The last remaining herd of wild horses living in the Red Rock Canyon area may soon be removed by the BLM, according to wild horse advocates.
Horse groups allege the BLM has long wanted to get rid of wild horses altogether, and that the government may now have an excuse for doing so.
As recently as ten years ago, several bands of wild horses roamed the Red Rock Conservation Area. When the drought set in, the BLM determined that wild horses were a continuing threat to themselves and to the regeneration of natural vegetation in Red Rock, so most of them were rounded up and impounded.
At the same time, BLM okayed the creation of private horseback riding operations in the canyon. Today, as few as 25 horses still live in the wild out there, relegated to remote areas south of the canyon itself.
Horse advocates think they too are in the BLM's cross hairs. "It's my opinion that they've always wanted to get rid of the horses down here. It's almost as if horses in southern Nevada are more trouble than they're worth," said Jerry Reynoldson, a wild horse advocate.
"This is part of our heritage. These horses belong to Las Vegas and the BLM needs to understand we have a vested interest in keeping them on our land," said Laurie Howard, National Wild Horse Association.
BLM has scheduled an Oct. 5, Wed. night meeting to talk about its plans. The agency wants to re-seed thousands of acres of land that were scorched in wildfires, and to do so, it may need to remove the last of the horses.
The horse groups think it's just an excuse, and a weak one at that. "Fire does have devastatating effects, but we also recognize it was a great spring and there's a lot of feed out there," Reynoldson said.
"There are 24-30 horses and 100,000 acres of conservation area. Twenty-four horses are not going to damage the small amount of property they're talking about re-seeding," Howard added.
Furthering public suspicions, BLM's meeting about wild horses comes just two days before the annual wild horse adoption event in Las Vegas, which has preoccupied many of the horse advocates.
This weekend, eight young horses will go up for adoption. That number is far lower than previous years, and even though there are thousands of wild horses awaiting adoption in Nevada, the BLM was reluctant to allow any animals to go up for adoption this year in Las Vegas.
"There's no shortage of horses. It's just more difficult to get horses moved out of the holding facilities when we have these adoptions. It makes no sense," Reynoldson said.
If the last of the horses are removed from Red Rock, horse advocates believe the animals will never be allowed to return.
The BLM did tell Eyewitness News that the meeting is to strictly gather information and that no decision has been made about rounding up more horses.
Click here for more information about this weekend's horse adoption event, including free microchipping for your horse,
