Legal distinction for wild horses causes confusion

Friday, March 15, 2002 | 9:55 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Commission on the Preservation of Wild Horses plans to allocate $374,325 over several years to help the federal government find homes for the animals.

But the commission can't allocate money to a sister state agency that is losing money in its wild horse adoption program.

While the general public may think all wild horses are the same, they are not, said Catherine Barcomb, executive director of the Commission on the Preservation of Wild Horses.

And that generates considerable confusion.

The state Division of Agriculture is responsible for management of estrays -- wild horses or offspring of horses that were once owned -- on a 316,000-acre area in western Nevada.

The Agriculture Department rounds them up and tries to get them adopted. Paul Iverson, director of the department, called it a "money losing" proposition for his agency because there is a lack of demand to adopt them.

But his department can't qualify to get part of the trust fund in the state commission created to preserve and help adopt the horses.

They are the same type of horses that roam the federal lands in Nevada. But the wild horses on the federal lands have not had a prior owner, she said.

In the 1970s Leo Heil died, leaving about $230,000 to the state for the preservation of wild horses. The money sat in a trust fund and grew to more than $1 million.

Barcomb said the state commission was created in 1985. In the law, the commission was financed by the interest from the trust fund. And the fund could not be drawn down below $900,000, except in emergencies.

The 2001 Legislature changed that, permitting $400,000 from the trust fund to be used to match a similar amount from the Bureau of Land Management to create a non-profit national foundation on wild horses and burros whose goal was to get the horses on federal lands adopted. The foundation would eventually be supported by fees and donations.

The foundation, Barcomb said, is just getting off the ground, and its aim is to "promote the placement of horses in good homes."

That's all well and good. But the state Agriculture Department won't get any help from this. "They're competing with us," says Iverson, referring to the joint federal-state adoption program.

Iverson told the state Board of Examiners Tuesday there were 1,000 horses in the Virginia Range in which the capacity is 600 animals. And these horses are knocking down fences, trampling people's lawns and causing other problems in Reno and other areas of Western Nevada.

These are wild horses, says Iverson, even though the law calls them estrays.

And the state must round them up, care for them and then find homes. It costs $2 a day, and that adds up if new homes can't be found for the animals.

The department has spent about $70,000 and will need to tap into the state's emergency fund for another $70,000 to care for the horses.

In talking about the bar on his agency from getting money from the state commission, Iverson said sarcastically, "This is government at its best."

Barcomb says, "I can't do anything because of the law," that classifies those horses on the state land as estrays and not wild horses.

Iverson said his agency has been lucky to have the help of volunteer groups. And the department has been able in some cases to send the horses to a preserve.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, a member of the examiners board, encouraged Iverson to let the public know of the plight. "It's time for a summit," she suggested.

Del Papa wondered whether birth control might work to reduce the herds. But Dr. David Thain, administrator of the Animal Industry Division, said there are "no commercial products we can use." He said more testing is needed.

He said intrauterine devices were tried but there were problems in keeping them in place on the horse. And he said the state would need to castrate 95 to 97 percent of the males to stop reproduction of the herd.

Iverson estimates there are about 35,000 wild horses in Nevada, which is the largest population of any other state.

Thain said the population may have peaked out on the state lands in Western Nevada because of the drought and over-use of the range. "The condition is very bad," he said referring to the range.

And he said there has not been the growth in the herd as in recent years.