The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency responsible for protection of wild horses and burros as cultural icons, is considering a plan to ship many of these burros to Guatemala to become working animals. Once off of U.S. soil, the fate of these animals becomes largely unknown. What’s more, if carried out, this plan establishes a dangerous precedent for other federally protected equines.

The proposed taxpayer-funded plan is in direct conflict with the BLM’s mission of protecting these cultural treasures. Additionally, this plan is a waste of critical resources and fails to address the agency’s on-going problem of unsustainable wild horse management.

Currently, the BLM has over 50,000 wild horses and burros—who have been rounded-up and removed from public lands—in their holding facilities. Yet, despite this, no comprehensive on-range population management plan has been adopted. Shipping these animals to other countries to suffer undetermined fates is not the answer. The BLM should instead implement a long-term strategy that prioritizes on-range management tactics including fertility control, a method recommended recently by the National Academy of Sciences.

Action must be taken to stop this misguided plan in its tracks and safeguard the welfare of our wild horses and burros. We urge concerned readers to stand up for these wild equines by visiting the ASPCA Advocacy Center today.

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