Once again the Bureau of Land Management is betraying wild horses on America’s public lands to placate private grazing interests—in this most recent case, it is the Rock Spring’s Grazing Association in Wyoming.

So Friends of Animals has submitted comments to the BLM regarding the March 22 “Scoping Statement for Removal of All Wild Horses from Checkerboard Lands within the Great Divide Basin, Salt Wells Creek and Adobe Town Herd Management Areas.” With this project the BLM proposes to remove 500 wild horses from two million acres of public and private lands, one million acres of which is controlled by the BLM on behalf of the American people.

Not only is the proposal unlawful because it would allow private landowners to enclose public lands for the benefit of private grazing interests and it doesn’t fulfill BLM’s obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act, American taxpayers will be forced to bear the costs of this cruel, ghastly approach to managing America’s wild horses.

BLM has stated that the cost of cost of maintaining a single wild horse in a BLM holding facility is $50,000 over the 25-year life of the horse; therefore, the cost of maintaining the 500 wild horses to be removed from the Wyoming Checkerboard is an astronomical 25 million dollars when they are removed from their natural habitat.

To read our comments and learn more about how the BLM plans to violate the rights of America’s wild horses, the public and the law, click here.