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Drought Distresses Nevada's Wild Horses

GUESTS

Deniz Bolbol, Communications Director, American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign

Alan Shepherd, State Lead for Wild Horse and Burro Program, Bureau of Land Management

BY MARIE ANDRUSEWICZ -- According to the Bureau of Land Management, drought conditions are hurting Nevada’s wild horses. The BLM tried to provide food and water to horses on the range, but now says it must gather more than 50 in the Seaman Herd Area in eastern Nevada that they say are threatened with starvation and dehydration.

“The primary water sources that these horses rely on have basically gone down to nothing, and the horses are in critical condition and need our help to get the water they need,” says Alan Shepherd, State Lead for Wild Horse and Burro Program, Bureau of Land Management.

Shephard says that even though the BLM has offered the horses food and water, the animals are too timid to take it – “they’re just waiting for the little spring to generate water for them.”

Unless the BLM rounds up these horses, says Shephard, “They will die. It would be a pretty tough death, but that’s what would happen.”

Denise Bollbol, of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign says that the Bureau of Land Management has mishandled  -- and in fact mislabeled -- the situation with the horses.

“A drought is not an emergency,” says Bollbol. “We’ve known about this drought since winter.”

Bollbol says the current crisis could have been solved with better planning. She says the BLM should work to keep natural sources of water fortified and accessible.

She also challenges the BLM’s count of the horses that are affected by the drought.

“I only saw one horse, they claim there are 38,” says Bollbol, referring to the Gold Mountain Herd Management Area on the western border of Nevada. “I only saw one horse and he was in moderate condition.”

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