Despite claims Alberta wild horse numbers rapidly increasing, government forced to acknowledge they’ve been stable for past 5 years
Alberta’s entire wild horse population is just over 1,400 individuals, a remarkably small number of animals dispersed, some in isolated populations, over a number of Equine Management Zones (EMZ
s). The Sundre EMZ, roughly halfway between Calgary and Red Deer and east of the Town of Olds contains the largest number of wild horses, while one EMZ further north contains no wild horses at all.
Throughout the years the Alberta government and resource extraction and ranching special interests have made all kinds of irrational, unscientific claims about the wild horses in support of their claim that the horses need to be controlled or removed. But the case against wild horses has been shown to be remarkably weak and Zoocheck, the Help Alberta Wildies Society (HAWS) and others are continuing to methodically dismantle it.
GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY INFO DOESN’T SUPPORT CLAIM WILD HORSES DAMAGING THE ENVIRONMENT
Zoocheck has been examining thousands of pages of rangeland reports and other information acquired through Freedom of Information legislation. The Alberta government and special interest groups fought for years to make sure Zoocheck didn’t acquire the materials, but persistence paid off. The reports offer almost no evidence that wild horses are damaging the environment at all. It’s an unsubstantiated claim that’s been repeated again and again, but it’s not true.
Just recently, the Alberta government released their most recent wild horse management plan and it seems to be based on many of the same old, disproven myths and misunderstandings. Zoocheck is currently preparing a response to the plan and will ensure the Alberta public is made aware of how the Alberta government and special interests are ignoring science and scapegoating the wild horses for no good reason.
GOVERNMENT CONDUCTS WILD HORSE COUNT RESULTING IN INFLATED AND MISLEADING NUMBERS – AND THEY KNOW IT
This year’s annual Sundre EMZ wild horse count conducted by the Alberta government resulted in 969 wild horses being counted, 51% more than their count of 642 in 2022. However, the aerial horse count conducted by the Help Alberta Wildies Society and co-funded by Zoocheck, revealed that the horse numbers are pretty much the same as the previous year with only a 4% increase in their population. So why the difference in numbers?
After HAWS and Zoocheck discovered serious flaws in the Alberta’s government’s horse count methodology, it was clear why the numbers were different. It turns out he Alberta government actually flew an additional 500 kilometers over the Sundre EMZ in 2023 compared with the flight plan they followed in 2022.
In a meeting on September 28, 2023, between HAWS and Alberta’s Rangeland Office, which is responsible for the annual wild horse aerial counts, government officials agreed their 2023 wild horse count was inflated given the department flew the additional undisclosed 500 more kilometers in the Sundre EMZ than in 2022. They also acknowledged that wild horse numbers in the Sundre EMZ have remained stable for the past five years.
Even though they admitted their information was wrong, according to HAWS president Darryl Glover, “they refuse to amend their 2023 population count report that makes it appear there has been a massive increase in the wild horse population in the Sundre EMZ. Not only are they misleading the public but by arbitrarily expanding their survey area to inflate the numbers, they’re purposefully setting themselves up to justify a future cull or contraception program to bring those numbers down. That’s just not right nor ethical, and the public needs to know.”
Read article Provincial Society Concerned About Government’s Wild Horse Count (October 11, 2023)