Posted on 04/18/2014 1:26:50 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
The Bureau of Land Management is clearly having an image problem. As the outrage over its intimidating show of force during last weeks showdown at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada proved, the federal agency is now caught up in a controversy originating in Wyoming.
According to recent reports, agents herded a large group of wild horses in the state before ceding control of the majestic animals to state authorities. At that point, Wyoming officials sold them off to a slaughterhouse in Canada.
Obviously, this development outraged countless advocates already incensed by accusations that BLM officers gunned down multiple cows at the Bundy Ranch.
Paula Todd King, a wild horse advocate with Colorados Cloud Foundation, said it would have taken very little to do this in a more effective way so that horses are not just sent off to slaughter indiscriminately.
Though wild horses, which have roamed throughout the American West for hundreds of years, are protected by federal law, the BLM contends these animals do not qualify for such protection. Instead, agency spokesperson Sarah Beckwith contends they are strays descended from rodeo horses from four decades ago.
King, however, wondered how such a distinction is made.
How long does a horse have to live wild and free before its considered wild? she asked.
(Excerpt) Read more at westernjournalism.com ...
According to recent reports, agents herded a large group of wild horses in the state before ceding control of the majestic animals to state authorities. At that point, Wyoming officials sold them off to a slaughterhouse in Canada.
Yippe ty yi YEA!
Not speaking the federal government owning land in states issue, but it is hard for people (urbanized/suburbanized) to understand how big these animals get, how big their herds get since they are unchallenged for the most part.
There is only finite “food” where they live and the environment cannot support their populations. It is no different than dealing with deer, elk, moose. We have destroyed the natural order of things by killing off the natural predators, so their populations become too big for their range. They get diseased, become invasive, and can hurt people.
a little follow-up from Fox:
The BLM bans wild horses from being sold for slaughter. Anybody who adopts a wild horse from the BLM must agree to provide it a home.
The horses in the Bighorn Basin’s sagebrush hills descended from stray rodeo horses owned by Andy Gifford, a rancher and rodeo livestock contractor, in the 1970s, BLM spokeswoman Sarah Beckwith said.
Gifford had claimed the horses as his but never rounded them up before he died in 2009. That, plus the fact that the horses never interbred with wild horses, officially classified them as strays.
now, I’m going to ask the obvious question - how does the BLM know these horses didn’t interbreed with ‘wild horses’?
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