There are about 48,500 wild horses and 5,000 wild burros in 10 Western states.
The maximum sentence, six months in jail, is half the maximum for harassing a wild burro on federal lands.
In fiscal year 1985, more than 9,500 horses and wild burros were adopted.
The Government estimates there are about 5,500 wild burros in the West, a population they would like to stabilize at about 3,300.
Animals such as the Colorado River toad, desert bighorn sheep, and wild burros live in the refuge habitat.
The northern slopes were formerly home to herds of wild burros that could be seen from Wildhorse Meadows Road.
(Later an interviewer notes that the penalty for harassing a wild burro on federal land is stiffer.)
And wild burros are not usually regarded as glamorous, either.
She and her husband, Mike, decided to pay $75 for one of the wild burros for sale here.
Feral horses (Mustangs) and wild burros are other highly reproductive, and ecosystem controversial, alien species.