Editorial: A wild horse by any other name is still …

Wednesday, March 20, 2002 | 9:06 a.m.

With 40,000 wild horses, more than any other state, Nevada is a model for management of the animals. But in the Virginia Range -- east of Sparks and extending south to Virginia City -- management needs new direction. Since 1986 the state has designated this rangeland, owned by private individuals, as too populated for wild horses. Because the Virginia Range is not federal land, horses captured there fall under a Nevada livestock law more suitable for returning the occasional stray cow to its owner. Therefore, the state Department of Agriculture administers Virginia Range horses -- on a limited budget.

With 1,000 horses estimated to be wild in the range, the day will come when the department will be forced to sell captured horses at public auction, which could send many of them to slaughterhouses. The department so far has done an admirable job. No horses have been sold. Out of 466 horses captured, 397 have been adopted. But pressure is mounting, as state funds are growing scarce and adoption fees do not recover costs if a horse is not found a home within two months.

The state has a well-funded Commission on the Preservation of Wild Horses, which works with the Bureau of Land Management to provide homes for wild horses captured on federal land. These horses are protected by federal law from a possible date with the slaughterhouse. But the commission doesn't work with the agriculture department because its horses are considered livestock.

A wild horse that crosses a state zoning border is no less of a wild horse than one rounded up from federal land. A new management plan is needed for the Virginia Range, one that includes federal protections and resources.