Wild Horses
05/13/09 /09:53 Filed in: Rescue
[Note: In early March, 2009, snags slowed discussions between Madeleine Pickens and the Bureau of Land Management on her plan to set up a sanctuary for 30,000 wild horses the BLM has captured. In part there are complications -- to the BLM -- involved in setting up a million acre refuge in Nevada on a mix of private and public land. Another factor is the $500/year/horse which Pickens requests as a stipend. That comes to $15 million a year, which the BLM says it has trouble funding. Last year the BLM paid out over $36 million for the wild horse and burro program. Pickens feels a record of BLM mismanagement of this program led to the current problems. Talks continue nonetheless. Stay tuned.]
Madeleine Pickens: Help Save America's Wild Horses
Updates:
September 29, Mustangs on the Hill, to support the ROAM act and urge Congress to preserve and protect America's wild horses!
Sunday, May 3, 2009, update on Pickens and pending legislation to change the rules in favor of wild horse survival:
Former Owner of Racehorses Now Works to Save Them
Looking for “a couple” of places where 6,000 older, unadoptable horses can live out their days: The BLM Seeks Homes for Older Mustangs
In mid 2008 the US Bureau of Land Management announced that it was planning to invoke its law-given right to put to death about 30,000 of the country’s wild horses because its budget was running out. Rising/falling fuel costs, home foreclosures, Wall Street revelations, bank failures, a looming recession, even a possible depression faced the country. Nonetheless, practically as the BLM’s first announcement hit cyberspace animal rescue groups put up their own websites and petitions urging utter rejection of the plan. Tens of thousands of us signed them and some of us said prayers that the situation would find a better resolution. Does money need to be the only measure of our collective care?
In mid-November, 2008 at a public BLM hearing in Reno, Nevada the horses were reprieved by an angel in the form of Madeleine Pickens. Married to the legendary oil man T. Boone Pickens, one of America’s rarified billionaires, she stepped forward to work with the BLM with the intention of adopting 30,000 horses and burros now living captive lives in government pens. The number of animals the BLM proposed to shoot was given in the press as low as 8,000 yet the fact remained that the 30,000 living in pens had not found adoption and were costing the BLM a bundle to feed. Adoptions had been down for months for economic reasons. Both Pickenses worked in the past several years to eliminate horse slaughter in the US.
Madeleine Pickens is searching for about a million acres of land where she will create a refuge for these wild ones. The plan is to set up a foundation to manage the project, and horses removed from the wild by the BLM will be welcome in the future, if they do not find homes through the existing system. Animals will be sterilized. She describes her plan, which she continues to work on despite setbacks in negotiations with the BLM, as “a forever deal so those horses are taken care of.”
Heart warming it is to hear, also, that a couple of horse/burro rescue organizations had been ramping up to take in the 30,000 creatures. To me, who has a once-wild burro, has had the chance to share breath with a wild horse near Death Valley (please see the blog archive) and to attend a few BLM auctions, this says that Americans may be down on finances but still don’t look favorably on mass slaughter as a necessary solution to economic woes.
This turnaround in the fortunes of so many of America’s free roaming equines leaves us with the responsibility of laying plans so we never get into this impossible situation again. One place to start might be the science of counting wild horses and burros, and the science of figuring out which animals are doing the most harm to the government lands they share with cattle ranch interests. For instance, in my personal research into studies of range land some years back I was stunned to learn that wild burros were charged with endangering a species of tortoise sharing space with them in the Mojave Desert. There was absolutely nothing in what the tortoise ate or drank, or where he lived, that had anything to do with burros, what they ate, drank or where they mostly spent their time. Wild donkeys weren’t stomping torties, either. So..... ?
Some years back I spent time in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where I heard tales of wild burros in the area. Most people loved having them around, though not a few were outraged at the animals’ penchant for chewing the bark off their lemon trees. That is a sticky point with me as well, as my own three donkeys have earned the nicknames of axe murders, beavers and termites for their joy in stripping bark off living trees every chance they get. Jasper was originally a wild one, and bears Navajo brands. It is the rule in the West, though, that the person not wanting hooved wanderers on their land is the one who gets to put up the fences. Not all my own fences one time kept out a neighbor’s bull, a curious little story that once brightened the evening TV news. The bull was escorted home by suspendered wranglers and a fire truck.
We have to consider that in accepting that wild horses and burros have less impact than they are charged with on federal lands, it is the future prime rib and hamburgers doing the most damage to land leased to ranchers by the BLM. The death sentence against the horses and burros may have been lifted for now, but the fate of the cattle remains what it always was. Do we begrudge ranchers, a struggling breed, the right to make a living while providing products we enjoy, or do we just wish that everyone concerned in the present situation would get and follow some good, unbiased scientific opinion about what really needs to to be done out there on the ranges? Over the past several years legislation has outlawed horse slaughter for human consumption, causing most US slaughterhouses to close down. Once the economy began slowing, hundreds or even more American horse owners began disposing of their equines. Sure, lovers of these large and lovely animals would prefer that every one of them find a new, loving home where nobody has heated arguments about the cost of hay, oats, vet bills and, in some cases, boarding. Many believe that an unwanted animal should be humanely put down. The fact remains that for breeders and other businesses which own large equine herds some would prefer to make a bit of money from the dead animals -- hence would prefer sending them for slaughter to paying a vet to administer a lethal dose or somebody to carefully place a bullet right between the creature’s eyes. The fact is that a lot of beautiful horses join the ranker specimens in flowing over the border to face less than humane slaughter in Juarez; many others or turned loose to fend for themselves, others turn up in otherwise empty corrals following horse shows around the country.
Since there is sharp disagreement on the subject of slaughter I strongly recommend the books of Temple Grandin to those who think about improving conditions at the end for food animals. An autistic woman who holds a doctorate in animal science, she believes her own autism permits her to understand the reactions and thinking of animals in such a way that her research makes a positive difference in the way the animals perceive the slaughterhouse.
Ranchers whose cattle share government land with the wild horses and burros are not automatically wrong in claiming that the latter compete with their cattle for forage and water. With the population of the USA and the rest of the earth, burgeoning the appetite for beef has grown apace in recent decades. The west has always been an arid place, more sensitive to disruption than first glance at the seemingly empty, mainly brown spaces suggests. Drought is a constant menace in the cattle business since by definition cattle country is not arable to begin with.
Animal groups have charged the BLM with squirrely formulas in calculating the amount of forage needed on cattle land by the mustangs and burros. Members of Congress have expressed distress and outrage, yet the US law enacted by Congress back in the 1970s still allows the BLM to euthanize its equine charges if, for instance, an animal is taken to three auctions and does not find an adopter. The law also allows the BLM to sell this sort of equine without restrictions, meaning that such animals could be slaughtered. Changes are being considered and made as I write this; it is no longer problematic to mix public and private land in creating a refuge for the government animals.
We urgently, as a country, need to revisit the free roaming horse and burro act of 1971. Will enough of the tens of thousands of us who pushed the BLM for a different solution now fuss and lobby our national lawmakers into creating the type of law that we would really like for our wild equines? Remember that the people who raise the meat so many people like to eat do not favor allowing large wild equine herds on government land -- the country is not by any means united on what would make a good management plan. Will the BLM indeed round up only 5000 (down from as high as 13,000) mustangs and burros this year from the wild herd estimated at 35,000? Will they take another look at equine birth control? Sure we have some tremendous national challenges, but I have faith that Americans have big enough hearts to remember the needs and rights and good science of managing our wild horse and burro herds.
I won’t end this without thanking the “good guys” of the BLM for the time and care they have put into this situation. Without that 1971 Act and the BLM adoption program, these wild national symbols were routinely shot or sent to slaughter. I’ve seen and spoken with enough BLM wranglers and administrators to know what a tough job they do, with honor.
Check out the BLM program for yourself at:
National Wild Horse and Burro Program
Madeleine Pickens: Help Save America's Wild Horses
Updates:
September 29, Mustangs on the Hill, to support the ROAM act and urge Congress to preserve and protect America's wild horses!
Sunday, May 3, 2009, update on Pickens and pending legislation to change the rules in favor of wild horse survival:
Former Owner of Racehorses Now Works to Save Them
Looking for “a couple” of places where 6,000 older, unadoptable horses can live out their days: The BLM Seeks Homes for Older Mustangs
In mid 2008 the US Bureau of Land Management announced that it was planning to invoke its law-given right to put to death about 30,000 of the country’s wild horses because its budget was running out. Rising/falling fuel costs, home foreclosures, Wall Street revelations, bank failures, a looming recession, even a possible depression faced the country. Nonetheless, practically as the BLM’s first announcement hit cyberspace animal rescue groups put up their own websites and petitions urging utter rejection of the plan. Tens of thousands of us signed them and some of us said prayers that the situation would find a better resolution. Does money need to be the only measure of our collective care?
In mid-November, 2008 at a public BLM hearing in Reno, Nevada the horses were reprieved by an angel in the form of Madeleine Pickens. Married to the legendary oil man T. Boone Pickens, one of America’s rarified billionaires, she stepped forward to work with the BLM with the intention of adopting 30,000 horses and burros now living captive lives in government pens. The number of animals the BLM proposed to shoot was given in the press as low as 8,000 yet the fact remained that the 30,000 living in pens had not found adoption and were costing the BLM a bundle to feed. Adoptions had been down for months for economic reasons. Both Pickenses worked in the past several years to eliminate horse slaughter in the US.
Madeleine Pickens is searching for about a million acres of land where she will create a refuge for these wild ones. The plan is to set up a foundation to manage the project, and horses removed from the wild by the BLM will be welcome in the future, if they do not find homes through the existing system. Animals will be sterilized. She describes her plan, which she continues to work on despite setbacks in negotiations with the BLM, as “a forever deal so those horses are taken care of.”
Heart warming it is to hear, also, that a couple of horse/burro rescue organizations had been ramping up to take in the 30,000 creatures. To me, who has a once-wild burro, has had the chance to share breath with a wild horse near Death Valley (please see the blog archive) and to attend a few BLM auctions, this says that Americans may be down on finances but still don’t look favorably on mass slaughter as a necessary solution to economic woes.
This turnaround in the fortunes of so many of America’s free roaming equines leaves us with the responsibility of laying plans so we never get into this impossible situation again. One place to start might be the science of counting wild horses and burros, and the science of figuring out which animals are doing the most harm to the government lands they share with cattle ranch interests. For instance, in my personal research into studies of range land some years back I was stunned to learn that wild burros were charged with endangering a species of tortoise sharing space with them in the Mojave Desert. There was absolutely nothing in what the tortoise ate or drank, or where he lived, that had anything to do with burros, what they ate, drank or where they mostly spent their time. Wild donkeys weren’t stomping torties, either. So..... ?
Some years back I spent time in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where I heard tales of wild burros in the area. Most people loved having them around, though not a few were outraged at the animals’ penchant for chewing the bark off their lemon trees. That is a sticky point with me as well, as my own three donkeys have earned the nicknames of axe murders, beavers and termites for their joy in stripping bark off living trees every chance they get. Jasper was originally a wild one, and bears Navajo brands. It is the rule in the West, though, that the person not wanting hooved wanderers on their land is the one who gets to put up the fences. Not all my own fences one time kept out a neighbor’s bull, a curious little story that once brightened the evening TV news. The bull was escorted home by suspendered wranglers and a fire truck.
We have to consider that in accepting that wild horses and burros have less impact than they are charged with on federal lands, it is the future prime rib and hamburgers doing the most damage to land leased to ranchers by the BLM. The death sentence against the horses and burros may have been lifted for now, but the fate of the cattle remains what it always was. Do we begrudge ranchers, a struggling breed, the right to make a living while providing products we enjoy, or do we just wish that everyone concerned in the present situation would get and follow some good, unbiased scientific opinion about what really needs to to be done out there on the ranges? Over the past several years legislation has outlawed horse slaughter for human consumption, causing most US slaughterhouses to close down. Once the economy began slowing, hundreds or even more American horse owners began disposing of their equines. Sure, lovers of these large and lovely animals would prefer that every one of them find a new, loving home where nobody has heated arguments about the cost of hay, oats, vet bills and, in some cases, boarding. Many believe that an unwanted animal should be humanely put down. The fact remains that for breeders and other businesses which own large equine herds some would prefer to make a bit of money from the dead animals -- hence would prefer sending them for slaughter to paying a vet to administer a lethal dose or somebody to carefully place a bullet right between the creature’s eyes. The fact is that a lot of beautiful horses join the ranker specimens in flowing over the border to face less than humane slaughter in Juarez; many others or turned loose to fend for themselves, others turn up in otherwise empty corrals following horse shows around the country.
Since there is sharp disagreement on the subject of slaughter I strongly recommend the books of Temple Grandin to those who think about improving conditions at the end for food animals. An autistic woman who holds a doctorate in animal science, she believes her own autism permits her to understand the reactions and thinking of animals in such a way that her research makes a positive difference in the way the animals perceive the slaughterhouse.
Ranchers whose cattle share government land with the wild horses and burros are not automatically wrong in claiming that the latter compete with their cattle for forage and water. With the population of the USA and the rest of the earth, burgeoning the appetite for beef has grown apace in recent decades. The west has always been an arid place, more sensitive to disruption than first glance at the seemingly empty, mainly brown spaces suggests. Drought is a constant menace in the cattle business since by definition cattle country is not arable to begin with.
Animal groups have charged the BLM with squirrely formulas in calculating the amount of forage needed on cattle land by the mustangs and burros. Members of Congress have expressed distress and outrage, yet the US law enacted by Congress back in the 1970s still allows the BLM to euthanize its equine charges if, for instance, an animal is taken to three auctions and does not find an adopter. The law also allows the BLM to sell this sort of equine without restrictions, meaning that such animals could be slaughtered. Changes are being considered and made as I write this; it is no longer problematic to mix public and private land in creating a refuge for the government animals.
We urgently, as a country, need to revisit the free roaming horse and burro act of 1971. Will enough of the tens of thousands of us who pushed the BLM for a different solution now fuss and lobby our national lawmakers into creating the type of law that we would really like for our wild equines? Remember that the people who raise the meat so many people like to eat do not favor allowing large wild equine herds on government land -- the country is not by any means united on what would make a good management plan. Will the BLM indeed round up only 5000 (down from as high as 13,000) mustangs and burros this year from the wild herd estimated at 35,000? Will they take another look at equine birth control? Sure we have some tremendous national challenges, but I have faith that Americans have big enough hearts to remember the needs and rights and good science of managing our wild horse and burro herds.
I won’t end this without thanking the “good guys” of the BLM for the time and care they have put into this situation. Without that 1971 Act and the BLM adoption program, these wild national symbols were routinely shot or sent to slaughter. I’ve seen and spoken with enough BLM wranglers and administrators to know what a tough job they do, with honor.
Check out the BLM program for yourself at:
National Wild Horse and Burro Program
