67,000 is NOT a large number when you consider the vast scope of the land in the west. When I lived in Wyoming the number of antelope in the state was higher than the number of people.
I love horses. I've been a horseman since I was a child. As much I hate to see them have to be killed, I do understand why. Grazing range in the west is a limited resource due to the arid climate and the land can support only so many animals, whether they be horses, cattle, deer, elk, antelope, etc.
If they send them to slaughter, I would strongly support laws governing their transport and the conditions at the slaughterhouse.
The BLM has about 30,000 they are boarding, at private stables. It's political suicide to do anything other than that. So, 67k is not surprising. I've seen plenty in Moffatt County, CO.
Expecting 67,000 to be adopted is unrealistic. I know a handful of fellow horse people who have adopted a mustang and it's a MAJOR task to take on. Not only do you have the training of a horse that's already an adult to deal with, but you have to use special fencing and other stable accommodations. These are WILD animals we're talking about here.
One of the pluses of doing this (other than the satisfaction of the challenge and "saving" one) is that generally a wild horse that's grown to adulthood (that's about 5 years old....they age approximately 3 years to a human's 1) has very little health issues other than bumps and bruises. If they had conformation/physical problems they'd have never survived in the first place. And they ARE tough.
We have wild horses/ponies in Maryland and Virginia. They live on an island. In Chincoteague VA, they are driven across the bay to the main land and auctioned. Before my wife and I were married, he dad took her to the auction and bought a pony. In VA they call them ponies but in Maryland they are referred to as horses. They normally reach 13.2 hands due to living on salt seaweed and brush. In captivity they will reach 14.2 hands. My wife named the one they got Wildfire and it was a good name. She loved to ride horses but Wildfire could have been in a rodeo. He was a wild horse and she didn't know how to break him. Her dad didn't know either and got bucked off a few times. He was just a pet and had a nice home to eat oats, hay and grass.
They are part of the western landscape and I'm ok with having some. They are not native and need to be managed but they pull at heart strings so they aren't looked at like a zebra mussel or killer bees.
After high school I worked on a ranch way out in Red Desert country in WY. Most of the horses were mustangs or offspring of mustangs they had caught over the years. Capturing them had already been outlawed but they always talked about doing one more round-up for old time's sake. They kept the good ones to ride and turned the others back out. There are "traps" scattered around up there where they would build a corral that started with a huge opening hidden in sage and narrowed into a pen. I didn't give it much thought then but now I wish that last round-up would have happened.
We talked about the movie "Misfits" here recently. Clark Gable plays a Nevada cowboy who scratches out a living mustangin'
You'd be surprised at the number of horse people that are NOT against humane slaughter. That's because we've seen firsthand the treatment some horses get when they no longer can be used and earn their keep. Starved, abused, neglected animals standing knee high in their own waste that die a torturous slow death death unseen by the general populace because they cannot be slaughtered is a heartbreaking sight to see. I don't LIKE horse slaughter, and when my horses retire they live their final days out in pasture and well cared for until it's time for the needle in the neck but unfortunately not all of them have that option.
Feral horses are all over the west. In a great many places, they're pests. They destroy habitat, are aggressive towards wildlife and compete with wildlife for forage and water. Because they are much bigger than deer, bighorn sheep, and antelope, they limit herd size of native wildlife.
I've run into herds of feral horses while hunting, and it's a pretty intimidating thing.
We have one of the largest herds in the Nation near the Nevada border up here in NorCal. A large percentage of them are inbred freaks, with poor genetics passed on over many generations. The "true Mustang" is basically extinct. Only the good specimens will get adopted if they are rounded up. The horses and the Wild Burros take their toll on the landscape, and need to be harshly managed, as many other non-native "pests" have been. But there has been a strong lobby against culling them up here since the early 70s.
On the east side of Reno, these FERAL horses wander around on people's yards, take dumps all over the place and eat their lawns and other vegetation. They've absolutely destroyed the habitat for other wildlife on the mountains very close by.
These are FERAL animals just as are FERAL pigs, and almost as destructive, despite the glamour some attribute to them. Wildlife managers hate them!
Do you guys really live by the ignorant rules surrounding your life, made up by ignorant people, that live in nonaffected areas? If so, why? Because the government says so?
Every time the economy takes a severe down turn more " Wild Horses" appear. Here in California they shoot non native species. On Santa Rosa island they killed off Roosevelt elk and Kaibab mule deer that were put there decades ago. This was the highest concentration of 200+ inch mule deer in North America. Yet they will not kill feral horses.
In the West, feral horses and feral burros are much beloved by the bunny huggers and the eco-freaks. Sportsmen and true conservationists pretty much consider them a pox on the landscape.
I friend makes money roping them for the Yakama nation. He selects out the best breaks them and sells them. People into endurance horse events know they are the best at long distances. I Elk hunt an area in eastern Oregon that has quite a few and you smell them but almost never see them except at at distance unless you are on horseback. Seeing them is like seeing any other wild animal and I enjoy it. Horses are very destructive animals mine chewed all the paint off the hood of m truck when they were young. They need to be managed but I could never kill one.
I've had to shoot them out on the range when they broke a leg. Not fun, but necessary. I'll tell you this, even though I was a foot away from their heads, I cannot think of another time that I aimed so intently.
I have to put down my last horse this fall. He won't make it another winter with out suffering. It's like putting down a dog except one that you have had for 27 years. They are different and you get attached to them and they you. I'll cry like little girl not ashamed to say it either.
Two summers ago we had the vet come out and put down a quarter horse that we had since he was 4. He was 35 and until the day before was in really good shape for a horse that was about 105 in human years. I held the halter as he did it like I promised this old horse many years ago for all the times that he saved my a**. What surprised me was that while I was sad to see him go as he'd been a part of our lives for 3 decades, I didn't really feel bad for him, as he'd lived a good LONG life that VERY few horses even get close to. Our stalls each have a back door that goes out into pasture and for the better part of his life he was free to come and go as he pleased.
We buried him in the back field and in the spring the mound over his grave is covered in wildflowers. Not bad. I only wish my demise can come close to that.
Like I said, it'll be two years ago this August and my wife still cannot bring herself to put another horse in his old stall. I won't argue with her on that one either.
I have yet to call a vet to put one down. If one has to go I call the renderer. He stands about 10' away and puts a .22 right between the eyes and the legs drop out from under the horse. He walks up puts two more shots in the ear hooks up the winch and loads it on his truck and off he goes. I would shoot it myself before I made a vet call. I've heard bad stories about the big needle that didn't go well for the horse.
I say kill them all and the burros. They are not native and are causing environmental problems with everything from native plants to animals and erosion. Perhaps they could be managed to a small herd like they used to be, but it's ridiculous how it is now. Drive across NW AZ, NM, NV, CA, SW CO,... they're everywhere like rats and the vegetation around them is mowed to the ground. They are completely unmanaged and their numbers need to be dropped. If there was an open season on them, my dogs would never eat dog food again and I'd eat their straps gladly.
When I was at the class for my daughter's hunter ed, there was a chinese guy there from L.A. who had a few family members with him taking the class and we didn't need to be in there, so we sat outside and talked. He said that if any of the states opened a season on the burros, that the tags would be high demand: The chinese in L.A. would absolutely LOVE to hunt wild burros and they'd utilize all the meat. Burro is a delicacy in China.
If the Don ever gets around to appointing me Big Game Czar, I will write an executive order and place a 364 day season on feral horses and burros. Obviously can't have an open season on National Horse day !
Feral hogs, burros, cats, horses are all a problem and should not be protected any more than Rock Pigeons, House Sparrows, and European Starlings are under current law.
