Now that Congress has passed the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill that continues to protect wild horses and burros, it’s time for Nevada to do the same. 

Polling shows that 86 percent of Nevadans want to humanely manage wild horses, calling them a “defining symbol” of their state and the American West.

U.S. Representative Dina Titus (D-Nevada) has heard these Nevadans clearly and is an outspoken advocate for the protection of wild horses and burros in her state and throughout the West.

Unfortunately, some politicians are still out of step with Nevadans. Take U.S. Representative Mark Amodei (R-Nevada). He was a vocal supporter of the Stewart Amendment, which would have allowed the BLM to kill up to 90,000 innocent federally protected wild horses and burros.

Others include Governor Brian Sandoval and his Nevada Department of Agriculture. They’re pushing a controversial and unpopular plan to give away ownership of the historic and locally cherished Virginia Range mustang population to a private entity. Because these horses do not reside on federal land, they fall outside federal protection and are therefore under the jurisdiction of the state. By the department’s own admission, if the state were to transfer ownership of the horses to a private party, the new owner would have the “absolute property right” to do what it wanted with these treasured mustangs, including sell them for slaughter.

This is not a plan that is supported by the public. At a hearing last December, more than 100 citizens turned out to oppose the mustang giveaway. Only one person testified in favor of it: Dave Duquette, founder of Protect the Harvest, an organization that lobbies for horse slaughter and other abusive animal industries and practices. 

A recent poll of Nevada voters found that 76 percent wanted the state to continue a public/private partnership to protect and humanely manage the Virginia Range horses, while only 17 percent favored the giveaway.

In addition to the public, the Virginia Range horses have another powerful ally: the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center and the billion-dollar companies operating there, including Blockchain, Switch and Tesla, that inhabit it. They view the mustangs as part of the TRI brand, part of the allure that’s attracting business to this rapidly developing corner of the Old West. Given that the TRI comprises approximately one-third of the Virginia Range horses’ habitat and is the economic engine driving growth in Northern Nevada, that’s a powerful contingency speaking on behalf of the horses. 

Congress, Nevadans, and big businesses want to keep wild horses wild. So, Nevada, it’s your turn. Start by protecting the Virginia Range mustangs - abandon the plan to give them away and restore the public/private partnership to keep these icons of the American West thriving in their 500-square-mile habitat on the Virginia Range.