BLM to remove 60 burros from Bullhead City neighborhoods
BULLHEAD CITY — The Bureau of Land Management has begun an effort to gather about 60 wild burros near Bullhead City.
According to a news release from the BLM and the U.S. Department of the Interior, the three-week gather comes after discussions and concerns brought by private landowners and community leaders following a string of incidents involving wild burros.
In April, BLM notified Bullhead City officials of plans to gather 30 burros from the Punto De Vista and Laughlin Ranch neighborhoods. BLM gave no explanation on how it arrived at the removal of 60 animals or the locations that are being targeted.
The city has taken complaints about burro herds of up to 20 animals in the Punto De Vista and Laughlin Ranch neighborhoods and met with BLM officials in March to learn what options were available for dealing with the federally protected animals.
“We need our residents to understand our hands are tied, we cannot touch those burros — literally we shouldn’t be touching them,” City Manager Cotter said at the time. “So the only thing we can do is put pen to paper and request that they be gathered and removed from our community.”
According to the BLM release, the collected animals will be taken to the BLM Wild Horse and Burro facility in Florence, Ariz., where they will be prepared for possible public adoption.
For information on how to adopt a wild burro, go to www.blm.gov/
programs/wild-horse-and-burro.
More than 5,000 wild burros roam public lands in the state of Arizona. The BLM protects and manages wild horses and burros under the authority of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, to ensure that healthy herds thrive on healthy rangelands. Because these animals have virtually no natural predators, their herd sizes can double nearly every four years.
In a 2014 BLM census, more than 1,500 burros were estimated to be in the Black Mountain Herd Management Area, which includes Bullhead City. BLM’s “appropriate management level” is under 500 for the area.