More wild problems
A reader posted to following comment to my earlier post about not-so-wild horses:
"As of November, just in SW Idaho, we've had 44 abandoned horses that have required the brand inspector to come out. That's those caught/identified. Post slaughter-ban and with the depressed horse market, abandonment is rapidly becoming the norm for far too many people. The BLM is basically out of money and space, with better than 30,000 wild horses and burros being held at this point. What's going to happen? Odds are no one will be happy with what does, but the crisis will probably reach an initial head this winter. Several range professionals I've talked to are fearful of a spring thaw down here revealing a scattering of carcasses."
He's right about the crisis the BLM faces. I don't know how many folks saw news stories on the GAO report released this month, but it says the BLM needs to euthanize or sell (with no strings attached) many of the 30,000 wild horses and burros it now has in captivity. The reason -- its costing the agency 74 percent of its wild-horse program budget to care for these animals, which are basically unadoptable.
As I wrote in a newspaper editorial about this last week, nobody wants to see wild horses euthanized. But holding once-wild animals in crowded corrals, where they may be more prone to disease and have little opportunity to run, is hardly compassionate. And it uses up the bulk of the BLM budget that should be going to range improvements and other wild-horse needs, such as sterilization programs to reduce overpopulation on the range.
As the commenter noted, a lot of people won't like the possibility of euthanizing the wild horses, but the crisis is coming to a head, soon.
posted by The old scribe @ 7:32 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
According to your message 44 horses have been turned lose do you have the facts or is this your word to post. If it is fact then thats not bad 44 in the whole state in one year. Means 44 criminals that should be punished and should have never had rights to owned an animal now I wonder how many children are unadopted or taken aways because of the same situation. We own horses and cant believe the irresponsible acts some people do. We must not reward them because of hard times We must set laws to make them away that this kind of behavior is NOT accepted in these modern days. Slaughter has only increase so you cant blame closing US plants in fact more abuse and neglect always follow when horse slaughter exist. Now its time to clean out the ignorant irresponsible horse owners. There a new breed of Americans and its called taking back our American Icons from slaughter,abuse,and neglect.
The BLM problem is very easily fixed. Return the horses to their land. There were no problems until the BLM started rounding them up. And for what? So the cattle ranchers can add to the already 6 MILLION cattle on the land. Why isn't their an outrage to remove the cattle? why aren't they being rounded up?
The horses numbered over 2 Million and are down to 16,000-19,000. They were there long before the BLM and cattle ranchers. The BLM is supposed to protecting the horses, not extincting them.
Anonymous is right on target regarding slaughter.
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