Brumbies & Bureaucracy: Wild Horses in Australia & the U.S.

When many people think of the wild horses of Australia they gather that iconic vision of Jim Craig chasing his mob of brumbies down the side of a mountain in the movie The Man from Snowy River. While this fictional tale based off a Banjo Patterson poem might make you feel warm and fuzzy, it is not an accurate description of the current and ongoing feral horse problem in Australia.

The brumbies of Australia are a major nuisance to agriculture producers, landowners and native wildlife, causing millions of dollars in economic losses each year.

Similar to the North American mustangs, the brumbies of Australia were introduced when the continent was colonized in the late 1700s and the herds were established by the mid-19th century.

Brumby distribution in Australia (highlighted in green)

More than 400,000 brumbies and 5 million feral donkeys are found in areas that are better suited for grazing livestock. The only threat to the wild equine species in Australia is wildfire or drought, making it relatively easy for populations to get out of hand. If no management is done their populations can increase 20 percent in a year.

                          

This is why government intervention is necessary of these invasive species. Horses are "mustered" or gathered to holding pens so they can either be sold as riding stock or taken to an abattoir for processing. Other horses and burrows are managed with fertility treatments to prevent females from breeding and in some cases they are euthanized via a rifle shot from a helicopter or on foot.

The sunsets on mustangs south of Cassoday, Kan.

In the U.S. we have a similar program where the Bureau of Land Management gathers herds of wild mustangs and burrows in the western states. The horses are then brought to the Great Plains where they are either taken to correctional facilities to be broken for adoption or they are released on long-term holding pastures. Approximately 100 miles to the south of Manhattan, Kan., in the Flint Hills there are thousands of these wild horses being held on what I like to call "retirement pastures" as the majority of these mustangs will never leave the tall-grass prairies. 

While I agree the adoption programs both here and in Australia are great initiatives, they do not address the overwhelming problem that these animals are a nuisance species who are dominating grazing areas and water holes. I think Australia is getting it right with their management approach. The mindset there appears to be no different than how we treat feral hogs in Kansas. Each year wild pigs are shot from helicopters or trapped because of a U.S. Department of Agriculture and Kansas Animal Health Department funded program. Culling old or malnourished horses and donkeys in this manner may seem inhumane, but it is better than the alternative of letting them suffer death from starvation.

Wild horses during winter in Butler Co., Kan.

Changing people's mindsets that horses are livestock and not pets is the main way that the U.S. can correct it's wild mustang, and even worse abandoned horse problem. At least Australians have the option to take their excess horses to an abattoir for a more humane death. In the U.S. we have to send our horses across the border to Canada or Mexico for slaughter, which often does not meet the same animal handling regulations.

Mustangs grazing on bluestem grass in Greenwood, Co., Kan.

Activist groups like Save The Brumbies, Australian Brumby Alliance, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and The Humane Society of the United States who support saving feral horses and donkeys only hurt native species who were intended to graze these rugged areas. They are also negatively affecting agriculture producers who utilize and maintain land that is either publicly or privately owned.

Wild horses and donkeys have inhabited the Earth for thousands of years, but they are not native to Australia or North America, and they are not pets. There's no need to treat them any differently than any other feral species.
                        

Until next time, happy trails!