Posted on 07/18/2009 10:09:47 AM PDT by jessduntno
The outlook may still be grim for thousands of wild horses and burros, despite a rescue measure passed Friday by the House. It would give the wild animals millions more acres to roam, and spare them from the possibility of slaughter.
But there's no similar bill in the Senate and that doesn't bode well for final passage.
There are an estimated 36,000 wild horses and burros in ten Western states. Federal officials believe that's about 9,400 more than can exist in balance with other rangeland resources. More than 31,000 others are being cared for in corrals and pastures.
The Interior Department announced last year it might have to kill thousands of healthy wild horses and burros to deal with the growing population, a move that WV Congressman Nick Rahall strongly opposed.
During House debate, Republicans dismissed the rescue measure as welfare for horses, at a time when people are in need. One GOP lawmaker says the effort to save the horses is based on "emotion and not science."
(Excerpt) Read more at whsv.com ...
thank you for that
Been riding a TN walker lately and have found them to be really a nice ride and something I wouldn’t mind getting.
A neighbor has two quarter horses and thinks they’re the best all round horse?
if you have time what is your opinion please?>
A great deal of info on the subject and very kind of you to spend the time giving it.
I’ll be going through it today.
thank you
You’re most welcome.
The situation with the wild horses began in the 70’s. Locals would round up the horses, keep the ones they thought would make good horses, ranchers would do the same and those that they didn’t want they sent to the sale barn for extra income. Bleeding heart people found out that some of the horses sold ended up at slaughter houses and started a campaign for the government to save the wild horses.
The government began rounding up wild horses, adopting out the ones people wanted and placing the excess- thousands of them at this point- in feedlots and taxpayers pay for their upkeep.
A couple of points people need to understand- the horses cannot be left where they are in the wild- the range will only support so many and some of the land they range on is privately owned ranches and the rancher needs the grass for his own livestock. A few are left on the range, determined by where they are and how many the range can support. Also many of the wild horses are inbred and have defects that make them not usable/not adoptable. Some have injures that also keep them from being adopted and some are just- well ugly enough that no one wants them. There are not enough people who want to adopt them to take care of those that are adoptable.
This is an example of a program that was demanded by bleeding hearts without thinking it through. Something has to be done with the numbers of horses that don’t get adopted for one reason or another. The solution to this point has been for the taxpayers to care for them until they die of old age.
This is an ongoing boondoggle from the 1970s that still has no good solution. The way things were done before the bleeding hearts got the government involved was working out well for everyone and cost the taxpayers nothing.
Reduce the numbers and the “scientists” lose their pet projects. Liberal growth pattern.
My personal opinion is that their numbers be curtailed drastically and the range land leased for raising cattle. Wild horses are not good for anything other than eating grass and viewing by enviros that go ooh and ah.
Slaughterhouses should be reopened and the meat be allowed to be shipped to Europe. Those slaughterhouses were not only for wild horses but for all horses. It wouldn’t be a large industry but it would be a money making business for several of them and it would be a way to get rid of excess horses.
“This is an example of a program that was demanded by bleeding hearts without thinking it through.”
Sounds familiar...how is the healthcare bill doing?
The aberrant horse population needs to be lowered. The laws I read disallowed live horses to be shipped across the border. Corral and starve them? The sickest and most inhumane of all options thus far.
At some point the ancients began controlled breeding to get larger horses. Finally, they developed horses that could carry a rider, saddle and a small load. No longer were warriors limited to horseteams and chariots.
For all practical purposes these are DOMESTICTED LIVESTOCK, and they should be dealt with the same way we handle cattle, sheep, goats, chickens and turkeys.
If the "wild horse" fans can come up with some authentic but "small" wild horses, I suppose they could be turned loose and we could pretend they were really "wild" animals, but any horse big enough for a man to ride is not a "wild horse" and hasn't been for the last 3,500 years.
The local herd of proud noble wild horses was turned out by a bankrupt rodeo stock company in 1949.
Talking to a BLM employee, he said anyone using the term “feral horse” gets an official reprimand in his folder.
The horses graze all year and destroy the range. Cattle and sheep are only grazed for a brief period each year to help improve range.
Maybe if we start killing off enough older Americans, the $700 million won’t be so hard to come by...
I couldn’t agree more. Though they are referred to as “wild” horses they are descendants of domesticated horses turned loose.
In Arizona recently, I bought a 2 year old, green broke, registered Paint filly for $400. I bought a fully trained, sweepstakes nominated Arabian mare with experience in endurance racing for $1200.
Not much of a market now for an adult horse that may try to kill you...
BTW - I later GAVE the paint filly to a woman who trains horses. A year later, she is a beautiful young horse being ridden daily.
Lots of OK riding horses show up for free on Craigslist...
Stuck on a time machine loop are something??? The stimulus has been passed and signed into law for sometime now.
So how in the hell do you think current house business, passed friday, has anything to do with the bogus stimulus. Don't give the liberals ammo to shoot you with.
Stuck on a time machine loop are something??? The stimulus has been passed and signed into law for sometime now.
Huh? Don’t think you have the right poster...
The above was your post, are you say this is correct are are you saying it is not correct. To make an allegation that current house business is part of the stimulus is stupid and makes the writer look stupid as well.
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