Nevada Wildlife Commission Seeks to Exclude Wild Horses from Drinking the Water
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Int'l Fund for Horses
January 2011

The Feral Horse Cmte of the Nevada Wildlife Commission has drafted a letter telling the state engineer to instruct federal agencies (i.e. BLM) to immediately remove wild horses and burros drinking 'unpermitted' waters.

The Associated Press reports:

Jan. 14, 2011

A Nevada wildlife committee has suggested mustangs and burros are not legally entitled to quench their thirst from water rights allocated to federal agencies to support wildlife.

The Feral Horse Committee of the Nevada Wildlife Commission has drafted a letter to the state engineer, contending the federally protected horses are not wildlife under state law, and the animals’ drinking of water does not constitute “beneficial use” as required for a water rights permit.

Among other things, the committee wants the state engineer to instruct federal agencies to immediately remove any wild horses or burros “that are making unlawful use of Nevada waters,” according to the letter obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

“The Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners would strenuously object to any attempt to assign a form of beneficial use of Nevada water for these federally owned animals,” the draft letter states.

Jason King, state engineer, said the federal government holds about 28 water permits in Nevada, mostly on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management, for wildlife benefit.


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