BLM Secret Plan to Destroy Wild Horses

[quote=hunterseat]

[quote=Rawline] I think my horse deserves bottled water!  

*wipes tea off of computer monitor*  Thanks for that Rawline! []

Wouldn't it be better to geld and release?  Why let them continue to breed?  Then you get sick ones that need to die because that's how wild horses got hearty to begin with.  When God said to tend and keep the garden he didn't mean let things get out of hand with no management.

I think this is HORRIBLE IN EVERY WAY AND FORM! I understand the fact that they are over populated but this is no way to solve it! How would you like to be shot because there are 'too many" people? or have your horse shot because there are too many of them? I agree with you hunt! Why not get some volunteers and round them up then geld them. they wouldn't catch all of them so they wouldn't be wiped out totally it would just slow down the breeding. WHy not have some of the ranchers sell there land back to be mustang and burro sanctuary.I'm not a tree hugger but come on! Maybe if they would stop building on the land then they wouldn't have such an issue. If the government wouldn't waste so much money of things that won't have the country and start spending it on things that matter and do something for the animals for once!If God wanted us there to be less horses and burros then he wouldn't have made so many. Don't you think things happen for a reason? I'm not saying let it go but to take more human actions like castration or birth control.
 
 
 

[quote=Rod44]

The author you are quoting and using as "fact" is misconstruing and reconstructuring much of his information.  He is out to end the use of public lands for grazing.  He is trying to say that the land used for grazing is insignificant in the overall picture of the cattle industry.  For example he says there are 3X more cows in Wisconsin than in Wyoming.  So what?  They are milk cows.  They and their offspring are only good for McDonald's type beef.  He says Nebraska's cattle&nbsproduction value is 16.6X the value of Nevada.  So what?  And, the reason is that Nebraska imports cattle from other states and finishs them off.  Therefore they are selling more pounds of a high value product.  Has nothing to do with public land grazing.

Says only 7% of the US forage consumed by cattle and sheep comes from federal lands.  That is because it is poorer land and without grazing it you wouldn't be able to harvest any of it!!  Have you ever mowed, raked and baled hay.  It can't be done on 90% of the BLM land.
 

This kind of pick and choose fact finding and twisting to mislead people really agravates me.  

Other than that I'm having a great day!

 
Our BLM lands of the West. Approximately 90% of their area is used for ranching, yet all this land produces only about 1.1% of US cattle and sheep.
 
 
  There are roughly 260 million acres of BLM and Forest Service System "grazing land" in the 11 Western states -- 35% of the land area ofthe West -- but how much of this country's livestock is produced there?

Two percent by weight, value, or livestock feed (food of .any kind) (Com. on Govt. Oper. 1986). This will surprise most people, for we have always been led to believe otherwise. Ranching on federal land is insignificant to US food supply -- only I out of 50 pounds of combined beef and mutton. Alabama alone produces nearly this amount, mostly on pasturage!' Iowa produces more than 2 1/2 times as much, mostly with grain feed. (USDA 1987) The US imports more than 4 times as much (US Dept. of Com. 1986).

 

 

WHy not have some of the ranchers sell there land back to be mustang and burro sanctuary

[quote=DixieClassic003]

 
 The public land does not belong to the ranchers,    the horses and burrows were moved off of the
land after the ranchers  leased  it at pennies on the dollar/acre.

Have you ever mowed, raked and baled hay.

 
 
 
yes I have ,   when I was 7 yrs old I started working for my neighbor during the summers
from morning milking til evening milking   average probably 12 hrs. a day for
$1 a day.  come end of summer I took hay in exchange for the $1 to feed the 2 ponies
I had in the winter. 
 
 
what has happened is the good grazing lands have been leased to the ranchers
and the mustangs and burrow have been moved to the least desireable areas
to live.   They easily eat there supply of vegitation up  and then they are over populated
 
the U.S.  imports more beef than is marketed from the public lands.   4 to 1 if I remember the numbers right.
 
You keep bringing up McD's.   Most of mcd's beef is imported from Australia and N. Z.
it is cheaper even with all the shipping costs,    and the use of antibotics and growth hormones are more strictly controlled by those governments than beef raised in the U.S.
and the meat is leaner.  
 

If you want to take the govt land away from ranchers that make a living off of it that is fine, just say so.
 
If you want to have the horses have all of the government lands, fine just say so.
 
If you think the cattle and sheep are ruining the government lands, fine just say so.
 
But quit trying to rationalize it by how many cattle one state has or where McDonalds beef comes from or what percent of the feed is used or how few cattle ranchers there are.
 
If you want to let all lands revert to wild horses and burros - in a few years you are going to have them overpopulated and you will still have to decide if you are going to have to kill some. 
 
I don't know what you do for a living, but suppose I came with some figures that showed that your field of work was just an insignificant (and using your autor's logic I could) part of the bigger picture.  Suppose I said therefore we will do away with that job and your livelyhood.  That is what you are doing to those ranchers.
 
I'm for better management of the lands and no overgrazing, but not keeping livestock out for the benifit of wild horses and burros.  Manage the land for both and control the numbers of both.

now now now,  temper temper.
 
why turn this into about me,  []

No, no, no it is not about you.  It was just an example of "walking in the other man's (or ladies') shoes"  The ranchers on leased land may only make up a small percentage of all cattlemen, but each has a family and story of his own.  Don't be in too big of a hurry to take from others (I know it is rented land) their way of making a living and a way of life. 
 
I have been to Wyoming a number of times and know some ranchers and have been to the wild horse reserve.  It is working well in that area as long as the numbers are controlled.
 
Here are some of the Cody, Wyoming wild horses.  In real good condition other than being scarred up from fighting with each other.   They are a band of young stallions. 
 

well you guys have heard my opinion

DixieClassic - the problem with gelding and birth control is that in the area they are in there is no way you could them all to treat them.  Here is some of the Wyoming wild horse preserve, some of which is on private land.  Can you imagine trying to catch all of the wild horses in that wild country??? 

Well, the people of the U.S. created this problem and I don't think killing the wild horses is an acceptable solution.  And I do think there are too many stingey ranchers out there.

I had read and heard they were doing something with their adoption program to create more adoptions....I wish I could remember what it was, some kind of money incentive when people adopt the older horses.

Remali gave me the perfect answer!  Why don't you all pool all of your money together and buy all of those stingy ranchers ranches.  Then you could turn it all over to wild horses and use your own land and money instead of trying to "steal" (government control) land from the stingy ranchers.
 
 

 this is part of a post from another forum.
 
this is probably the best  responce I have seen yet.    Not the wholesale elimination
of herds or horses held in BLM Corrals.
 
Rod.  as far as bidding on the public lands to gain control  the present lease holders
have first choice so if they want to renew the leases ,  you are out in the cold.
 
I read last yr. that a private individual had thousands of acres that he wanted the
blm to release horses on.   The BLM said NO.
 
 
 
 
http://www.horseforum.com/horse-talk/blm-secret-plan-destroy-wild-horses-29645/page2/#post329220
 
I would think that what is needed is a selective cull / breeding programme so that their numbers are kept in check, at the same time making sure that the best examples of the breeds are allowed to roam free.

What is not needed is for their numbers to be reduced without thought as to which horses are taken - or for their numbers to be reduced so much that a sustainable herd is not viable.

 

Just not simple, is it??  Same kinds of issues with the wolves and grizzly bears.  Where my friend has his place near Cody, Wyoming, in the country, you can't go for a walk without bear spray and a high power pistol.

Remali gave me the perfect answer! Why don't you all pool all of your money together and buy all of those stingy ranchers ranches. Then you could turn it all over to wild horses and use your own land and money instead of trying to "steal" (government control) land from the stingy ranchers.

 
This is a good idea, I was thinking that maybe they could adopt them all and and spend their own money!
 
Second, that was a great post and I agree with what was said there.  I wonder if the BLM has pondered that and if so why is it not an option?
 
Yes, ranchers are stingy, they have busted their humps all their lives to pass the land down to their children and grandchildren and to make a living, although sometimes a very small living!  If you are not a person who lives off the land, it is hard to understand what the land means.  It is a way of life and a different way of thinking than the norm.  My great grandfather, my grandfather and my father worked every single day, their entire lives and the point was . . . to leave their children something when they are gone.  The land is our haven and we will protect it with everything we have even if it means shooting some horses.  Of course, after the fact we would all walk away with tears, but we would understand that it needed to be done.