Trumps Cowboy Allies Say All the Pretty Horses Must Die

[StarryNite]

An eye opening article on the corruption of America's public lands, aka welfare ranchers with the help of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and their determination to have all the wild horses and burros that live on federal lands killed. As it stands right now, the wording in Trump's 2018 budget will allow for wild horses in holding and on our public lands to be killed to benefit special interest groups such as the welfare ranchers. This is a lengthy article but well worth the read for anybody who cares about America's wild horses.


Trump’s Cowboy Allies Say All the Pretty Horses Must Die
The administration’s solution to the problem of overbreeding mustangs on public lands is round up and slaughter, but this ignores more benign solutions.

Christopher Ketcham
CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM
09.10.17 12:00 AM ET



[link:http://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-cowboy-allies-say-all-the-pretty-horses-must-die|

[msongs]

1. bring back wolves to help manage invasive species like horses. nt

[StarryNite]

2. Horses are not an invasive species...

But yes, stop killing our apex predators. And get the cattle off our public lands! Welfare ranchers are costing us millions of dollars in subsidies including the cost of killing our apex predators and removing our wild horses just to kowtow to them.

[2naSalit]

3. +1000000000000000000000000!!!

[GoCubsGo]

4. Actually, they are invasive species.

All of the so-called "wild horses" on this continent are descendants of domestic horses brought here from Europe. Their ancestors were either escapees from, or let loose by humans. They are not "wild" horses. They are feral domesticated horses. That being said, they are not the source of our over-grazing and other environmental issues. As you said, welfare cattle grazing is.

[linuxman]

5. Horses are absolutely an invasive species.

[Major Nikon]

6. Actually they are

Invasive species is defined as a non-native organism that causes damage to native habitat. Wild horses meet both criteria. That doesn't mean domesticated cattle can't or don't as well.

[StarryNite]

7. Horses are native to North America

The Surprising History of America's Wild Horses
By Jay F. Kirkpatrick and Patricia M. Fazio |

Modern horses, zebras, and asses belong to the genus Equus, the only surviving genus in a once diverse family, the Equidae. Based on fossil records, the genus appears to have originated in North America about 4 million years ago and spread to Eurasia (presumably by crossing the Bering land bridge) 2 to 3 million years ago. Following that original emigration, there were additional westward migrations to Asia and return migrations back to North America, as well as several extinctions of Equus species in North America.

~snip~

These recent findings have an unexpected implication. It is well known that domesticated horses were introduced into North America beginning with the Spanish conquest, and that escaped horses subsequently spread throughout the American Great Plains. Customarily, such wild horses that survive today are designated "feral" and regarded as intrusive, exotic animals, unlike the native horses that died out at the end of the Pleistocene. But as E. caballus, they are not so alien after all. The fact that horses were domesticated before they were reintroduced matters little from a biological viewpoint. Indeed, domestication altered them little, as we can see by how quickly horses revert to ancient behavioral patterns in the wild.

~snip~

The wild horse in the United States is generally labeled non-native by most federal and state agencies dealing with wildlife management, whose legal mandate is usually to protect native wildlife and prevent non-native species from having ecologically harmful effects. But the two key elements for defining an animal as a native species are where it originated and whether or not it coevolved with its habitat. E. caballus can lay claim to doing both in North America. So a good argument can be made that it, too, should enjoy protection as a form of native wildlife.

[link:https://www.livescience.com/9589-surprising-history-america-wild-horses.html|