The Mustang~spirit of the west

[bobm]

When it cold the suffer, when it hot they suffer, we, man, was instructed to be good stewards.

.

When the bleeding heart animal rights folks started to cry out " you can't kill Bamby" hunting of white tailed deer was curtailed in the Eastern states. deer populations exploded and since deer get hungry , they started to eat peoples landscape plants as well as gardens. Many are killed daily on the roads and cause much economic losses to peoples' cars and property , and some people are killed in accidents. Same thing here. With the exponential increase in the feral horse population by doubling every 5 years, what will happen to the carrying capacity of the lands? What will happen to the Native animals as well as their environment ? What will happen if and when feral horses start to invade peoples' yards in search of food ?

 

[Nyboy]

Doubling every 5 years sounds a little exaggerated if their land is so barren.

 

[bobm]

Doubling every 5 years sounds a little exaggerated if their land is so barren.

Fillies do get bred under pasture or range living conditions. Gestation is 11 months. A year later the new fillies could be bred as well as momma mare, 11 months for gestation and there is another 2 times larger crop of foals. So, you do the math !!! All horses in the herd will be eather malnurished and / or looking for new pastures.

 

[Nyboy]

Not sure about horses but most malnourished mothers do not birth healthy off spring that live long.

 

[ninnymary]

I don't know who to believe anymore. And I don't mean you Nyboy.

Mary

 

[Nyboy]

I know Mary hard without being there and seeing for yourself

 

[valley ranch]

Me too Mary,
We/I don't believe the # projected by the BLM, I've been all round a couple three states, haven't been to holding sites in Colorado. There doesn't seem that there are the many they say, and they're being taken at an alarming rate, there are less today that there were last week and so on. Mares are not bred every year. When we see a band with colts there might be one or two colts, in the spring, many bands have none and there are fewer band than they use to be.There is a band in Stagecoach area, there's a lot of open land there and around the band is about 10 in number, with no young ones. It's nice to see a band with little ones but that not all the time. I've seen a few horses in north east California~few, several years ago, they might be taken by now.

 

[Beekissed]

"Some horse advocates have argued that we should just let the horses self-regulate on public lands," Garrott says. "But what do we do when animals are destroying rangeland, competing with livestock and other wildlife and dying due to starvation and drought? That's not good for the horses, it's not good for the range, it's not good for anyone." He notes that BLM has already been straining to deliver water to horses in Utah and Nevada during this summer's drought.

Here's the main kernel to the situation and the driving force behind the whole issue. Follow the money.

How can they be simultaneously destroying rangeland, competing with livestock and other wildlife, while also dying due to starvation and drought? Is anything being done about other wildlife that is dying due to starvation and drought? If not, why these animals?

I find all the excuses for eliminating these animals to be borderline ridiculous...they claim they have to struggle to get water to some of the herds, but they complain that the herds are multiplying too fast and need to be rounded up and shipped to slaughter? Why not just stop getting water to them and let them self regulate just like any other wildlife out there? That would naturally take care of the numbers. Seems like a natural solution to me, don't know why it's all so complicated....except for the ranchers involvement. The money. And that's where the "so complicated" comes in.

This story in The Times in 2016 says they aren't killing those horses at all.... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/us/no-the-federal-government-will-not-kill-45000-horses.html

So which is it? Are they neutering them and killing them or aren't they?

And about the money, to tell the truth, I've seen WAY worse things our government is spending billions of dollars of our taxpayers money on, so the money doesn't give me a moment's pause.

 

[Nyboy]

 

[bobm]

Not sure about horses but most malnourished mothers do not birth healthy off spring that live long.

Malnurished or not when a female comes into heat, she is bred. That is Mother Nature's way. She may or may not give birth as she could not conceive or abort or die from malnurishment or birthing complications or infections or worm infestations or predators such as cougars , bears, and wolves that may kill her or the foal. Add in the forest / range fires that consume thousands of acres at a time that often kill entire exhausted herds trying to flee the flames. Those are some of the reasons that the feral horse herds only double in five years time frame.