Interior Dept plans to slaughter 33,000 wild horses

[jgraz]

On this 4th of July, Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar officially reopens to the public the Statue of Liberty’s crown, a powerful symbol to the nation and the world of American ideals and hopes. Meanwhile, in the American West, his Bureau of Land Management is detailing plans for the extermination of a different but equally powerful symbol of the American spirit, the wild horse. While Secretary Salazar is "inviting the public to celebrate our great nation and the hope and opportunity it symbolizes", 33,000 wild horses are in holding pens, removed from Federal designated Wild Horse Territories, awaiting the completion of BLM plans to send them to a mass slaughter, without the proper consideration of viable and humane alternatives.

Information obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request by the Conquistador Group in Arizona has found that as Secretary Salazar stands before the Statue of Liberty in his white cowboy hat and speaks of the great American experience, he is also presiding over the formal plans to kill 33,000 wild horses and http://www.conquistadorprogram.org/blm__court_documents_on_wild_horses">provide stress counseling for the BLM workers who carry out his orders. A quite different American experience.

Over 19 million acres of BLM Wild Horse Territories have been "zeroed out" of all wild horses, with several more million acres and hundreds of more horses targeted. The BLM has repeatedly claimed that the wild horses are responsible for the destruction of public lands through overgrazing, yet the impact of the less than 30,000 remaining wild horses on public lands are minimal compared to the approximately 400,000 head of cattle (a conservative estimate, based on the 600 million Animal Unit Months quoted by BLM Wild Horse & Burro Bureau Chief, Don Glen), that are on these same public lands, In addition, the BLM continues to ignore and invert the science behind horse vs cattle grazing and continues to claim horses have a more negative impact on grass conditions, even though cattle, unlike horses, do not have front teeth and actually pull out the grasses by the roots and have a much more adverse effect on range conditions. The ranching industry has long sought to obfuscate the science and the BLM has often been led by those sympathetic if not indeed part of that industry, much like Secretary Salazar, who hails from a ranching family in Colorado and who as a Senator voted to allow downed and diseased animals into the American families’ food supply.

...

A viable and humane alternative to the wholesale slaughter of the wild horses has existed for 20 years. Dartable Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) birth control was developed 20 years ago by Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick. The application of PZP to mares would control the birth rate within wild horse herds, with 90% efficacy per the BLM, whereas round-ups and removals actually result in doubling the birth rate through compensatory reproduction.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/4/749829/-Secretary-Salazar-Presides-Over-Renewal-of-Statue-of-Liberty-and-Death-in-the-West

[Deja Q]

1. Sell your Elmers Glue stock NOW!!!

[underpants]

2. I thought T.Boone Pickens's wife was adopting them

:shrug:

[redqueen]

9. It looks like that is the plan...

not sure how it's going though.
http://geari.blogspot.com/2009/01/wild-mustangs-horses-adoption-events.html

[Robb]

3. I guess I'm confused by the proposed solution

...Shoot the 30,000 remaining horses with birth control darts? Board the 33,000 horses set for slaughter at $2k/year?

[EFerrari]

4. My mum adopted two wild horses on death row about 20 years ago.

I see these @ssholes haven't advanced an inch in their thinking. :grr:

[lindisfarne]

5. Wouldn't it be cheaper to round up the males and geld them before it gets to this?n/t

[newfie11]

13. kind of hard to geld mares.

Best to try gelding the stallions.

[JVS]

20. Not mares, males

[newfie11]

49. oops sorry.

[jgraz]

35. That's effectively what's being suggested

Using drugs, of course.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. Can't they sell them?

33,000 x $200?

[lindisfarne]

25. People are giving up horses left & right, which are often euthanized, because of the economy. n/t

[sutz12]

7. "compensatory reproduction"

Sounds like one of them sciency ee-vo-lew-shun words.

:evilgrin:

[Stevenmarc]

8. Now we know why Palin quit, rev up the helicopter

[goforit]

10. Horrific!!!! Where the hell is anyone to stop this madness!!

[lindisfarne]

26. There are organizations that take donations and use them to try to help the horses.n/t

[glitch]

11. Current poll results - 3% are with Salazar.

Sounds about right for him. :(

Poll

What should President Obama and Secretary Salazar do with the wild horses?
Slaughter those currently in holding pens, continue to reduce their numbers in the wild, and zero out more Wild Horse Territories,
3% 13 votes
Return the wild horses to the Wild Horse Territories with a well thought out management plan that utilizes PZP birth control and other options.
97% 421 votes
Continue rounding up horses and holding them in pens, and zero out more Wild Horse Territories.
0% 2 votes

| 436 votes

[Autumn]

12. Damn shame, I love

my mustang.

[villager]

14. More lack-of-change to disbelieve in. Salazar is shaping up as one of the prime disasters

... of our, er, "change"-laden administration....

[Cant trust em]

15. Lack-of-change to disbelieve in?

Isn't that a double-negative?

[villager]

16. well, yeah, it is, but hopefully the main point comes through...

;-)

[jgraz]

22. It may fail to not be a double-negative

But I'm unable to deny that I don't disagree with it.

[Cant trust em]

36. +1

Dig it.

[villager]

39. Then again, if one starts to "disbelieve," as a result of repeated lack-of-change policies

...from this administration -- especially on the environmental front, alas -- doesn't it still work, sentence construction wise?

[lindisfarne]

31. Population control is necessary. There just may be other ways (gelding?). Failing to control

population leads to starvation during difficult winters. Have you donated to the organizations for the horses that work to solve the problem?

Domestic horses are being euthanized quite a bit in the last year, due to people losing jobs & not being able to feed them.

[K Gardner]

17. This makes me sick to my stomach. Should be ALL OVER the news. Enough

public outcry and camera crews might stop this massacre.

[lindisfarne]

32. Donate to the organizations that advocate for the horses. If they had adequate funds, they might be

able to do alternative kinds of population control (such as gelding).

[K Gardner]

43. Just did... thanks !

[Cant trust em]

18. This serves me as a reminder on why I would hate to be president

I'm responsible for everything that happens in the country. I've kinda got a lot on my plate with the economy, health care, North Korea, etc...and now I have to deal with wild horses?

Good lord, I would hate this job.

[solstice]

23. Poor poor poor Obama. Helpless witness to horse slaughter..

:sarcasm:

[Cant trust em]

29. He's not helpless. That's the point.

It all winds up on his desk whether it was a policy he cares about or not.

Sometimes I just want to sit at my desk and be left alone to do my work. That is never the case for the president of the United States. This is about me, not Obama.

[lindisfarne]

37. You're not helpless either. Donate to organizations which have alt. approaches to pop. control.

Starvation is real in the winter when an area is overpopulated. Do you prefer that kind of death for the horses? If an org. had a real solution, perhaps this slaughter could be avoided.

[abumbyanyothername]

46. Actually, starvation in the wild seems to be

ecologically appropriate.

Just as it would be a good idea for the human species to try to avoid wiping out all other species, it is also a good idea for us to try and avoid selecting and favoring a particular species.

[NickB79]

55. How is starvation ecologically appropriate?

The problem with using starvation as a population control tool is that starving animals don't just accept their fate and die gently. They will fight for every last blade of grass to stave off death just a little bit longer. That means they strip the bark off trees. They eat plants to the ground, and then paw the dirt until they can eat the roots as well. They destroy the environment in their final attempt at survival, and these actions then lead to the deaths of dozens of other species that share that environment.

When the horses starve, so do all the other species in the region (except for the scavengers and predators, that is).

[solstice]

19. Whast a vile piece of shit. Another typical Obama appointment.

[lindisfarne]

42. See #41. You might see this predates Jan. 20, 2009 Start with this:

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/alerts.html

[Freddie Stubbs]

21. That meat could feed a lot of homeless people

[sam sarrha]

28. poor people dont crte about getting deadly Parasites

[Freddie Stubbs]

50. The ones eating out of dumpsters apperently don't

[lindisfarne]

34. There isn't a lack of food in the US. Reduce waste &improve distribution -better ways than slaughter

of horses.

[Canuckistanian]

24. Who's behind this? Ranchers?

Wild horses can't be that environmentally damaging. Didn't wild horses once naturally run free in N. America?

[jgraz]

27. Of course

Including the rancher who's currently running the Interior Department.

[Canuckistanian]

44. Unbelievable

Total lack of ethics. "Conflict of interest" is a dead concept these days, isn't it?

[kenfrequed]

53. "naturally"

And yes I do mean that in quotes. Modern horses were not indigenous to this continent and were brought over by the spanish and other colonial powers. So suggesting how natural wild horses are is sort of absurd.

As to how damaging wild horses are I do not know. It is possible they are very damaging to the environment, but since neither wild horses NOR cattle are indgenous I don't know if a proper argument can be made on this.


I do know that ranchers are typically stupid, stingy, self interested, and short sighted.

They slaughter wolves which controlled the coyote population and shot up the coyotes that (along with the wolves) kept the prarie dog population under something resembling control. But the cows would often step into prarie dog holes and fall over breaking a leg so then they decided to poison the landscape to try to keep the prarie dog population down.

Of course the coyotes and wolves did tend to eat 'downer cows' which obviously the ranchers thought would be much more useful if they killed them and ground them up to feed to other cows.

Oh and did I mention that they do much of this business on public land where they get to use it for bargain basement prices?

Full disclosure:
Frankly I love steak, especially grass fed rare steak that has been cooked in garlic and pepper (both red sweet peppers and peppercorn), but I do realize that I should probably enjoy it far less often.

[NickB79]

54. ANY animal can be very damaging in large enough numbers

Rabbits, goats, pigs, horses, deer, they can all overgraze and damage their environments.

Yes, horses were once native to North America, going extinct only 10,000 years ago. Of course, 10,000 years ago they also had native PREDATORS. Ice Age species of lions, cheetahs, dire wolves, short-faced bears, hyenas, sabertooth cats, and the most effective predators of all: humans.

With most of the predators that used to keep their numbers in check now either extinct or severely reduced in numbers, humans are the last major predator that can maintain population controls over the herds. After all, human predation of horses in prehistoric times is also natural; we've only changed the tools with which we hunt them.

[pinniped]

30. This nicely sums it up:

The ranching industry has long sought to obfuscate the science and the BLM has often been led by those sympathetic if not indeed part of that industry, much like Secretary Salazar, who hails from a ranching family in Colorado and who as a Senator voted to allow downed and diseased animals into the American families’ food supply.

If anyone checks asshole salazar's bank account, they will see money from fellow rancher, horse meat companies, and land developers.

[jgraz]

33. Fox... henhouse... etc

So much for changing how Washington works... :banghead:

[Life Long Dem]

38. This story screams for questions.

Questions like wtf is this story?

[Life Long Dem]

40. Almost looks like a scam?

Please buy the horses or they will be glue?

I'd question this unless it's spelled out more with links and such. Because this story seems to scream for research and since they don't even supply it more bells go off. And a warning until someone can say for sure this is the evidence.

[ProSense]

57. Because it's probably BS.

In the Spotlight

Wild Horse and Burro Quick Facts

[lindisfarne]

41. Information here: story & links to an org. to save them.

http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/plea-save-cloud-s-herd-and-all-our-american-wild-horses

But the link in the story is wrong; it should be
http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/
(they left out "the" in the link at site above)

Relevant links here:
http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/alerts.html
======
http://campaign-archive.com/?u=b16d80346618d3ce64e8e9877&id=79c134da09&e=bk8wmBxVpI
The Natural Resources Committee of the US Congress will have a
mark-up on HR 1018 on Wednesday, April 29th at 10:00am EST

Dear Friends of Cloud and the Wild Horses,
Just a quick note to let you know that H.R. 1018, the
"Restoring our American Mustangs" (R.O.A.M.) act,
sponsored by Congressman Nick Rahall to protect America's wild
horses, will be given a full committee mark-up this Wednesday.
This is the time when amendments will be proposed by other
committee members and it is our hope that this will improve
and strengthen this bill for our wild horses. The mark-up will
be on a live video webcast that starts at 10:00am EST this
Wednesday and you can watch it online here. 
=====
See also this:  http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/3.09(3).html
 (pretty ironic who the sponsors are)
Washington, DC (March 26, 2009) – A bill to ban horse
slaughter was introduced in the United States Senate today.
Sponsored by Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and John Ensign
(R-NV), the Landrieu-Ensign "Prevention of Equine Cruelty
Act" will end the slaughter of American horses here and
abroad. The sponsors, who have long championed the cause, have
the bipartisan support of 14 colleagues who are co-sponsoring
the bill.

The legislation comes at a time when horse slaughter no longer
occurs on U.S. soil, but each year tens of thousands of
American horses continue to be hauled to Canada, Mexico and
further abroad. Reports show that horses regularly travel for
hundreds or even thousands of miles to the slaughterhouses on
double-deck cattle trucks without food, water or rest. At some
Mexican slaughterhouses horses are stabbed repeatedly in the
spine until they are paralyzed, after which they are butchered
while still fully conscious. This country’s three remaining
horse slaughter plants – two in Texas and one in Illinois –
were shut down in 2007 under state law. Since then, the
pro-slaughter camp has led a concerted and disingenuous effort
to
resurrect the industry domestically, and has used scare
tactics in an attempt to defeat the federal ban. The federal
legislation is desperately needed to stop the slaughter of
American horses, irrespective of where the killing takes
place.

"America's horses are being beaten and dragged across the
border into Mexico and Canada so that they can be inhumanely
slaughtered for food. I will continue to fight in Congress to
end this brutal practice and ensure that American horses will
no longer be savagely slaughtered for human consumption,"
said Senator Mary Landrieu.

While horse slaughter no longer occurs on U.S. soil the
absence of a federal statute means that horses are shipped out
of the country for slaughter. Reports show that horses
regularly travel for hundreds or even thousands of miles to
the slaughterhouses on double-deck cattle trucks without food,
water or rest. At some Mexican slaughterhouses horses are
stabbed repeatedly in the spine until they are paralyzed,
after which they are butchered while still fully conscious.


"The time to put an end to the practice of slaughtering
horses in America is long overdue," said Senator John
Ensign said. "Horses have an important role in the
history of our country, particularly the West, and they
deserve our protection. As a senator and a veterinarian, I am
committed to doing what I can for these magnificent
animals."


The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act will amend Title 18 of
the U.S. Code to acknowledge horse slaughter as a form of
animal cruelty. The legislation includes stiff civil and
criminal penalties and gives law enforcement officials the
authority to apprehend and charge violators.

[Mari333]

45. I hate the human race today.

and I hate Ken Salazar.
and I hate Obama for hiring that scumsucking worm.

[jgraz]

47. I spend most of my days hating on humans

Volunteering for an animal rescue will do that to you.

[FarCenter]

48. Send them to France

Or some other country that needs the protein.

[Vidar]

51. Too bad we can't dispose of Salazar the same way.

[rbixby]

52. Horses aren't a native species

We make such a big fuss about other non-native species and try to keep them out and eliminate them as much as possible, so why the big fuss about horses? There were no horses here until they were introduced by Europeans in the 1400s. It seems to me that they should probably be treated like any other exotic species that threatens to upset the balance of nature here. Cattle aren't native or much better either, but because they're owned and considered private property, they can be regulated, wild horses cannot.

[jgraz]

56. The fact that they're non-native doesn't mean they don't suffer

Read the article. We have a perfectly fine solution to the wild horse population that doesn't require slaughter.

Hey, we're non-native as well! Can I now go around killing people?