Horse News

Opinion: James Kleinert’s work to expose truth behind Wild Horse and Burro Roundups

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Submitted by Rick Karcich to the Telluride Daily Planet

DEAR EDITOR:

I’m Rick Karcich, a retired engineer and wild horse and burro (WHB) advocate from Centennial, Colorado.

photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

In my humble opinion, the treatment of WHB during roundups, while devastating, really illustrates the way that human “management” of animals always prioritizes human interests, such as grazing space for cattle at the expense of federally protected horses.

For years, the BLM has taken healthy wild horses and burros from their legally protected lands in the American West at the expense of taxpayers. Notably, keeping wild horses on public lands with their natural predators cost taxpayers nothing. Yet the BLM roundups continue, taking tens of thousands of wild horses into captivity costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

The WHB program is nothing more than a grazing program ancillary designed to give ranchers unfettered access to cheap feed on America’s public lands.

A five year Freedom of Information Act investigation of BLM WHB off-range corrals, undertaken by the Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF), noted violations, including misrepresentations, lack of scientific accounting for wild horses and burros on and off range, multitudes of inconsistencies in documentation presented to both the American public and Congress, and waste of taxpayer funds.

Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation at Palomino Valley BLM holding facility

The white paper that resulted from this research documented intentional attempts by the BLM to mislead and confuse the taxpaying public and legislators. Data from this 2017 report showed that large numbers of horses disappeared from the holding pens or during transports. Other issues documented include inhumane treatment of wild horses and burros both on and off range; herd growth rates based on BLM’s own statistics that are scientifically and biologically impossible — and the main driver of roundups.

Direct and indirect subsidies to public-lands ranchers of the BLM’s wild horse and burro “roundup and warehouse” policy now total $500 million to $1 billion every single year for a less than 2 percent contribution to the United States’ beef supply and massive destruction of our public lands.

With public lands grazing fees far below national rates, BLM is losing over $100 million per year on the program. The current livestock grazing fee sits well below market value, at $1.35 per animal unit month, but then ranchers charge taxpayers $60 per animal unit month to house wild horses on their pastures. All of this for a program that contributes only 1.9 percent to the nation’s beef supply.

The BLM’s WHB program has become a “capture and conversion” cottage industry of federally protected horses and burros being scapegoated for profit by welfare ranchers — all compliments of the American taxpayer.

I am asking for you to please write/broadcast about this to inform your readers in the interest of justice.

Rick Karcich

Centennial

Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs

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5 replies »

  1. https://www.steamboatpilot.com/opinion/letter-management-of-wild-animals-prioritizes-human-interests/

    https://www.steamboatpilot.com/opinion/letter-horse-roundup-letter-was-insulting-uninformed/

    Lots of vitriol here but I would like to verify this from the “insulting” titled LTE:

    “So the rancher pays federal taxes like an additional fee for the lease and property tax to the county for the grazing lease.”

    What (if any) are those “additional fees for the lease?” and, since a permit holder doesn’t own the public lands upon which they more or less freely graze their for-profit livestock, how can it be they must pay a county property tax? Since leases are clearly NOT property rights, this statement is either patently false or I am misinformed. Can anyone reading this clarify please?

    Interestingly enough, the Stanko ranch is very near to the Carpenter Ranch (now a Nature Conservancy property) which was the home of Ferry Carpenter, who was the original author of the Taylor Grazing Act. It was designed to end the bloody range wars by delineating legal and illegal grazing areas and privileges. When I read it the language was precise and clear about NOT creating any property rights by creating grazing leases. So how can a property tax be assessed a private citizen for publicly owned property?

    Stanko also falsely compares the cost of boarding privately owned horses with removed wild horses (actually both LTE authors do), since these are not apple-to-apple comparisons. As I read Karcich’s letter, he was simply trying to compare actual costs of on range vs off range holding to taxpayers. Stanko didn’t respond to this directly but instead supplied information pertinent only to privately owned horses being boarded on private pastures. The point here is off range costs DO dramatically exceed any on-range options, but taxpayers (including ranchers) are forced to pay for the highest cost/worst return scenario time after time after time.

    In my opinipon we all need better options and less reflexive umbrage.

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  2. REGULATORY CAPTURE occurs when a government’s regulatory agency (BLM & USFS), which was created in the public interest, ends up advancing the political or commercial concerns (livestock & fossil fuel etc) of the very people, companies or entities it is supposed to be regulating. Regulatory capture, in the world of government monitoring, is like when the GAMEKEEPER TURNS POACHER turns poacher, or at least, assists the poacher.

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