Posted on 03/31/2020 8:45:34 AM PDT by rktman
Approximately 88,000 mustangs roam 27 million acres of BLM rangelands (where they compete with two million head of domestic cattle for grass on leased grazing allotments) in ten Western states. Roughly 18,000 foals are produced yearly. In 2018 11,500 horses were rounded up and corralled in BLM "holding facilities," where they were adopted. All this (the roundups, the holding facilities, feeding, the BLM adoption process bureaucracy, etc.) costs taxpayers $81 million annually. The Trump administration seeks a target number of 27,000 horses, or about a thousand horses per million acres of rangeland. Acting BLM director William Perry Pendley has stated that the status quo "wreaks havoc" on the public rangelands.
A mature wild horse weighs on average of 850 pounds and will consume 25 pounds of grass per day. Cattle weigh up to 400 pounds more and eat about the same amount of grass daily. Unlike horses, cattle are not selective in their grazing and thus do more damage to the range. Two million cows are currently grazing on 155 million acres of BLM leases, feral horses on 27 million acres. To look at two states in particular: Nevada ranchers have access to 65% of BLM rangeland statewide; in Wyoming, it's 75%.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
There are no “Wild Horses” in North America.
They are all feral horses.
They are an invasive species imported from Europe. They should all be either domesticated or eliminated.
We created this problem when we let enviro wackos dictate policy to let them run free, destroying pasture land.
I was generalizing but yeah,humans are mammals and that would explain a lot.
:-)
LOL, I remember that episode.
The other classic was when Edith dropped the grocery bag with the cans of Kling Peaches in Heavy Syrup on the guys car and dented it. The Dingbat said: “It must have been the Heavy Syrup”.
If you go to Montreal, Quebec most of the French restaurants have Horse Steak on the menu.
It is similar to eating Bison. It does not have as much fat as beef steak.
It was years ago when the market went bust. People were turning them out to run, just like they abandon horses today.
If you go to Montreal, Quebec most of the French restaurants have Horse Steak on the menu.
It is similar to eating Bison. It does not have as much fat as beef steak.
I remember that the USDA would use slaughtered horses for canned meat, much like Spam, to give out to the poor and those on “commodity” subsistence. It fried like Spam and wasn’t bad. The horses were better served in the wilds when they were not overpopulated. The bottom out of the kill market also destroyed the value of horses everywhere. People neglect them because they have no inherent cost and there are many horses starving that are supposed to be in the trusted care of the owner.
Anyone with European ancestry has ancestors who ate horses...they were food for thousands of years in the Stone Age before any were domesticated.
ONe thing I’d disagree with in the original article — cattle are not nearly as selective as horses as far as grazing. Horses will pick a couple of spots and eat it down to the ground. Cattle move across the pasture like a gang mower. HOrse hooves cut up turf, cattle spread their weight out a bit better. From what I’ve seen, cattle tend to be bigger but are easier on the pasture.
I guess I’d cull out most of the stallions and let the herd die of old age.
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There is no reason to save wild horses for breeding stock there are plenty of captive ones around to never worry about inter breeding.
Simple solution: get over out sentimentality for horses and let them be butchered for meat. My SIL has a side business of buying up unwanted horses and shipping them to Mexico because they are useless here. I annoy my wife and other horse people by referring to horses as incredibly expensive yard ornaments. Most of the value in a horse is in the training and then only if you have the time to ride them regularly.
One neighbor has a couple horses that are just worthless but she is going broke with feed and vet care bills. She can’t even ride them but she is sentimentally attached to the stupid things. Typical attitude that keeps us from actually getting some value out of the horse overpopulation.
Round ‘em up and send ‘em to Frogland. They eat horse.
“Originated” in this case is not relevant to my point because there were no wild horses in North America for thousands of years before they were brought over from Europe.
A species of equidae did evolve in North America, but it is not related to the modern horse.
From the wikipedia article.
“Paleozoologists have been able to piece together a more complete outline of the evolutionary lineage of the modern horse than of any other animal. Much of this evolution took place in North America, where horses originated but became extinct about 10,000 years ago.”
“Wild horses were known since prehistory from central Asia to Europe, with domestic horses and other equids being distributed more widely in the Old World, but no horses or equids of any type were found in the New World when European explorers reached the Americas. When the Spanish colonists brought domestic horses from Europe, beginning in 1493, escaped horses quickly established large feral herds.”
So today, there are no indigenous “wild” horses in North America. They all descend from domestic breeds brought here for other continents.
Ever been around thoroughbreds?
Anyone that was in public school in the 1950’s and 60’ ate horse meat. It was used in the school lunch program. I remember it being sold in the grocery store.
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