The problem is not too many wild horses on public land. It is that ranchers and BLM are taking public land from wild horses and permitting it to ranchers. It is an unholy alliance of greed, encroachment, aided by a public service agency (BLM). Wild horses are grazing public land and ranchers and BLM have a greedy eye of further encroachment: There are 23,000 permits for grazing on public land, national forests and BLM land, in 16 western states at $1.35 per animal unit per month. The number of cattle versus wild horses on public land is 50:1; 5 of 18 wild horses are stockpiled in government facilities; 270,000 wild horses have been removed from public land since 1971; 22.2 million acres of wild horse/burro land has been removed since 1971; 70% of wild horse herds have been reduced below genetic viability levels. The real problem is that BLM is giving away public land, wild horse and wild burro land, and other wild lands to rancher leases. There is a viable answer: Stop the rancher encroachment on public land, on the wild, retire those allotments and stop any more, protect the wild and the wild things from rancher, and a western mindset of entitlement thinking with regard to public land and encroachment. If public land is going to be put up for ranching and farming, why not offer the same permit to wildlife conservation agencies to set aside for wildlife? Why should ranchers/farmers be subsidized at the expense of wildlife?
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 16:29:46 +0000
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