Wild horses no cash cow: 45,000 to be killed by Bureau of Land Management

https://www.rt.com/usa/359135-blm-shoots-horses-dont-they/



Few animals in the US are as romanticized as horses. From gracing the covers of cheesy romance novels or spaghetti westerns, to being the stereotypical rich person’s pet, horses occupy a unique cultural space. But the US government is about to kill 45,000 of them.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is under fire after deciding to euthanize 45,000 unadopted wild horses it has been keeping in holding facilities across the US. The wild horses were removed from their natural habitat by the BLM so that privately-owned cattle could graze on the land for profit.

The decision hasn’t been particularly well received. The Humane Society referred to it as “a complete abdication of responsibility for their care,” and panned the bureau for not using birth control to curtail the growth of the population.

The equines can be adopted from the facilities for $125 apiece, but even purchasing all 45,000 of them for $5,625,000 would do little to offset the $49 million that the BLM spent on them last year, according to The Verge.

The $49 million spoke for over half of the entire budget for the Bureau of Land Management’s National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board.

Some don’t believe that wild horses deserve any more special treatment than any other non-native species, such as the Norwegian rats that practically own the New York City transit system. Horses first arrived in the US with the conquistadors in the late 15th century, too recently “for native North American plants and animals to adapt to the pressures of coexistence,” according to Slate.

The threats wild horses pose to the environment are serious, with the grasslands they occupy covered with “biotic crusts” that hold desert soils down, preventing them from being blown away. However, horses trample and pulverize this crust with their hooves, damaging the earth.

This layer of topsoil can take hundreds of years to recover from the mustang’s damage.

why did the Idiots let them accumulate like that?
Yeah I know,"Goviment-Efficiency"!

Yet another assault on plains tribe Indians and Quakes.

Take one of those to the race ! All your fancy purebreds would eat dust !

Wild horses should be killed or sold, government board decide

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/09/14/wild-horses-should-be-killed-or-sold-government-board-decides.html?cmpid=NL_morninghl/



The U.S. government is coming under fire from animal rights activists amid concerns that almost 45,000 wild horses could be euthanized in an attempt to control their numbers.

Last week the Bureau of Land Management’s National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board recommended that the Bureau euthanize or sell “without limitation” excess “unadoptable” horses and burros in the BLM’s off-range corrals and pastures.

An “unadoptable” horse or burro is typically at least 5 years old, making them less attractive for purchase or adoption. The bureau has more than 44,000 horses and more than 1,000 burros in off-range pastures and corrals.

The recommendation prompted an angry response from The Humane Society of the United States. “The decision of the BLM advisory board to recommend the destruction of the 45,000 wild horses currently in holding facilities is a complete abdication of responsibility for their care,” said Humane Society Senior Vice President of Programs & Innovations Holly Hazard, in a statement.

Under the terms of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, the BLM manages, protects and controls wild horses and burros. The law authorizes the agency to move wild horses and burros off ranges to sustain the health of public lands. In addition to the off-range animals, the bureau estimates that more than 67,000 wild horses and burros are roaming on BLM-managed rangelands in 10 Western states.

With virtually no natural predators, wild horse and burro herd sizes can double about every four years, which means that thousands of the animals are removed from the range each year to control herd sizes and protect the land. The BLM has its own off-range holding corrals in states such as Nevada and California, as well as contracts with private ranches in locations such as Kansas and Oklahoma.

The Bureau has not yet made a formal response to the board’s recommendation, although, in a statement, it said that it will continue to care and seek good homes for animals that have been removed from the range. “What this means is that we will continue with our current policy, which is not to sell or send wild horses or burros to slaughter,” it said.

A BLM spokesman told FoxNews.com that the animals are protected. “These are public lands and the horses are a symbol of the history of the Old West,” he said. Since 1971, the BLM has adopted out more than 235,000 wild horses and burros, according to the spokesman. “We screen buyers and we screen adopters,” he added.

The agency also noted that the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board is an independent panel comprised of members of the public.

The bureau spent $49 million caring for off-range animals during its fiscal year 2015, which accounted for two-thirds of its wild horse and burro budget.

However, the Humane Society has slammed the agency’s efforts. “Over the past 20 years, the BLM has maintained round-up and removal as a primary management strategy for wild horse and burro populations on America’s western rangelands – an effort which has led to a financially unsustainable Wild Horse and Burro Program,” it said, in its statement. “By focusing massive efforts on removing horses and burros from the range, without treating those horses remaining on the range with any form of fertility control to limit population growth, holding facilities throughout the United States have become overburdened.”

Shoot em and sell the meat to the French.

With Obama cutting ONE MILLION, off of food stamps, & (over) 1 in 30 hungry  (American  children), and gross unemployment & 15.7 illegal aliens, & (over) 10,000 so called "refugees', from the Middle East, (more coming) & who knows how many other migrants... that tax payers are supporting.

We may end up like Venezuela & hunt them, like they did ( dogs & cats & then zoo animals).

This is so not true we are having to bid on mustangs for adoption here in Oklahoma. We are in process. 125.00 is an adoption application fee. Facts all wrong here. There is a facility in Pauls Valley Oklahoma. You have to have proper housing trailer and are checked on before title to wonderful creatures are yours. There are bidding wars over the horses. Believe me they have strict regulations to obtain, and own. There are several BLM facilities all over the U.S. They make some of the finest horses you can
own. I'd check out the truth before going off half cocked on this one folks. check it out for yourself BLM Horse & burro adoptions.

There's always two sides to the story....

I have a special affinity for horses but I clearly understand the damage they can do to even small plot's of land when they are allowed to over breed or trample and "mess" on land over long periods in less land than can support this large an animal.

Too many people are overly romantic about keeping these horses alive in what too often deteriorates to a deplorable situation for animals and humans alike.

What I can't under stand is if I must have my pet (dog) licensed and spayed if I do not want to pay a hefty tax why do not the owners of these horses or the owners of the property they roam and breed freely on have to do like wise; eben and especially govement owned lands. Believee if these departments lost funding or were forced into receivership they would be "cleaned" up.

I am pretty certain the horses would be selected for their best genetic markers and bloodlines to sustain herds and fewer foals would be created by selective sterilization. A horse hardly suffers by not being overbreed.

But yes I truly believe there are HUGE descrepencies between truth and fiction that are being put out on the subject.

I'm sure McDonald's and Burger King will be buying them up.