SPECIAL TO THE PVT These burros were part of the group gathered at the Beatty football field last week. Advertisement

BEATTY -- The U.S. Bureau of Land Management gathered eight burros from the Beatty football field last week. They have already been transferred to the adoption center in Ridgecrest, Calif.

BLM's Tonopah office had plans to remove 15 to 20 burros from the southwestern end of Beatty at the request of the Beatty Town Board, the Beatty General Improvement District and the Nye County School District.

A press release from the BLM states, "Due to their acclimation to humans these burros have become a safety hazard to pedestrians and motorists alike. There have also been numerous reports of property damage attributed to the burros."

The release notes the BLM is mandated to manage wild horses and burros as well as nuisance animals that damage property, if requested by the landowner.

The burros were caught in the football field at Beatty High School Thursday. They were then kept in a makeshift corral at the driving range across the street until they were transferred to California the next day.

Principal Nancy Hein said 13 burros have been frequenting the school grounds lately, requiring school custodians to shovel up the manure on the football field in the morning.

The students were usually gone from school by the time the burros wandered the grounds, except for the evening the students were locked in over graduation, Hein said. She rattled the keys to get them to leave from the front door.

"When our fence is open during school, they just come up on the grass," Hein said. "They're not afraid of anybody now -- that's the problem."

A group of German engineers working for Daimler-Chrysler, one of the companies that tests automobiles for extreme heat conditions in Death Valley National Park, was having a barbecue at the automotive stalls behind the Beatty school when the burros showed up, Hein said.

"They usually hit my football field, the front of my (school) building and then the little area near the automotive stalls. They also go to the elementary (school)," Hein said of the local four-legged celebrities. "They come early in the morning and then late at night."

"We're the only place where there's green grass," she said.

Hein said the BLM captured eight of the 13, but they got the mare who had been having babies frequently.

BLM Wild Horse and Burro Specialist Andrea Felton said they were going to try to trap the remaining burros this week if possible. But Hein thinks the remaining burros got wise to the scheme and went elsewhere.

While Hein mentioned 13 burros in particular as frequent visitors to the school grounds, the BLM stated there will be an estimated 70 to 100 burros left in the Bullfrog Herd Management Area around Beatty after the gather.

Due to the drought the burros weren't able to be relocated to less populated areas of the herd management area, Felton said. They will be placed in the national wild horse and burro adoption program.

Twenty local residents attended a July 25 Beatty town advisory board meeting after fliers were placed around town, to complain about the removal of the burros. They delivered a petition to Craig Drake, interim field manager for the BLM Tonopah field office bearing the signatures of 256 Beatty residents and 49 out-of-towners describing the burros as an asset to Beatty, "an important part of the town's character and identity."

The annual Beatty Days celebration in late October features burro races on the baseball field, in which contestants have to light a fire, cook a flapjack and feed it to a burro, while leading the stubborn animals around the bases. Formerly the burro races drew nationwide publicity, when contestants actually had to capture a wild burro for the race.

Proponents for keeping the burros flooded the Tonopah BLM office with letters and emails. However, Drake told the Pahrump Valley Times last week the messages were either 60-40 or 65-35 in favor of the burros.

There was even a report someone tampered with the temporary corral, attempting to set them free.

Anyone who wants to adopt one of the burros would do better to call 1-866-4MUSTANGS or go onto the Internet to the web address wildhorseandburro.blm.gov.