Can Trump Solve America's Wild Horses Crisis?

americanthinker.com ^ | 3/31/2020 | Bill Croke

[rktman]

Approximately 88,000 mustangs roam 27 million acres of BLM rangelands (where they compete with two million head of domestic cattle for grass on leased grazing allotments) in ten Western states. Roughly 18,000 foals are produced yearly. In 2018 11,500 horses were rounded up and corralled in BLM "holding facilities," where they were adopted. All this (the roundups, the holding facilities, feeding, the BLM adoption process bureaucracy, etc.) costs taxpayers $81 million annually. The Trump administration seeks a target number of 27,000 horses, or about a thousand horses per million acres of rangeland. Acting BLM director William Perry Pendley has stated that the status quo "wreaks havoc" on the public rangelands.

A mature wild horse weighs on average of 850 pounds and will consume 25 pounds of grass per day. Cattle weigh up to 400 pounds more and eat about the same amount of grass daily. Unlike horses, cattle are not selective in their grazing and thus do more damage to the range. Two million cows are currently grazing on 155 million acres of BLM leases, feral horses on 27 million acres. To look at two states in particular: Nevada ranchers have access to 65% of BLM rangeland statewide; in Wyoming, it's 75%.

[rktman]

Now for something completely different. There's a holding facility north of Reno as you head to Pyramid Lake. Huge corrals that you can visit and look at some of the horsed rounded up. Some are magnificent and some are obviously in poor condition. There are a lot of them roaming wild in the mountains east of town also. There is a LOT of federal land in NevaDUH.

[dfwgator]

I liked The Sundays’ version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiyCkSOF1pc

[PlateOfShrimp]

We’ll ride them someday

[rktman]

Not bad.

[mad_as_he$$]

I know it sounds odd but the horses on the Virginia Range are “State” horses and do not fall under Federal jurisdiction.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

*PING*

[elcid1970]

Reminds me of Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe in “The Misfits”. The end of the line for both.

[rellimpank]

--good article-- --I saw the facility north of Reno some years ago in the spring when the horses were shedding the winter coats and looked like broken down upholstery--the were sorted into three groups, small, medium and large--and struck me as the saddest looking bunch of swaybacked, mule-faced ever assembled--not likely to be adopted by anybody.

I will no doubt get flamed for this but suggest that the only sensible solution is sale to the French for food and make dog and cat food out of most of the rest--

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

The horses were under control till “Wild Horse Annie”, back around 1970, screamed and hollered and got laws passed forbidding the catching and turning horses into dog food and steaks for Europeans passed.

Now people who have horses find no market for them when they get old, or bored with them, so they abandon them by simply releasing them in open range areas or forests.

Much like the destruction of the market for emus led to wild roaming emus everywhere.

[nuke_road_warrior]

Back in the day, at my Alma Mater, a professor of Wildlife Biology was asked how the wild horse problem should be solved. His reply was “With a 30-06.” Unfortunately, east coasters and people who had never seen the destruction wild horses caused to the environment and the pressure they put on native herbivores, decided that these invasive critters needed to be protected, to preserve the memory of the celluloid old West. Thus the Wild Horse and Burro act was passed and wild horses could no longer be killed.

[Sacajaweau]

The Kammath problem has to be solved. Farmers first!!

[SanchoP]

This is a no-brainer. Keep some for breeding stock and slaughter the rest for meat and hides. This adoption business is sheer idiocy.

[Magnum44]

[Fiji Hill]

The horses were under control till “Wild Horse Annie”, back around 1970, screamed and hollered and got laws passed forbidding the catching and turning horses into dog food and steaks for Europeans passed.

In 1962, while driving through a small town in Sweden, we stopped at a restaurant to have dinner. On their English-language menu, the meal that was featured for the day was labeled, "force meat." We had to grill the waiter before we were satisfied that the menu item was not a misspelling of "horse meat." It turned out to be ground beef.

[9YearLurker]

I think Pres. Trump has a few more pressing things higher up his punch list right now...

[riverrunner]

Why does one need them for breeding stock.

We have plenty of non wild horses if one wants to raise and breed them.

[rktman]

Did not know that. Thanks.

[hinckley buzzard]

This is dumb. Cull the herd severely. Great roundups and humane disposal. If the French want to buy the meat fine. Horses are not indigenous to modern North America anyway, having been introduced by Europeans after centuries of extinction.

[Jaded]

Yup. I’d be surprised if he actually knew about this.

[rktman]

Invasive species.