Department of the Interior's Board of Land Appeals.Iraola, p. 1051. The act also contained provisions for the removal of excess animals; the destruction of lame, old, or sick animals; the private placement or adoption of excess animals; and even the destruction of healthy animals if range management required it.Iraola, p. 1053–1054. Revisions proposed in 1974 increased concern that destruction of free-roaming horses could resume. However, the destruction of healthy or unhealthy horses almost never occurred, and in January 1982, the director of BLM issued a moratorium on the destruction of excess adoptable animals.GAO-09-77, p. 3
The Act left range management policy unresolved in many respects, although it did specify that BLM and the Forest Service consult with state wildlife agencies.Iraola, p. 1052. In practice, BLM struggled to accommodate the needs of feral horses among its other priorities (which included livestock grazing, prevention of soil erosion, and accommodating big game hunting).Pitt, p. 515–516. In November 1971, the BLM announced a major effort to save the Pryor Mountain herd from starvation after a poor summer growing season left vegetation on the range stunted. By 1974, the herd on the Pryor Mountain range was said to have increased by 17 percent over the 1968 level,Pitt, p. 518. but there was strong disagreement over whether the population had actually increased.