‘The Wild Horse Is Us’

While i do not agree with just randomly shooting or culling the herds, you would think that the beginning of the topic would be more accurate.

"After surviving the ice age, the industrial revolution and the slaughterhouse, America's wild horse population is facing a new threat"

First of all, Horses did not survive the ice age in north america, they were extinct to this continent until spanish settlers brought them here. The mustangs are not native to the continent, but feral, granted there have been wild horses since the early 1600s breeding in freedom. It is however, just plain uninformed comments to say they survived the ice age just for sheer impact! Get your facts straight!

Their destroying the desert. Lets get rid of them!!

Do any of you know how much feed a horse needs. Cattle take about 20 acres out here and horses a bit more, let's say 25 acres for agruement sakes. If there are about 20,000 horses that would be around 500,000 acres or 781 sections (square miles for those east of the big river) or an area about 28 miles on a side. So, lets crave up Central Park to take on a couple hundred and a few at Epcot and maybe some in every city park east of the Mississippi. As for the cattle ranchers, it would take too much to inform you how that works - I just wish the heck my family could make the kind of money you think is in the business. Try ordering diesel fuel 10,000 gallons at a time and buying equipment at $200,000 a shot, then pay with it by selling calves for $600 each. That doesn't include land price, preditor loses, disease (thanks for not letting us control the brucellosis, there's a few more millions that it will cost the Montana producer), permits for doing anything and general overhead. Cull the herd, it needs it. Or you can adopt a nice pony horse and feed it 365 days a year at a cost of around $4 a day. At that price they're cheap, take 10 or 20.

Anytime you see the words Government or Federal you can guaranty a failure.
The US Government has never done anything correct.
We have too many Government officials maybe we should euthanize them

http://www.wildhorseandburro.blm.gov/92-195.htm
Sec. 10. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the Secretary to relocate wild free-roaming horses or burros to areas of the public lands where they do not presently exist.

Fact: there are more Mustangs on the ranges than the range can support.

Total (SCREAMING.. THEY USE ALL CAPS) bleeding hearts. They love these critters more than people. Sickening. They should be supporting them directly, not through our tax dollars.

It's welfare for horses and donkeys (burro is the spanish name for donkey.. but most people are too embarrassed to say 'donkey' because of the conotations associated with it.. heh).

Plain and simple: horse welfare.

I've seen TONS of wild horses and donkeys. And yeah, they are trashing 1000's of square miles. I mean, I called this one formerly beautiful valley "Horse $h!t Valley" because you could NOT take a step without stepping in horse manure. Ridiculous!

And yes, there are springs out in the desert with formerly crytal clear running water. But not now. NO no.. FULL of donkey $hit... I look at the piles of donkey $hit festering in the putrifying water and all I see is some lousy shiftless bleeding heart going "OMG!! save these pathetic creatures!!"

Yeah.. life IS full of choicese. But paying rent and buying food is NOT a choice .. unless you want to live in a cardboard box and beg for food. Stupid people.. wtf. BLM pay your contract.

I would be willing to check a box on my tax return for this cause. I believe, however, that the money must be earmarked ONLY for the protection of the horses. Then the government can reduce the amount of land leased to cattle ranchers - not all of it - and the problem of overcrowding/overgrazing should disappear. I would also recommend the BLM review their guidelines for ownership of wild horses. Could they be amended to allow more people to own the animals while still protecting them from slaugher? I agree with selective culling, not mass roundups with thousands of animals living in a corral.

I can't imagine what it must be like for the 30 thousand plus horses they've rounded up and dumped in holding pens. I am certain that for them it is hell on earth. The public needs to examine why the horses are there in the first place. This operation was obviously misguided from the beginning and now they've got a mess to clean up. I don't know what the answer is for those poor creatures who are already in holding pens-the fact that they are there is absolutely inhumane. Putting a stop to the roundup - yes. Management by contraception certainly makes more sense then hunting them down and euthanizing them. Educating the public about how little impact the horses actually do have on the open range and how much destruction domestic stock & development cause is vital; however the lobbies are so strong it is definitely a David & Goliath situation. It is all about money and the horses are obviously considered disposable. Time to cut back on beef consumption or urge everyone to be conscious of the origins of the meat they buy perhaps? Something needs to be done and people have got to care. Please pass the word and urge folks to educate themselves about the situation and to have a voice on behalf of the horses before it is too late.

What the hell is wrong with this country???? Another $132 BILLION bill was just signed by "Mr.Pres" for a war that NO BODY WANTS and they can't come up with a few meezly million dollars to save one of the most beautiful species know to our American history?? Unbelievable...God Help Us All!!! Our government is out of control and out of their minds!!! This whole issue just makes me terribly sad.....

Euthanize an American Symbol of Freedom??? It would be like burning the American Flag!!!!
NEWS FLASH PEOPLE, the wild horse was here way before America was America!! Most come from the Conquistadors. Try managing the cattle/sheep that are the ones destroying the PUBLIC lands.....horses dont tear out the entire plant, roots and all, like cattle/sheep do. I hereby donate MY share of the PUBLIC lands that my tax dollars pay for to the wild horses. Anyone care to match it??
If the solution to "OVERPOPULATION" is to just kill them off, maybe it will work for the OVERPOPULATION of Polititions?? Cattle ranchers need to remember that the lands are NOT theirs by right....but by privelege.
The article had a good suggestion, more public involvement/donations and some simple sterilization. Roundups should be cut to 1 every yr ot 2, not several times a year like they do now. Adopt out the ones they can, sterilize the majority of the remaining horses and RETURN THEM TO WHERE THEY CAME FROM. Without this unique and wonderful animal, America would not have progressed. Humans have always depended on this animal since ancient man tamed the first horse. We worked together for centuries...now that they arent HIGH TECH, we kill them off???
I am not a fanatic animal rights person, but horses are a special symbol for our country and it is wrong to take the easy way out when things get hard. To the people at the BLM, GO FIND YOUR BRAINS AND PUT THEM IN GEAR. THINK!!!!! Try cutting back on the cattle/sheep per acre, they can be managed much better to allow a more reasonable balance. Smart, humane, reasonable management is needed and now is DEMANDED.
To katsnjammers - You only hunt what you eat. Anything else is a waste. You plan on eating your kill??? Horses are not noxious weeds, they dont destroy the land, man/cattle/sheep do that. Lands were find until man decided he knew better than nature.. Get your facts straight, try reading a book.

I lived 30 years near one of the largest wild horse herds in the US and have spent many glorious hours observing them. The BLM land they're on near me is so vast and huge that the herds are few and far between and when spooked will run until all you see is a speck on the horizon. There is no way they are overgrazing this area. They also are a great outdoor classroom for observing survival of the fittest and natural attrition. Leave them alone!

"aren't happy "!!!!!!!!! At risk of being labelled a illogical religious fanatic, I declare this as EVIL! Reciting history is seldom heeded, so I won't bother. Still I've read many a book about or by my favorite president, Teddy Roosevelt, and In my estimation - no doubt about it - anyone in voice or print speaking of a mass euthanizing of mustangs would receive a verbal thrashing they would never forget. And if he were to catch them in the act, a big stick would be the least of their worries. Did I say this was EVIL?

Does anyone remember (or are they informed) as to what happened when calvary turned from the horse to the tank/jeep in WW1? What happened to all those horses that the american government trained, raised, etc... yep... they were all killed and placed into mass graves, as they were the property of the good ole USA..