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Virginia
Range Estray Horse Program
This information is courtesy of
the Nevada State Department of Agriculture
1.
What is the difference between a wild and estray horse?
In 1971 Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act,
which provided federal protection and management for free-roaming
horses and burros (and their descendants) that inhabited the western
public ranges. As such,
the large majority of “wild” and free-roaming horses
and burros in the Nevada fall under the jurisdiction of this federal
law. The Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) is charged with managing these wild horse and burro
populations and has a separate program to complete this task.
Since much of the
Virginia Range is privately owned, with very little federal land, the
BLM determined that this area was not suitable for long-term
management of wild horses or burros and instigated a horse capture
program. In 1986, the BLM
designated the Virginia Range as a wild horse free area through a land
use planning process.
Horses that were either
left behind or migrated into the Virginia Range after this BLM
designation fell by default under the existing state laws pertaining
to “estray” livestock (see NRS 569).
Under these State statutes, estray livestock are deemed the
property of the Nevada Department of Agriculture until such time as
the legal owner can be determined and take possession, or the animal
is other wised placed. Specific
procedures on how the Department shall process, or other wise place,
estray livestock are specifically referenced in existing State
statutes.
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2.
What will happen to the horses once they are removed from the
Virginia Range?
Captured horses from the Virginia Range are placed under the custody of
the Nevada Department of Agriculture and transported to the
Department’s holding facility located at the Northern Nevada
Correctional Facility in Carson City.
Once at this facility, captured horses will be publicly
advertised in accordance with State law to determine previous ownership.
If no previous ownership is identified, horses are examined by a
qualified veterinarian and given the required immunizations and worming
treatments. Upon conclusion
of veterinary treatment each capture horse is provided with a State of
Nevada brand for individual identification.
After processing and
branding, the Nevada Department of Agriculture will keep the captured
horses at the Carson City holding facility up to 60-days to allow
sufficient opportunity for adoption and placement. Estray horses that are not placed at the conclusion of the
60-day holding period will be offered for public sale at the holding
facility. Minimum sale
price will be determined by the costs incurred by the State at that
time. Horses that are not
placed through adoption within the 60-day holding period, or are not
sold at the subsequent public sale, will be transported and sold to the
highest bidder at a livestock auction.
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3.
Why not take these estray horses to Palomino Valley and let the
BLM adopt them out?
As referenced above, free-roaming horses inhabiting the Virginia Range
are estray horses falling under State laws rather than wild
horses falling under federal jurisdiction.
Both entities, the BLM and Nevada Department of Agriculture, have
developed similar programs to manage the respective free-roaming horse
populations. A key priority
in each program is the adoption and placement of horses that exceed the
capacities of their habitats into suitable and caring homes.
Both programs share a further characteristic in that the
currently developed capacity to adopt and properly place excess horses
fall below the identified program needs.
When and if these two
separate programs catch up with the respective horse adoption needs,
there may be a future opportunity to combine the two programs.
Current BLM costs to process, care and place a captured wild
horse approach $1,500 per horse. Based on the number of Virginia Range horses that need to be
adopted and placed, this level of expense exceeds the State’s
financial capabilities.
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4. Will any of these estray horses go to slaughter?
It is important to note
that approximately 200 horses have been captured and removed from the
Virginia Range since this horse management program was initiated in the
fall of 1997. All of these
horses have been placed to good homes through adoption program and not
one has had to be put up for public sale or auction.
This success story best represents the commitment by the
Department and the cooperating organizations to adopt and place all
horses removed from the Virginia Range.
Furthermore, there are no
commercial slaughterhouses in Nevada, nor does the Department of
Agriculture have the intention of transporting Virginia Range horses out
of the State for direct sale to a livestock slaughter facility.
However, the Department
and cooperating adoption agents lose all control of the final
disposition of a Virginia Range horse once the 60-day holding period is
completed and the animal is placed through public sale or auction.
With horses being sold to willing bidders at either a sale or
auction, it is possible for a livestock broker to purchase an unadopted
horse or horses and, in-turn, sell the same animal to an out of state
slaughter operation. Because
of this possibility, both the State and the cooperating organizations
are working very hard to expand the capabilities of the Virginia Range
horse adoption program and permanently place each captured horse into a
caring and healthy environment.
However, the proposed
acceleration of horse removals from the Virginia Range causes some
concern whether the rate of horse adoptions can keep up with the
required rate of horse capture over the long term.
For this reason, the Department and cooperating adoption agents
are actively soliciting qualified horse adopters and additional horse
adoption agents.
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5.
Who are the adoption agents and what is their relationship to
the State?
The Nevada Department of Agriculture does not adopt captured estray
horses to private parties or residents.
Rather, the State has individual cooperative agreements with
several non-profit organizations that voluntarily serve as adoption
agents for the purpose of placing and adopting captured estray horses
from the Virginia Range. The
fundamental and primary interest of these participating organizations
is the welfare and permanent placement of these horses into caring and
secure homes.
Under this
arrangement, the authorized adoption agent purchases a captured estray
horse from the Department of Agriculture prior to completion of the
60-day holding period. The fees for this transaction represent the costs that the
State has incurred at that time in the capture, processing and care of
the horse. During this
transaction, title for the horse is transferred from the State to the
adoption agent with the requirement that the agent will hold this
title for one year after permanent placement.
The adoption agent must further provide the department with
quarterly reports disclosing the location and status of placed horses
during the one-year waiting period.
After its purchase from the State, the authorized adoption
agent can charge whatever price it desires to place the estray horse
into a suitable home.
For purposes of insuring that horses are placed into caring and secure
homes, title for adopted estray horses will be transferred only after
one complete calendar year of permanent placement.
During this interval, the health and care of the placed horses,
and the suitability of the animal’s quarters, will be open for
inspection by either the adoption agent and/or the Department of
Agriculture. Estray
horses found to be receiving inadequate or unsafe care during this
period will be retrieved and re-placed through the adoption program.
At the conclusion of the
one-year waiting period, the authorized adoption agent will relay its
authorization to the Department of Agriculture to transfer the title
for the successfully placed horse to the final adopter.
Per State law, a State Brand Inspector employed by the Nevada
Department of Agriculture will perform all horse title transfers.
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6.
Who determines which horses will be removed from the Virginia
Range?
Working in close coordination with Storey County, the
Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Association, and the involved
landowner, it is the Department of Agriculture who takes the lead in
the capture of estray horses from the Virginia Range. Estray horses are captured by trapping to feed.
Under this approach, feed is placed in a portable panel
corral
and the gate is closed when horses enter the corral by the cooperating
landowner. This approach
is non-intrusive and easy on the captured horses.
The first priority for capture are those
horses that regularly inhabit developed residential or commercial
areas, or roadways, where they pose a threat to themselves or a safety
hazard for area residents or motorists.
A second priority for horse capture and removal are those areas
where horse are severely impacting or overgrazing their habitat.
In both instances, the Department will work cooperatively with
the affected landowner to safely capture the estray horses.
Captured horses that show desirable characteristics, like color
or conformation, may be retained and relocated with the Virginia Range
for purposes of maintaining and improving animal genetics and health
within the remaining herd. The
decision to retain certain captured estray horses will be made by the
Department of Agriculture in consultation with the Virginia Range
Wildlife Protection Association and Storey County.
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7.
How long will estray horses be held for adoption before they
are taken to sale?
As noted under
Question 2, estray horses from the Virginia Range are held for a
60-day period, after processing and branding, for the purpose of
allowing permanent placement through adoption.
Please refer to the responses to Questions 2 and 8 for further
information relating to this topic.
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8.
Why are estray horses held adoption by the State for only 60-days
before being offered for public sale?
In
addition to keeping program costs within reasonable levels, the primary
reason for limiting the duration for holding unadopted horses relates to
price competition. Initial
outlay costs to purchase a wild horse from the BLM is $125 regardless of
how long the animal was held and cared for by the federal government.
Actual costs to the State for processing a captured estray horse
(i.e., public notice, veterinarian checkup, shots, worming and branding)
approaches approximately $100 per horse.
Costs for holding and feeding an estray horse are $2 per day.
Based on these rates, the Department can process an estray horse
and hold it for adoption for 12 days before exceeding the price for a
wild horse purchased through the BLM program.
Costs to the State for processing and holding an estray horse for
the 60-day adoption period approaches $220, or nearly a $100 more than a
similar horse could be purchased from the BLM.
While
it is not the intent of this program to make money, it is an expectation
that the State can recover much of its operational costs through a
reasonable adoption fee. Extending
the holding period for adoption beyond the current 60-day limit would
substantially reduce the salability of Virginia Range horses and
substantially increase the unrecoverable program costs to the State.
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9.
How much will it cost the Nevada taxpayer to remove these estray
horses?
Taxpayer funding
that has been applied to this program to date has been minimal and
limited primarily to the costs involved with the capture, processing and
holding of estray horses during the 60-day adoption period.
Furthermore, the horse adoption fees are designed to recapture
the State’s costs for these activities.
The involved horse adoption agents primarily incur the costs
associated with horse adoption and subsequent monitoring.
Withstanding these
minimal taxpayer costs, the Nevada Legislature appropriated $10,000 for
the program in 1997. An
additional $50,000 was appropriated to the program for the 1999-2001
biennium budget period. In
addition, Washoe County has contributed over $30,000 to the program for
the construction of the Department’s estray horse holding facility
located in Carson City. Financial
and in-kind donations from other private organizations have also greatly
assisted this program.
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10.
Why did it take so long to figure out there were too many horses
in the Virginia Range?
As an agent for Storey County, the Virginia Range Wildlife Protection
Association (VRWPA) has been involved with providing veterinary care to
injured horses in Storey County and placing horses requiring a home
since the early 1980’s. The
Department of Agriculture has been actively involved in the management
of the Virginia Range estray horse herd since the fall of 1997. While there has been a suspicion over the past several years
that horse numbers were approaching or possibly exceeding the available
habitat, no resource information had been developed to determine what
level these horses should be managed to in the future.
Recognizing this point, the Department and the VRWPA jointly
funded the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service to complete a
comprehensive habitat capacity analysis.
This NRCS analysis
was initiated in November 1999, and completed last month.
With this information now in-hand, these cooperators now have the
detailed resource information to begin developing a comprehensive
management plan to ensure a viable and sustainable horse population in
the Virginia Range.
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11.
Why can’t you just feed these estray horses during the winter
or under drought conditions?
In response to
this question it is important to realize that free-roaming horses have
an annual recruitment rate approaching 18 to 25 percent and their
population growth is largely unaffected by natural predation.
As such, horse populations can and will double every 3 to 4 years
unless actions are taken to control or manage this population growth.
Therefore, even if State and private funding was available to
adequately feed an ever-expanding horse population, some level of
population control or management would still be required for purposes of
preventing overgrazing by horses and maintaining the habitat and
watershed conditions within the Virginia Range.
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12.
Are you just trying to make more room for cattle grazing?
The NRCS habitat capacity analysis represents an estimate of total
available forage for horses, cattle, or any combination of both, within
the 85,000 acre study site. As
such, increased cattle grazing within the 85,000 acre study site would
have corresponding effect on the remaining habitat that would be
available for estray horses. This
relationship would not represent a one to one trade-off (i.e., one lost
horse per cow), but rather would be highly dependent upon the
distribution of developed stockwater.
Currently there is little
to no commercial livestock grazing occurring in the Virginia Range, and
no livestock grazing occurring within the 85,000 acre area represented
by this study. However,
with so much of the Virginia being privately-held, it is possible that
livestock grazing could be reintroduced in the Virginia Range in the
future. Withstanding this
potential, we are unaware of any proposals to commercially graze
livestock within the 85,000 acre study site involved with this habitat
capacity analysis.
Recognizing that situations
change over time, and either residential growth or future livestock
grazing could reduce future habitat capacities within the Virginia
Range, there is an interest among some individuals and organizations to
secure funding and property to establish a permanent horse sanctuary in
the region. The concept of
establishing an estray horse sanctuary in the Virginia Range is a new
idea that is just getting underway.
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13.
Is the State and/or cattlemen putting pressure on you to remove
these horses?
No. To date the Department
of Agriculture has not been contacted by any representative of the
Nevada ranching industry to remove or eliminate estray horses from the
Virginia Range. There have
been some rumors and a contact indicating that cattle grazing may be
reinitiated on the old 102 Ranch, which occupies most of the eastern
portion of the Virginia Range. However, this contact was preliminary and, to our knowledge,
has not preceded any further at this time.
Irregardless of any future livestock grazing on the 102 Ranch,
boundaries for this historic ranch fall to the east of the 85,000 acre
area involved with this horse habitat capacity analysis. In other words, reinitiating livestock grazing on the 102
Ranch would not affect the horse habitat capacity estimated for the
85,000 study area.
However, there are estray
horses currently located within the 102 Ranch.
If these horses were rounded up by the current landowner, the
Department of Agriculture would be obliged, under State law, to take
possession of these horse and treat them like any other estray
livestock. If this were to
happen, the Department would place these estray horses in the Virginia
Range Estray Horse Program and hold them for the 60-day adoption period.
It should be noted here
that the herding and capture of horses through mechanical means is
unlawful in Storey County. Likewise,
it is unlawful for any person to take possession of an estray horse
without previous notification and authorization by the Department of
Agriculture.
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14.
Where did the numbers come from?
There are two sets of numbers involved in the management of the Virginia
Range estray horse herd. The
first number involves an aerial census of horse locations and numbers
conducted cooperatively by the Nevada Department of Agriculture and the
Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Association each summer.
Arrangements for this year’s inventory are currently underway. Last year’s inventorying in June 1999, indicated a horse
population level of over 1,000 head across the entire Virginia Range
area. Estimated number of
horses located within the 85,000 acre study site during this last census
was estimated to approach approximately 700 to 800 head.
The second important
number relates to the estimated number of horses that can be sustained
on a year round basis within the available habitat.
Methods and procedures use to determine this estimate are
detailed elsewhere in this packet. Suffice it to say here that based on the detailed resource
information contained in the habitat analysis conducted by the USDA
Natural Resource Conservation, a target population of 550 head has been
selected at this point for the 85,000 acre study area.
To achieve this target population, a goal of capturing and
placing up to 225 horses per year for three consecutive years has been
adopted by the Department and the other involved parties.
It is important to note
here that this estimated capacity for horses is just that, an estimate
based on detail resource information collected from the site.
The true capacity for horses within the 85,000 acre study site
will not be known until the target population level is approached and
the resulting grazing effects can be monitored over time.
At that point, horse numbers can be fine-tuned and adjusted to
better reflect the true capacities of the habitat.
Please refer to the NRCS summary report contained in this packet
for further information on this habitat capacity analysis.
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15.
When will the gathering of estray horses begin, and how will it
occur?
As previously indicated, the capture and adoption of estray horses from
the Virginia Range has been an on-going process since the fall of 1997. Estray horses captured and placed to date under this program
approach approximately 200 head. All
of these horses represent animals that inhabited developed areas such as
residential areas, parks, or along roadways where they posed a safety
risk to themselves and area residents or motorists.
However, with the better
understanding of habitat capacities brought by the NRCS study, plans
have now been made to accelerate the horse capture and adoption program
for the purpose of removing and placing up 225 horses per year for three
consecutive years. This
accelerated process will begin this summer.
However, voluntary assistance is needed from landowners and other
non-profit horse adoption organizations to expand the adoption
capabilities and reduce the need to place horses through sale or
auction.
In terms of capture
methods, all horses will be captured by trapping to feed or, in some
cases, possibly trapping to water.
Under this approach, feed is placed in a temporary panel corral
and the gate is closed when horses enter the corral by the cooperating
landowner. This approach is
non-intrusive and easy on the captured horses.
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16.
Will you have humane society officials monitor the capture of
estray horses? If not, why
not?
As previously
mentioned, trapping horse to feed or water is a non-intrusive horse
capture method that is not particularly controversial.
Additionally, captured horses are immediately placed under the
care of the State Veterinarian who works for the Nevada Department of
Agriculture. Furthermore, most of the non-profit organizations that
cooperate in this program, as adoption agents, are horse or animal care
organizations. Through
their voluntary participation in this program, these organizations
provide the programmatic oversight to ensure horses are treated
humanely. Presumably due to these existing program conditions and
safeguards, there has not been a request from a recognized animal humane
authority to monitor the capture of estray horses in the Virginia Range.
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17.
Are there other viable methods or approaches to control expanding
horse populations short of capture and adoption or sale?
A tremendous
amount of money and research has been directed toward finding an
cost-efficient method for achieving effective birth control in
free-roaming horse populations. However,
birth control agents that have been tested to date are either so harsh
as to adversely alter herd behavior patterns, or ineffective or
temporary so as to require multiple treatments and greatly increased
application costs. As such,
at this time, no viable treatment has been identified that will
effectively decrease horse herd recruitment rates in a cost-effective
manner. However, research
still continues in this area and advancements that have management
applications may occur at any time.
These advances will be incorporated into the management of the
Virginia Range estray horse herd when they become available.
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18.
What is being done to create a sanctuary for these horses?
Please refer to Question 12 above for a response to this question.
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