Arizona State government representatives are promoting killing our wild burros. Wild burros are our nationally protected living history. They represent our pioneering spirit and our culture. In 1971, congress passed the Free Roaming Wild Horses and Burros act. With this unanimous vote they provided protections to the burros and horses as our living legacies of our historical past. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is tasked with oversight of this act. Unfortunately, since 1971, riders have been added to appropriations bills without the public's awareness weakening the intent of the act and undermining the will of the American people. The agencies that oversee wildlife, and our BLM which is supposed to protect wild horses and burros, have been using the new loopholes to manage our wild herds to extinction.

Since the BLM is also tasked with the "multi-use" component of our federal lands, and since the wild horses and burros are not backed by wealthy stakeholders like the big game hunting industries, Big Agriculture, and mining interests, the small percentage of federal lands designated for the wild horses and burros principal use is not fairly allocated. (Of the 250 million acres of federal land available, only 19 million acres are now allocated for wild horses and burros.) Of this 19 million acres only a small percentage is allocated to the wild horses and burros while the lion's share is divided up with the powerful stakeholders. 

Only 4,800 wild burros are free in the protected areas of all states managed by the BLM. (This number represents combining the BLM's exaggerated number with ours and meeting halfway.) There are only five states that have burros on our Federal lands making them a unique tourism draw to those states lucky enough to have them.

Arizona is one of the states lucky enough to have their own vitally precious relic herds of wild burros, documented as laying claim to these lands as their ancestral homes for hundreds of years. The Black Mountain HMA is one million acres and is best known for the town of Oatman where burros are a main tourism draw. However, even the Oatman burros are not safe from the greed of stakeholders like the Arizona Bighorn Sheep Society, Arizona Mining Association, and Arizona off roaders who have 750 miles of trail cut throughout these habitats set aside for the burros.  http://arizonaoffroadexpo.com/portfolio_category/organization/

Officially, the Arizona Game and Fish Department states that these wild donkeys harm the resources, while ignoring the harm caused by 750 miles of off road trails approved throughout Arizona's Black Mountain HMA (Herd Management Area). These trails are used by hundreds of off roaders through delicate desert where destruction of natural springs has been documented as being caused by them. Arizona Game and Fish Department also ignores the damage caused by bighorn and mule deer rutting. The rutting destroys the trees they use to rut. Taxpayer subsidized ranchers overgraze their cattle on the fourteen allotments set aside for them in the Black Mountain HMA. They also use fencing to block the movement of the wild herds and block the underpasses used by the burros to get to the Colorado river causing them to cross the roadways on top instead. As a result of the destroyed natural springs, the off road noise and environmental pollution, the blockage to safe passage, and the lack of planning for the recently build Bullhead City Parkway which should have installed fencing, the burros are hit on the roads. These collisions were predictable and avoidable, but the burros are blamed. Mining is further laying waste to enormous tracts of land within the HMA while also polluting water sources. Again, the humble and peaceful burro is blamed.

The bighorn are a high profile species that are prized by big game hunters. Their restoration is heavily subsidized by private individuals who believe that the wild burro is an "enemy" of the bighorn. Black Mountain has one of the largest populations of bighorn in the country. The hunting permits for the bighorn are sold in an auction format, with the highest recorded winning bid being $400,000. Bighorn societies weld a great deal of financial influence over wildlife management and they have not been shy about their desire to see all burros eliminated from areas where they will release more of their designer, farm bred bighorn. 

Arizona's governing bodies want to kill wild burros to make way for hunting opportunities for wealthy hunters, more grazing privileges for taxpayer subsidized ranching, and mining and gas interests. The local community supports bighorn restoration, but not killing wild burros. Please help the community to stand up against these powerful forces that have refused to hear pleas to keep the wild burros, alive.  Tell Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake that you will not tolerate removals of our wild burros. Tell Arizona Game and Fish, Steve Moss, and Senators McCain and Flake to stop promoting hunting them and barbecuing them. Killing our wild burros, harassing our wild burros, and managing them to extinction ignores the desires of millions of people who want them protected. Protect the burros of Arizona, and stop promoting hunting them.

For more information go to this link: 

https://www.facebook.com/notes/marjorie-farabee/az-burros-in-the-crosshairs/967507766631676