BLM announces adoption of Carson City wild horses; advocates want herd at sanctuary

The Bureau of Land Management will hold an adoption on March 23 for several wild horses recently removed from the outskirts of Carson City. Currently eight wild horses including a mare and foal pair will be available. Meanwhile, advocates for the wild horses say they want the family at a California sanctuary instead of being put up for adoption.

The silent bid adoption will be held at Silver Saddle Ranch (northeast side of the Prison Hill Recreation Area and west of the Carson River along Carson River Road. Main entrance is off of Carson River Road). The event will start with a viewing of the available horses from 9 to 10 a.m., then the bidding to be held from 10 to 11 a.m., according to a BLM news release.

A wild horse advocate group that had urged the BLM not to remove a band of 11 wild horses in late February, wants the BLM to instead send the horses, which it says makes up a family, to a private California sanctuary.

The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign issued a news release Tuesday. In part it says:

Short of returning the small family of horses to the range, the local community endorses the plan which has been secured by the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC), a national coalition, to send the whole family to a 2,000-acre sanctuary in northern California dedicated to wild horses. At the sanctuary, the horses can remain together and live wild for the rest of their lives.

“In the event that the BLM refuses to return this family to the range, we call on the agency to repair the damage it has done to the community by working with us to send this family to a sanctuary where they can remain together and wild for the rest of their lives,” said Annie Jantzen, a Carson City resident who has led a large group of community members advocating for the horses.

Two days after the horses were captured on Feb. 27, AWHPC wrote to the BLM offering to purchase all of the horses in order to keep the family together at the sanctuary. The BLM expressed interest in working with AWHPC, however soon reversed course and moved ahead with plans to individually sell the animals at auction.

“We are disappointed that, after initially agreeing to work with us to place this group of beloved horses in a sanctuary, the BLM is now proceeding with a silent bidding process that will make it impossible to ensure that the horses remain together,” said Deniz Bolbol, AWHPC communications director. “The agency is making a bad situation worse by continuing to refuse to work with the community.”

The Humane Society of the United States also denounced the removal of horses and called on the BLM to reverse its decision and return them to their home.

The horses that were removed were a part of the Pine Nut Mountains herd management area that is adjacent to Deer Run Road in Carson City. The BLM said the horses routinely cross the Carson River into River View City Park, where the agency said it received complaints of people feeling threatened by the wild horses. The removal was done for public safety reasons and for the safety of the horses, the BLM said.

The BLM reports the captured horses will be available for adoption with starting minimum bid of $125. Individual bid sheets will be available for each horse, and the bidding will last one hour. The highest bidder for each individual horse will be the successful adopter.

Although pre-approval to adopt is optional, it is recommended. Any individual applying to adopt more than four wild horses or a group of individuals requesting to maintain more than four untitled wild horses at a single location must be pre-approved. A link to the application can be found here.
For more information contact John Axtell at 775-885-6146 or visit www.blm.gov/nv. Photos of the wild horses can be seen at BLM Nevada’s Flickr site here and videos are located at BLM Nevada’s YouTube site at: www.youtube.com/BLMNEVADA.