Bureau of Land Management selling wild mustangs, burros in Lakeport

LAKEPORT - A cold rain began to fall on the Lake County Fairgrounds shortly after wild mustangs and burros emerged from their trailers in a cacophony of clattering hooves late Friday afternoon.

But the animals, up for adoption Saturday and Sunday from the federal Bureau of Land Management, soon calmed. The people who came to observe them stood in awe of the creatures, undaunted by the inclement weather.

Most of the observers had no intention of adopting but were instead lured by the mystique of the mustangs, living symbols of freedom and the Wild West whose capture and sales are a point of controversy between the BLM, which manages herds on federal lands, and activists who say the animals should be left to run free.

“They’re kind of like the roots of our country,” said Michele Molina, a Kelseyville teacher who was browsing the herd for her daughter. “I would love to see them running on the prairie.”

The horses had roamed freely in Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Siskiyou County and Winnemucca, Nev., before they were rounded up by helicopter and transferred to BLM corrals and pastures in places like the Litchfield Wild Horse and Burro facility near Susanville.

Wild horses and burros have been protected from free-for-all roundups since 1971 by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act; but unchecked, their populations exploded, and the BLM, charged both with protecting and managing the herd, determined the rangeland could not support their numbers.

Currently, there are 37,000 horses running free across the nation on land that can support only 27,000, according to the BLM. There are 194 separate BLM herd management areas, bureau spokesman Jeff Fontana said.

In addition to the herd’s health, the BLM must take into consideration the animals’ impacts on other wildlife and cattle that also graze public lands, he said.

Since 1971, more than 230,000 wild horses have been removed from federal rangeland, Fontana said.

Animal activists contend the roundups are cruel and unnecessary.

On the other hand, there are people who believe the horses are nothing more than feral animals and they don’t belong on public ranges at all, Fontana noted.

The BLM attempts to find homes for the animals the agency rounds up, but thousands are never sold and end up in pastures long-term. Almost a third of the BLM’s $77 million budget goes toward maintaining the animals, Fontana said.

Some of those attending Friday’s adoption preview in Lakeport said they’d prefer to see the horses roam freely but believe the BLM sales are preferable to the days when the horses were rounded up by whomever wanted them and often sold to slaughterhouses. The BLM takes precautions to prevent the animals from going to the slaughterhouse, but officials admit they can’t monitor every animal forever.

Rob Salvador, 35, of Lakeport also was smitten by the mustang mystique. But the cowboy - he works on a cattle ranch and rides the rodeo circuit - has a more practical use for the horses he plans to buy.

He will be training them to work cattle. And to show up his friends who prefer to buy tamer breeds of horses.

“They’re good horses; the spirit of the old West,” he said.

Kimberly Dellacorva of Redwood Valley said she wishes the horses could be free, but barring that possibility, plans to do her part by giving three of them a home on her 480 acres.

“I want to give them a great place to live,” she said. “I feel really lucky that I can.”

Andres and Michele Molina said they’d do the same if they had more land.

“They are beautiful. If I could, I would take all of them,” Andres Molina said.

The 30 horses - mostly 1 or 2 years old - and 10 burros are available for sale from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the fairgrounds. Two of the mustangs have been trained to accept halters.

After competitive bidding from 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday, any remaining animals will be sold for a flat $125 adoption fee.

People who cannot attend the auction but are interested in adopting horses or burros can submit an application online at www.blm.gov/adoptahorse.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MendoReporter.