Posted on 05/03/2009 1:48:03 PM PDT by jazusamo
Wild horses are icons of the West, but growing herds have become a costly problem. Tribes say the horses damage their land and need to be managed — maybe by bringing back slaughterhouses.
WARM SPRINGS INDIAN RESERVATION —Here on this reservation in north-central Oregon, horses are woven deeply into daily life. They are traditionally used by tribal members in their work and their culture, whether it be for rodeos or horse parades.
Gathering, breaking and selling wild horses has long been part of the tribe's economy. Horses that don't make the grade are sold for slaughter.
But the nation's final three slaughterhouses were shuttered two years ago, and a perfect storm has formed with a glut of horses, lack of a market and economic recession.
Tribal rangeland managers now estimate 20,000 wild horses are overrunning Indian Country in Washington, Idaho and Oregon, with an annual foal crop raising the population by some 20 percent a year. At the Yakama reservation, range managers say 12,000 wild horses are damaging medicinal plants, depleting forage for wildlife, eroding fragile rangelands and harming salmon streams. Domestic animals, including cattle, add to the problem.
"We have been spending billions on salmon and steelhead recovery, and it goes for naught if we don't do something that fixes these other problems," said Arlen Washines, program manager for the Yakama Nation Wildlife Program.
Agricultural and rangeland experts from five tribes have been meeting quietly since last winter to explore options to manage horse populations on reservation lands. Their ideas, still in discussion, run the gamut. The most controversial: opening a slaughter plant at the Warm Springs reservation, and maybe someday packing the meat for human consumption overseas, if the regulatory hurdles can be cleared and economics pencil out.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
You’re right there — unless the Indian businesses could insure that the product is for export only and not for sale in the US.
The French and Belgians especially like horsemeat.
I would love to go see these “wild” horses......
The best is obviously the CHOW!
That's easy to do, just take a trip to Reno. They are quite common in the Virginia Range, east of Reno, and often come into suburban neighborhoods. One of my coworkers has a 10 acre lot, about 10 miles southeast of Reno, and gets horses in his yard almost every day.
Heard another mountain lion, Jaz! One of the plots I have to bird-survey at least ten times this season is at 7,200 feet on the western slope of the Spring Mountains (way upslope from Pahrump). It's gorgeous PJ (pinyon pine & juniper) forest with a few ponderosa pines and white cedars.
The second time I was there (at dawn on one 30-degree morning), I heard a few distant big cat growls coming from a nearby ridge about 300 meters away. The cat no doubt saw me and let me know I wasn't welcome, but I couldn't get any glass on it. Since we're not allowed to wear guns (don't ask -- it's political, as you can imagine), I now carry a medium-sized buckknife in a sheath on my pants belt. It at least gives me a fighting chance... LOL!
Re: "wild" horses. You and 3niner are absolutely right. There's nothing wild about these feral nonnative equines. The same goes with the "wild" burros. On my last ten-day bird tour, I saw many feral burros and a few feral horses (near Cold Creek on the eastern side of the Spring Mountains). You can almost pet the horses, they're that domesticated now. And destructive, especially around oases and springs.
I'll be honest, though. I don't want to see all the feral equines extirpated. My gut feeling is that the habitat can support some populations of feral equines, so long as they're kept in check by culling programs or through regular adoption programs.
But, of course, the Animal-Rights nuts are opposed to that. No surprise, there.
Anyway, belated thanks for all the pings. Great reading!
I agree, and would like to point at that the most cost effective "culling programs" are known as "hunting season". The state issues a limited number of licenses for for specific types of large game animals, and the hunters pay the state for the privilege of thinning the herds. There is no reason that this would not work perfectly well with feral horses.
But you're quite right. Their numbers MUST be controlled. But what hunter wants to return home to his wife with his dead "trophy" horse?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.