Posted on 02/24/2005 1:05:27 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
RENO, Nev. - For the first time in more than a generation, the mustang - the very symbol of the American West - can be slaughtered for horsemeat.
In December, Congress repealed the 34-year-old ban on the slaughter of the wild horses that run free across the West. The move has brought a powerful backlash from activists, who want to reinstate full protection for the mustangs.
"It is really a slap in the face to the American people," said Betty Kelly, co-founder of the horse protection group Wild Horse Spirit in Virginia City, Nev.
Acting on behalf of ranchers who say the horses eat forage needed by cattle, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., attached the amendment in December to a spending bill that President Bush signed into law.
It allows for the sale for slaughter of some older and unwanted horses that are captured during the periodic government roundups aimed at reducing the wild population, now estimated at 33,000 across 10 Western states. About 19,000 of the horses are in Nevada.
A bill to reinstate the slaughter ban was introduced in Congress last month.
Responsibilty for rounding up horses on federal land and selling them rests with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which has yet to send any of the animals to slaughter.
BLM officials said the agency is reaching out to animal protection groups and is optimistic that before the summer, it will find new homes for the 8,900 horses and burros that could be subject to slaughter.
"We realize it is a challenge, but we think there are owners out there that would provide the kind of care we are looking for," BLM spokesman Tom Gorey said from Washington, D.C.
The issue has dogged the Interior Department and Congress since Nevada's Velma Johnson, also known as Wild Horse Annie, and a legion of schoolchildren persuaded Congress to outlaw the use of motor vehicles to hunt the mustangs in 1959. That was followed by the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act of 1971.
Sylvia Fascio, a fifth-generation Nevada horse breeder, said there are too many wild horses roaming the BLM land next to her ranch, and some should be sold for slaughter.
"I enjoy the wild horses. I'm blessed to live out here among them and it's a very romantic thought. But there is such a thing as reality," Fascio said. "Since they can't seem to find homes for all of these horses all of the time, there is only one thing left. There are foreign countries that eat horsemeat. We don't now, but we did during World War II. I see nothing wrong with that."
The fate of the horses is also a question of cultural values, according to Mike Schroeder, a Washington state wildlife biologist. "I think of them more as livestock. But a lot of tribes I work with think of them as wildlife that should not be touched," he said in a speech to a Western Governors Association conference earlier this month.
It is a volatile issue. Scott Freeman, a defense attorney in Reno, defended one of three young men who were accused - and eventually acquitted of most charges - in the 1998 shooting deaths of 33 horses on the edge of Reno. The shootings outraged animal protection groups around the world and led to death threats against Freeman.
"I have lots of experience doing homicide cases, but I have never experienced the emotional outburst I did with the horse case," he said. "The rallying cry was for the defenseless animals and that the individuals - who in my case turned out to be innocent - should basically be strung up."
Burns said the repeal of the slaughter ban is necessary to manage the herds and protect the range. The measure allows the sale of horses more than 10 years old, as well as any that go unadopted three offerings in a row.
The BLM said it believes the 37,000 free-roaming wild horses and burros on the range are about 9,000 more than natural food supplies can sustain. Its aim is to bring the population down to about 28,000.
BLM Director Kathleen Clarke said the agency already is getting some responses in its effort to find homes for the animals and hopes to find a solution "in a way we feel good about."
ON THE NET: http://www.wildhorseandburro.blm.gov
Thank you. I think your post shows some common sense.
Becky
I sold a horse to slaughter once, and was able to buy my daughter a very very nice, well broke pony. We got about $500 for him.
Becky
Tough thread.
Becky
The part I didn't get was this part: "The price on horses is about to go up again. I saw it dip in the past when there wasn't anyway to profit off of old worn out horses other than to bury them so they didn't take money away in feed costs. I think this will help horsemen and ranchers out a bit."
Outlaw talks like this is a proposal to somehow make horse slaughter legal for people who want to dispose of a horse, which it is already, much as I don't like it. It is the sale of rounded up mustangs to slaughter that has not been allowed previously. Flooding the 'market' with 10,000 slaughtered mustangs is not going to ~increase~ the price. The bottom's going to drop out, if temporarily. An important distinction.
Yeah - I hate this stuff. People do manage to create big messes.
But with fewer horses on the market for slaughter, the price will go up for people who have a horse that needs to go, and IMO, this is a better solution then adopting these poor animals out to idiots who have no idea how to deal with horses. And I've seen that happen time and again. It will also keep the breeding of dink horses from happening which so many people do when they have horses. It could improve horses rather then have indiscrimate breeding which is done all the time by people who have a mare and think well why not.
Becky
I agree with that:)
Becky
It means more horses on the market for slaughter if this passes than if it didn't, so the price will go down.
Not that I am interested in protecting the poundage price on horsemeat, I'd rather it were zero.
If you know that, ironically, you just may be Irish. I have cousins in Cork and ride there every chance I get. You're also a good sport and I apologize for poking fun at you in the third person.
Don't worry, I've thick skin. County Cork's a lovely place - it has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Duchess, you should know more about this.
Your perception about my posts are partially correct. My "feelings" are not the either-or" kind, or without thought, but what is in the best interest of all concerned, including the horse. The present situation with mustangs and the BLM is a travesty which seems to have escaped you.
The "full zealotry" that you accuse me of is from my watching the what and why people do what for, and why and what with horses. Most of it is wrong. The fact is, horses are no longer a necessity, so why does anyone even have them. I doubt that you ride a horse to work, use a horse at work or use a horses to pull your counties ambulances or fire equipment. Your sheriff rides a car or pickup. Therefore, horses to those of you who are "even tempered" about them, are toys and are simply used for amusements such as playing cowboy. When you get right down to it, I don't know why we have any horses at all. They cost money that would be better spent on other things and they are dangerous. So, if I am a "zealot" about horses care and treatment, how can you justify your wanting to own them strictly for your own personal amusement? It's the other side of the same coin.
.. by the way, I'm happy you are so successful and your operation is so well funded that additional revenue vs. additional expenses isn't something you are concerned with. The fact is, some folks scrape by...
"The fact is, some folks scrape by.." Yes they do and I have. The fact my operation is adequately funded is that I have priorities. I don't waste money on vehicles or personal luxuries. My horses earn their keep and their retirement. I don't buy or trade for "fun", and I don't sell horses to people who don't have the money, facilities, or most important of all, inclination to care for them. So don't try and shove money up my nose, pardner. I too, once fed my horse on my credit card until I learned to do the things that balance the books.
...and promising means just that, promising - not accomplished. As in, Daddy was a great cutter and Momma had a wonderful temperament around cattle.
You are more likely to find a great horse at the auction than you are to buy a "promising" yearling from somebody's back yard. More than half of the sound horses at an auction, that are less than ten years old, represent more human failure then the horse's own lack of "promise". From the breeder, to the trainer, to the last owner, a lot of so-called "horsepeople" have let the "promise" of that good horse go to waste. Now that otherwise good horse, is going to fill a Frenchman's belly because its owners had no horse sense.
The arguments you've put forth so far are limousine liberal diatribes.
Whoooie! I'll bet that felt good! Just like Johnnie Cochran a playin' the race card! If that's all the argument you've got left, then you're plumb outa' dally slack and you dun dropped yur' piggin' string in the dirt, "cowboy". Furthermore, none of any of your posts attempted, in any intelligent way, to resolve the problems regarding the overpopulation of mustangs.
Yes 'tis.
....;^)
It would seem that what you eat is of some sort of personal, political expression....
Just to piss off the people who want to tell others what they can and cannot eat, I'm going out of my way on my next trip abroad to eat some dog, some cat, and some horse.
...that I was just expanding upon. And, like you, it was just hot air....
Yes, the Warm Springs Prison is quite close to me and the program is very successful. The horses benefit, the prisoners benefit, and the future owners of a mustang benefit.
A good part of Nevada is owned by the Federal Government and the state. I can't remember the numbers any more, but I think private ownership of our land is at 5-8%. There are millions of acres in the middle of nowhere that could be home to these mustangs. And, there are probably mustangs living in those millions of acres that the government doesn't know about.
People move out here, buy five acres and romance about the wild horses. They call their friends to tell them they can see them out the window in the morning. Then they decide to feed them (which is against the law). Then after awhile they get tired of the manure left behind, or horses on the front lawn when they start landscaping, or horses crossing the highway when they want to get to work in a hurry. So now it's time for them to go - well, the idiots have built in the middle of their range, have made them dependent on provided feed, have overcome their natural distrust of man, and have filled up the highways with cars.
Meanwhile, some more people have moved in that now feel it incumbent on them to "save" the mustang. So they raise money, round them up, put them in holding areas, and perpetuate the problem because they can't stand the thought that nature is not a kind mistress.
There is no good solution any more, but every step we make to solve it makes things worse.
Becky
It was a good deal for you.
"It would seem that what you eat is of some sort of personal, political expression.."
And here I thought what one eats is a function of one's palate. Silly me.
I thought so too, however your post below, faithfully reproduced word for word by modern technology, implies that you have the power to be extremely annoying to others by what you eat. I hate to disappoint you, but you don't have to eat anything to "piss off the people", just express one of your immature thoughts. As for what you eat, I really don't care what you like to put in your mouth
"Just to piss off the people who want to tell others what they can and cannot eat, I'm going out of my way on my next trip abroad to eat some dog, some cat, and some horse."
You missed the crucial next sentence "Who knows, I may find that I like them."
Sorry, but I knew you would have some good first hand knowlege, into this situation.
I am glad to hear the prison training works so well. More in this area would find homes, if they were trained.
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