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“It is incredible that one should have to furnish any argument to bring about any laws to save the Mustang, but if there must be an argument let it be this: that of all the things that have played a part in the development of this country, except for man, the horse has played the most important and beneficial role. He portrays the West as all people like to think of it. He is the symbol of wild freedom to us all.”
-Velma B. Johnston, a.k.a. Wild Horse Annie (1959)
There is a battle going on in the United States of America that many people are unaware of. Perhaps they think it’s unimportant, that it doesn’t affect them. The battle to save America’s wild Mustangs isn’t just between soft-hearted horse-lovers and hard-working ranchers. It’s much more complex than that. And in the end… we could all lose.
First of all, I do not support the idea of ceasing all BLM management of wild Mustang herds because since ranching and urbanization has taken over the ranges, and since humans hunt Mustangs' natural predators, the Mustangs would eventually overpopulate, cause habitat degradation, and starve. I must say that in some places the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) helps to care for the wild Mustangs by rounding up herds in places where there's very little food and/or water, and by rounding up Mustangs that wander onto private land (land owned by people). Some people in the BLM sincerely want to protect the Mustangs. Many roundups go without incident; the Mustangs are herded off the range into the holding pens, vaccinated, freeze-branded, and then adopted by loving owners. The BLM has many different facilities, and many are perfectly fine and do help the Mustangs. In some places the BLM is a good thing.
But in most other areas, the BLM uses its authority to take advantage of the animals and the land in its care. Over the past nine years, 40% of the Mustang population has been removed by the BLM for no other reason than rancher and government greed. Alternative methods for managing Mustang populations are available (savethemustanghorses.blogspot.…), and yet the BLM does not use them to any significant extent. Roundup teams are paid roughly $350 for each horse they bring in (dead or alive), so the pilots often go to drastic measures to capture as many horses as possible during each gather. Entire herds of Mustangs (including newborn foals) are driven at breakneck speeds over land deemed too rough for vehicles. Mustangs and burros (wild donkeys) are injured during the roundups and many beyond recovery and must be euthanized. (savethemustanghorses.blogspot.… , savethemustanghorses.blogspot.…)
The BLM openly admits to holding approximately 50,000 Mustangs in captivity (roughly double than there are in the wild), and their finances are running out. It costs roughly $3,000 tax dollars to process a single wild horse for adoption, and hundreds are removed in a typical roundup. It costs around $100,000 every single day to feed the captive Mustangs. Many Mustangs in BLM corrals are in poorer condition than they were and would be in the wild, and some are starving. Almost no BLM facilities provide shelter for the horses held captive. The panicked herd stallions often fight each other in the small spaces, desperately trying to keep their mares together, therefore hurting themselves and others.
"I'm assured repeatedly [by BLM veterinarians] that these horses are cared for," said wild horse advocate Elyse Gardner. "So why does it seem that it is the public observers that continually need to bring so many overlooked injuries, illness or orphaned foals to the attention of the BLM?" Again, alternative methods for managing Mustang populations on the range (so that they need not be removed and held in captivity) are available (savethemustanghorses.blogspot.…), but the BLM does not use them to any significant extent. This shows extreme shortsightedness on the BLM's account. They are wasting enormous amounts of money and causing animals to suffer when less expensive, more humane methods are available.
While many Mustangs do find good homes with kind people, many are sold to irresponsible owners who want to "break a wild bronco". Such owners don’t know how to handle wild horses, and are often injured. If the Mustangs are not adopted or sold, they are rarely ever returned to the wild. The BLM holds unadopted/unsold Mustangs in taxpayer-funded corrals until they either die of old age, they are euthanized, or the BLM gains the right to slaughter them. I repeat: alternative methods for managing Mustang populations on the range (so that they need not be removed and held in captivity) are available (savethemustanghorses.blogspot.…), but the BLM does not use them to any significant extent. The BLM would rather these animals suffered a slow death rather than use alternative methods to manage them.
Recent discoveries made by the National Academy of Sciences (www8.nationalacademies.org/onp… , www.nap.edu/catalog/13511/usin…) has found that by removing so many wild horses in roundups, the BLM is actually causing population growth instead of reducing it. By lowering the population to such an unnaturally small number, the herds become smaller than the carrying limit of the lands (the limit of how many animals can graze on the land before food begins to run out).With so much extra space, the species springs back as it would after a natural disaster or plague. NAS studies show that Mustang populations have been increasing by around 10% to 15% each year. For the BLM to continue their current operation, they will have to remove more and more Mustangs each year, therefore causing increasing population growth, and so on. The answer is clearly not to step up roundups yet again, but to find alternative means by which to control the population and to prevent Mustangs from becoming problems on privately-owned land.
Studies show that nearly 85% of the Mustangs are below genetic viability, meaning that they are inbreeding. By removing Mustangs and their genetic information from the wild, the BLM is forcing the Mustangs to inbreed even more.
Even with the rapid population growth (and therefore rising cost of roundups) if things continue in this manner, in about 50 years there will be no free-roaming Mustangs left. Wildlife biologists estimate that the Mustang will be extinct in the wild before the end of the century. Time is running out for the American Mustang. Will we let them become like the Quagga and the Tarpan, pale ghosts of memory? Your air won’t be any cleaner, your water won’t be any clearer, and your food won’t be any more abundant with Mustangs extinct.
In 1900, over a million Mustangs ran free (lipizzaner-kgirl.deviantart.co…, www.horse-breeds.net/mustangs.… , academickids.com/encyclopedia/… , www.masterliness.com/a/Mustang…).) Now, less than 25,000 of them are left, and that number is steadily falling. Turning our backs is not the answer. We cannot leave Mustangs to their own devices, but we also cannot ignore the damage that the BLM is doing.
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Poor Mustangs. I feel so bad for them. I can't believe that people are paid to hurt these lovely animals. I wish they would just stop! They deserve to be free!I feel this is wrong. They hurt poor innocent animals that didn't do anything to them! what did they ever do to you?
ReplyDeleteHi, I play howrse, I am Equitana! *LipizzanerKgirl is so nice! She has a topic in her forum to save mustangs! I wish I could save a mustang...
ReplyDeleteI actually am *LipizzanerKgirl! Much of the text on the home page of this blog is the same as the text in my forum. But it's nice to know you think I'm nice. Thanks!
DeleteYou may not be able to adopt a Mustang, but there's still a lot you can do to help save the breed. :)
I have worked with and around hoses all my life, and there is no excuse on this earth for the abuse that these hoses are subjected too. any person that participates in this kind of cruelty is mentally unbalanced and should be treated the same as the teenager that tortures pets for fun. If you get so frustrated with them for fighting for their freedom, you should not hold the job. Everyone of these bums that treat these horses this way should be put in a pen with a range stud with no protection and see what it's like to be helpless and hurt badly, and then receive no treatment for those injuries. We, as humans are supposed to be better than animals. In this instance, the animals are much more civilized than the humans. There are some well conformed horses that are crippled for life, not just culls. I can understand that there needs to be population control, but it should be selective and humane.
ReplyDeleteWhy was the horse population kept in balance for 20 years prior to 2002 by just rounding up a mere 2000 a year? After 2002 new environmental assessments were created that significantly reduced the number of horses per HMA thus all of a sudden we have an overpopulation.
Delete@ Anonymous:
DeleteThe National Academy of Sciences actually studied this phenomenon and discovered something extremely simple: First of all, there is no overpopulation, and second, the BLM is just removing too many horses. In the centuries that Mustangs have lived in North America, the ecosystem adapted around them. They are now a part of the ecostystem. The land has long since adjusted to their presence and makes more than enough graze for them. When the BLM removes large numbers of horses, there is almost too much grass for the remaining herds, and, with no need to limit their population, they breed at a faster rate and the population blooms. The Mustangs spring back as they would after a natural disaster or a plague. The BLM's response to the natural population bloom is to remove more horses, thus causing more population growth. As we can see, the BLM's mismanagment system is going to train wreck eventually, and tax payers (and the animals) will pay the price.
You were far to kind in your above para's. Alternative thinking does not exist with the Dept. of Interiors bureaus that have wild horses. Private land gathers cost 10x's more per horse with the horses across the border within a day. Water is another failed management. They spend 100's of thousands on water systems for ranchers but never put in a new pond, drill a well etc for horses. They even let ranchers fence out ponds on the Horses dedicated land. They never relocate a herd or anything else but roundups. There score card may have been good and may have some good things but now I would give them a D at best. The only horses available for adoption are ones that are young at gather or born in captivity. They say you can adopt an older horse but none are ever available. Rarely any family units. They do not look at the Wild Horse as a Herd with strong family ties which is the only humane way to see them.
ReplyDeleteThe BLM is a disgustingly corrupt organization. The fat cattle ranchers have the BLM wrapped around their finger. Its sickening
ReplyDelete