[7HL]

I agree with Wyldterv.

Here's the dilema in my opinion. The Mustangs are being managed by a government agency. The mustangs are not the sole responsibility of this agency. Most Americans don't own horses. Most Americans don't want their taxes to go up and want less government spending. Thats why for some this is an easy and simple fix. There are thousands on cats and dogs being put down everyday because they are unwanted. Is irresponsible breeding part of it, yes. Part of it for most is that horses are a luxury item for them. When the economy suffers, it effects it all. Look how many horses get sold just before the winter months, because people can't afford the additional hay and feed as well as the winter cost rise.

I would rather see these animals slaughtered then to be caged, penned and suffer. I'd rather see the meat be used in some way then it just be disposed of.

Adoption and education is an answer, but not the only one.

[MyBabyTex]

I guess there is nothing I can do since I'm Canadian. Can I write up an email and one of you send it to them? I'm a pretty good writer.

[CowGirlUp1833]

Originally Posted by 7HL

I agree with Wyldterv.

I would rather see these animals slaughtered then to be caged, penned and suffer. I'd rather see the meat be used in some way then it just be disposed of.

[From earlier posts] "What I want from this thread is this: That ALL of you think about what you can do to help, whether it is writing a letter, adopting a mustang or becoming involved with education, fundraising, whatever. My goal here is to prevent us as a society becoming idle and unmotivated to continue having a voice for creatures that don't have one" ......

........All I'm asking is for people to exercise thier right as Americans and tell government that we do care what happens to these horses...at least they will then TRY to find an appropriate alternative....even if it has to be the lesser of several evils ( I DO agree with Wyldterv that being stuck in holding pens is not a good alternative- even to slaughter)

Maybe all we can do is fight for humane treatment of the horses going to slaughter, but that is still something to stand up and fight for...just because it's "old news" doesn't mean we should shrug our shoulders and walk away.


It sounds like we all agree here

[just_ride]

Originally Posted by Sandra-A1

What is the alternative?
What suggestions do you have for all the unwanted horses?
I doubt that you will find anyone here who would not want it to stop BUT...when you see that there is a problem you have to offer a pracital solution to it...to simply say "stop doing something" does nothing to solve the problem that created the situation.

I admire your passion and enthusiasm and am honestly interested in hearing your alternative plan.

I am with Sandra-A1 there has to be an alternative. If there is no herd management horses will become over populated and over graze, and with no food, they will become diseased and die slow painful deaths. Good management is key. There has to be a plan. I really don't see Birth control as an option it is to large an undertaking and it will be to costly. Tax payers are not going to go for it.

[Sandra-A1]

Below is an interesting topic related article I would like to share:

Op-Ed Contributor: Live Free and Die

January 4, 2005
By JUDY BLUNT

Missoula, Mont. - THOSE whose knowledge of wild horses
comes from coffee-table books and animal-rights propaganda
tend to embrace the mythology of the wild horse and ignore
the reality. The myth is pretty, like artwork: a proud
stallion and his mares and their adorable foals gallop
through a meadow, mountains in the background, manes and
tails streaming. There's a reason people who see that take
a photograph or paint a picture.

But here's some artwork from the summer of 2003: A cloud
hangs over the Nevada landscape, caused by 500 half-starved
horses pounding the high desert to powder, looking for
food, stamping any remaining waterholes into dust. The
foals are long dead, left behind as they weakened. Cowboys
under contract with the Bureau of Land Management set out
to gather the horses and move them, but a phone call
redirects them to a worse situation in another area.

The overpopulation of wild horses is a serious problem in
the West, with herds growing exponentially until they eat
themselves out of luck. The land can't support an infinite
number of wild horses - which, by the way, are inbred feral
descendants of imported domestic horses, hardly more native
to the prairie than the cattle their ancestors were trained
to herd.

Still, possibly because of our love for the domestic horse,
its wild cousins have become cultural icons, symbols of
freedom. It's practically un-American to talk about killing
them, so we've assumed a sort of willful blindness to both
the reality of the problem and its solutions.
Animal-advocacy groups rise in indignation over every
proposal to reduce the number of wild horses, including
sterilization programs, instead demanding a Western version
of the miracle of loaves and fishes.

Some 30 years ago, the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros
Act provided the land management bureau with two options
for horses removed from public lands because of
overcrowding: adoption or "humane and cost-efficient"
destruction. Ignoring the second option, the bureau has
been warehousing 16,000 horses, unlikely to be adopted but
ostensibly waiting for new homes, in overcrowded,
unsanitary and expensive feedlots. An additional 37,000
horses and burros overgraze land meant to sustain 27,000.

To get the land management bureau to come to grips with the
problem, Senator Conrad Burns, Republican of Montana, added
a provision to a spending bill last year that allows
certain horses to be auctioned off to the highest bidder,
which may be a slaughterhouse. Senator Burns's amendment,
signed last month by President Bush, may actually end up
rescuing the wild horses he is accused of murdering. At its
worst, this measure will sacrifice the unadoptable few to
the benefit of all. At its best, it will prod us, as a
nation, to take that first difficult step toward a
sustainable program to manage wild horses.

Adoption is a partial solution, but it's not the whole
answer. Adoptions don't keep up with herd growth, for one
thing. And not all horses are created equal, for another.
People adopt beautiful, young horses. The old, plain and
ugly are doomed from the outset. In addition, virtually
anyone with $125 can adopt a wild horse, but not everyone
has the knowledge and perseverance to tame it, or even, as
it turns out, to catch it after it's been let out to graze
in its new home.

Horse trainers like Merle Edsall see the worst of the
adoption cases when they're called to recapture adult
horses whose heads have grown around halters put on them as
colts. Too many, he says, spend their days in small pens
because their owners, unwilling to put them down, are at a
loss for what to do with them. His solution is the Sonora
Wild Horse Repatriation Project, which seeks to establish a
sanctuary in Mexico to sustain 10,000 horses in a natural
environment. But projects like this are howled down by
animal-rights groups that complain about sterilization and
other issues while ignoring the good such a project would
bring.

People who truly love horses need to do their own research.
We need places that will accept returned adoptees and
horses that no one wants to adopt. The Sonora project, and
several other sanctuary plans like it, would provide a
place for wild horses to live out their lives in freedom.

Game are controlled through hunting and predation; cattle
graze under strict regulations. Only the wild horse is
allowed to multiply unchecked, and with catastrophic
results. Sanctuaries would keep healthy horses out of
costly, unsanitary feedlots, while sending older,
unadoptable horses to slaughter would give their herds a
better chance at survival. A side effect would be the
rejuvenation of our depleted public lands to the benefit of
all species. Americans have a chance now to become part of
a sustainable solution before we stand guilty of loving our
wild horses to death.

Judy Blunt, a professor of creative writing at the
University of Montana, is the author of "Breaking Clean."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/04/op...8d16b877a85575

[wyldterv]

Sandra this is indeed an interesting article and thank you for sharing it... My only comment is that there are already gov't funded 'sanctuaries' set up, mainly in OK, on primarily cattle ranches.

The ranchers are paid X amount of dollars per day per head of BLM Mustang they are warehousing. The horses do have run of acerage, and are thrown minimal amounts of hay to keep them maintained but it is still warehousing and very VERY costly, the majority of the 43 million budget the BLM has for Mustang Program goes towards this warehousing 'solution'.

[KZWestern]

I agree with 7HL and moth... its been argued, its been fought. Even though I don't like slaughter, I know that even horses could overpopulate and if there arn't enough people to take care of them... what will the people being over run do? Just a thought.

[HorseN*Around]

Count me in. Let's stop this once and for all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SAVE THE HORSES FROM THAT CRUEL TREATMENT

HorsN*Around

[arabgirl15]

I WANT IN!!!!!!!!!! My name is Monica.

[T-Bred]

Count me in as well!!!! I pray everynight for those horses and animals!!! I want those mean/cruel people put away for good!! SAVE THE HORSES!!!