Salazar wants to move West's wild horses to the East

The Oregonian ^ | October 7, 2009 | Matthew Preusch

[jazusamo]

The government wants to deal with the booming number of wild horses crowding the Western range by sending the animals east.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today unveiled his plan to control the rising environmental and monetary costs associated with wild horses and burros by moving tens of thousands of them onto new preserves in the Midwest and East.

"We must consider citing these preserves in areas outside of Western States because water and forage are extremely limited in the West, and drought and wildfire threaten both rangeland and animal health," Salazar said in a letter today to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The government estimates there are 37,000 wild horses roaming the range in ten western states including Oregon, and the Bureau of Land Management keeps another 32,000 of the animals enclosed pastures or small corrals.

The agency tries to adopt these horses out, but it said the recession has slowed adoptions, and holding and caring for those horses now costs the agency nearly $30 million a year. 

In a conference call with reporters today, Salazar and BLM Director Bob Abbey said they think the BLM should own and operate two new wild horse preserves created by Congress.

Those would cost about $92 million to buy and build, said Salazar, but they would reduce the cost to taxpayers from wild horses in the long term.

"It also will be better for the horses," Salazar said.

The secretary said he also hoped to partner with private organizations to form five more preserves. In all, the seven preserves would hold about 25,000 horses.

The other part of the secretary's plan is to limit the reproduction rates of western herds.

"This will require the aggressive use of fertility control, active management of sex ratios on the range, and possibly the introduction of non-reproducing herds in some existing herd-management areas," Salazar wrote.

The agency has been under pressure from congress and other quarters to control the escalating costs of managing the West's population of wild horses and burros.

Some lawmakers have proposed reversing a decades-old ban on selling the wild horses for slaughter, but Salazar said today Interior's plan did not include the slaughter of any horses or burros.

"The fact is that the American public has shown that it does not want to have slaughtering of these animals," he said.

[jazusamo]

Government in feral horse business?

[jazusamo]

Please bump the Freepathon and donate if you haven’t done so!

[Vigilanteman]

While he's at it, he might want to move the surplus wolves in Alaska, Idaho and Montana to points east as well.

My guess is that after they snacked on a few house pets in, say, Vermont, they would rethink their opposition to hunting.

[SeeSharp]

"The fact is that the American public has shown that it does not want to have slaughtering of these animals," he said.

That's probably a wise policy. History has shown that if you want to get more of something, invent a tasty way to eat it.

[ClearCase_guy]

It’s good training for the future. The government might, you know, have to relocate tens of thousands of people somewhere.

[Frenchtown Dan]

So the solution would be to bring them east? Won’t that just spread the problem?

We already have enough problems with collisions with deer.
I can just imagine what damage a horse could do.

Horses are not native to North America. The Spaniards brought them here. Take them back to Spain.

[pepsionice]

I think if they wanted regular farmers with pasture land existing already...throughout the south...to take in six horses each for a $1k tax credit over five years per horse and full ownership of the horse after five years...they’d probably create a better solution.

[Ronon]

Now that is one of the simply dumbest ideas I have ever herd!!! HA! HA!

[jazusamo]

Yep, reopen some slaughter houses and send them back to Europe as frozen steaks.

[G Larry]

As long as they don’t move the East’s Horses asses out West......

[jazusamo]

Agreed, send one wolf for each horse to the East, share the great outdoors with them.

[hoosier hick]

"We must consider citing these preserves in areas outside of Western States..."

That would be "siting" to those of us familiar with the English language...

hh

English-language police....

[EggsAckley]

Mr. Salazar needs to go back to English class. “Siting” not “citing”.

[Frenchtown Dan]

Filet of ass.

I’ll have seconds, s’il vous plait.

[Freddd]

You didn’t know?

I wonder if the millions upon millions of dollars transfer with the horses, or will they confiscate more of our tax dollars for the east coast too???

[Mamzelle]

Sell them for meat.

[EggsAckley]

You beat me to it! Heh.

[Spok]

Maybe they’ll set them up in apartments in Manhattan.

[jazusamo]

It’ll be our tax dollars no matter where they’re located.

Salazar is wrong about a lot of Americans when he says we don’t want them slaughtered.

[FlingWingFlyer]

While he's at it, he might want to move the surplus wolves in Alaska, Idaho and Montana to points east as well.

LOL! You got that right. We've got some he can send from Arizona too! I don't know why the hell the ASPCA doesn't make them spay those things before they turn them loose.

[jagusafr]

Perhaps better in the glue business? Sorry, but it just seems silly to spend this much money on feral animals...

Colonel, USAFR

[Anima Mundi]

Maybe we will be needing them when they get rid of the internal combustion engine and discover electric cars use electricity. Out with the olden days of cars with horsepower and in with just horse power,

[Bernard Marx]

This reminds me of how the late Idaho potato baron Jack Simplot (J.R. Simplot Company) made the first little chunk of change that led him to billionaire status later on.

When he was 15 or 16 he had a row with his Dad and set off to make his own way. He'd saved up a little cash and invested it in pigs. The problem: how to feed them on the cheap to maximize his profit at sale time. Solution: wild horses.

He hunted mustangs that were abundant in southern Idaho in the 1920s, stewed up the meat in a big wood-fired cauldron and fed his pig herd very well. When he took his porkers to market he made a pile of money that, after several other investments, formed the capital for what eventually became one of the largest privately-held companies in the U.S.

At one time I worked for an advertising agency that handled the Simplot account. I was tasked with writing a biography of Simplot for one of the company publications and when it came to the mustangs I "wrote around" it, deferring to the new-found environmental/Disneyfied animal delicacy sweeping through America. I didn't want to put the company into any kind of controversy.

I submitted my copy and a few days later was called into a meeting with Simplot. He fixed me with his penetrating blue eyes and asked me calmly: "What about the mustangs?" I explained my reasoning but I left the meeting with the clear understanding the horse-cooking story was to be restored. He was very proud of that teen-aged business coup. As always, the Old Man got his way even though it made his own PR man a nervous wreck.

[TChris]

I can just imagine what damage a horse could do.

Collisions with tall large animals are horrific. They typically go through the windshield or tear the roof off.

Do EVERYTHING you can to avoid hitting a horse or moose!

[jazusamo]

Interesting, thanks.

He was a entrepreneur and business man from his teenage years and probably very proud of it, good for him for not being afraid to say it.

[dblshot]

Moving horses farther east will reduce the cost of shipping all that horse squeeze to the White House and Congress.

[tbw2]

If we have people AND horses without enough food, feed the horses to the people to solve the problem.

[Frenchtown Dan]

OMG.

Great pictures. My son hit a cow a few years ago. It was a very foggy evening, and he was only going about 25 miles an hour. The cow was black to make it worse, so he didn’t see it until it was too late. He was driving a Ford f-150 pickup truck. 1500 bucks damage to the truck. The cow didn’t even fall over.

[GladesGuru]

Ragout de chevelle a lapin.

Take one horse and one rabbit, ......

[GladesGuru]

“”We must consider citing these preserves in areas outside of Western States...”

That would be “siting” to those of us familiar with the English language...”

One more bureaucrap proving why that agency is called the Department of the Inferior.

[jazusamo]

Ragout de chevelle a lapin.

LOL! Sounds right to me though I'm no conasewer.

[Bernard Marx]

It just seems to me that his wealth-building idea might be one solution for the current mustang surplus. Unless PETA wants to “adopt” all those wild horses.