It's to make room for cattle to graze already fairly sparse pasture in public lands on lease. It isn't because the land can't support them, it's because a decision has been made about value.
I support the affordable beef that large cattle operations provide... I don't fail to see their value too, but there has to be a balance found that is better than this.
I stop short of thinking it would ever be a good idea to turn horses into a game animal to be hunted, but the answers provided in this article, either life being fed in holding pens or sale to factory slaughter, they can't be the best idea out there. We need some new ideas.
I'm somewhat disappointed that you disparage cattlemen. Do you really want everyone to live in cities and maintain the wild west for wild horses and predators to have their free range? Is raising beef on corn-fed lots in the midwest really superior to the cowboys of the West?
My ancestors settled the west to raise Clysdales and beef. They did not have vast landholdings, the range was held in common and everyone in the community ranged their cattle on it. There was never a problem with overgrazing - they didn't want to denude the range of vegetation...it would have killed their livlihood and and starved them into oblivion.
The problem started when the Federal Government in Washington DC thought they were better land stewards and took possession of millions and millions of acres in the west. The story was, the Feds would manage it "better." So these trusting people turned over their rights to the BLM. This was in the days when we still trusted the Government...I think we've come to understand that control is best left to the State. It is my feeling that the land the Feds took control of needs to be returned to the people that live there. Where in the Constitution does it give the Federal Government the right to control lands.
"It's to make room for cattle to graze already fairly sparse pasture in public lands on lease. It isn't because the land can't support them, it's because a decision has been made about value."
Thanks for the info. Your horses are beautiful and obviously well loved! I'm always grateful I grew out of my "horse lust." I know if it had kept up, I'd be totally broke today. Raising laying hens is much cheaper all the way around, though they don't care to be saddled up much, LOL!
I still want my own milk cow, though. Preferably a Brown Swiss, if I can afford one. ;)