The Bureau of Land Management is proposing to keep hundreds of wild horses at a private ranch near Laramie. The BLM removes hundreds of horses from public lands each year to prevent the range from getting over-crowded, and they usually send the horses to long-term pastures in the mid-west.
Dennis Carpenter is the BLM’s Field Manager in Rawlins. He says keeping the horses here should be slightly cheaper, because the ranch will be open to tourists – for a fee.
“We’re going to pay the eco-sanctuary an amount similar that we pay the Midwest long-term facilities,” Carpenter said. “And then the money that they derive from this tourism component will help defray the cost to the federal government of housing these horses.”
The proposed sanctuary would accommodate up to 400 horses, which is less than what the BLM removes in a typical year. Carpenter says the agency will be looking for additional places to keep horses as well.
The BLM is currently accepting public comments on the proposed horse sanctuary and will conduct an environmental impact analysis in the coming months.
