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Tuesday, May 30, 2017
5 WILD HORSE MYTHS: Alt-Facts Lead to Deadly New Budget for Mustangs
Budget 2018 calls for killing all wild horses and burros in Bureau of Land Management holding pens. That's about 44,000 equines according to BLM and roundups continue. BLM records show more mustangs "gathered" in the first three months of 2017 than were captured in all of 2016. Few voters want wild horses killed, but they’re bombarded by myths which infer there's no choice.
Wild horses still have
natural predators,
but the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services works hard to change that. In 2016 the agency placated commercial livestock interests by killing 76,963 adult coyotes, destroyed 430 coyote dens containing uncounted pups, 3,791 foxes and 128 pup dens, 997 bobcats, 415 gray wolves, 407 black bears and 334 mountain
lions.
Source: Sources are many, varying from L.A. Times to Ag
department’s website
Wild horses’ digestive systems don't process seeds. The seed-bearing food they eat is replanted in their droppings. Fertilizer + seeds = inadvertent farmers. Because mustangs are nomadic, they do their own rotational grazing, moving where their food is in bloom. In theory, livestock is rotated, but ranchers
whose livestock grazes public lands are often allowed to “self monitor."
Range
restoration by wild horses is recognized in places outside the U.S. Patagonia's reintroduction of wild horses has slowed and sometimes even stopped desertification
by sheep.
Natural
equine behavior is easier on riparian areas than that of livestock. As prey
animals, wild horses normally drink from the edge instead of wading in and
defecating in bodies of water. Source
Myth 3: Wild horses overpopulate public lands
Estimates vary (National Academy of
Sciences criticized Bureau of Land Management's sketchy data-gathering), but BLM admits commercial livestock outnumbers wild horses on public lands by at least 30-1.
Wild horses that aren't removed have been pushed from historic territories into limited public lands habitat. In the last 5 decades, other uses -- including corporate ranching, gas, oil and mining -- have claimed 22.2 million acres. Source
Myth 4: Wild Horses are not native to North America
Modern science, especially DNA
testing, contradicts this myth. Paleolithic horses and modern
equines share the same DNA. BLM’s website encourages acceptance of old
science, claiming "horses disappearance from the Western Hemisphere
for over 10,000 years," despite facts that prove the window of "gone time" has narrowed to 7,000 years.
Myth 5: Wild
Horse Management by BLM is humane
Interior Department websites have recently been data cleansed, but 2010 helicopter round-ups in the Calico Mountains of Nevada were well-documented. BLM reported 113 deaths from broken pelvic bones, necks,skulls and spines, ruptured eyeballs, hoof slough, and birthing “accidents” in which 40 mares suffered spontaneous miscarriages and bore dead foals.
BLM claims not to sell captured mustangs to slaughter, but the Office of the Inspector General found 1700 wild horses were sold to a single kill-buyer 2008-2012. Source
Do you object to the 2018 budget item which would euthanize wild horses and burros or sell them to slaughter? Phone your legislators or the White House comments line at 202-456-1111 during business hours.
Labels: animals, BLM, books, education, government, livestock, mustangs, Nevada, phantom stallion, politics, rodeo, rural, terri farley, West, Wild at Heart, wild horses, writing Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 10:15 PM  
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