Breaking News: BLM’s Wild Horse Advisory Board Just Voted To Kill All 44,000 Captive Wild Horses I

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if the population isn't kept in check in this era famine, disease, and destruction of habitat will occur and 44,000 horses can destroy a lot. It isn't great making those kind of decisions, but they have to be made.

What are those horses destroying? The BLM and the land they oversee was specifically set aside for those wild herds to continue to exist. So, is it oil pipelines they are destroying? Or.....what, exactly?

a reply to: tetra50

Correct, in one of the only utterly unanimous decisions ever in Congress these lands were set aside for the wild Mustangs. Cattle and sheep and pipelines are the invasive "species" here, not the horses.

Great observation and points, Springer. It was one of the only unanimous decisions, and very few seem to know the history or remember this.

I find it extremely ironic that while the BLM apparently sold itself out to the oil industry over this pipeline, they also made their own bureau and jobs obsolete....

I'm going to find it very interesting what happens after the horses are gone, as then there will be no reason for this land to have protected status. There are many private cattle ranchers in these areas. Will they then lose their land to imminent domain issues, in favor of drilling and pipelines, as they've already had issues with water sources for their cattle being cut off. This is part of what brought attention to what was happening in that area vis a vis the wild horse population, the oil industry lobbyists and the BLM. The cattle ranchers were losing their watering holes for their cattle.
regards,
tetra

a reply to: tetra50

This interview we did with George Knapp back in 2010 tells it all:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Be sure to click through to part 2.

One more point I'd like to make to those who have pointed out that they are not an indigenous species to North America. However, civilization in North America would likely not exist or have progressed this far in so short a time, without the work of horses. There was a time when they were our best transportation, for not only ourselves, but mail, money, communication, etc. And farming and feeding people and families wouldn't have been possible without them in front of the plow.....

Just saying. Historically, we owe a lot to this particular animal. They have carried us, fed us, and literally provided for our families.

In the modern world, as a horseback riding instructor for many years, I've personally seen horses save many at risk children, as well as adults dealing with post traumatic stress and addiction issues, among other issues. There is nothing so powerful as dealing with a large animal that can kill you at any moment, tolerating you and teaching you what your relationship to the larger environment of nature truly is......

The citizens and wildlife's relationship with the US Government is tenuous. Things will have to get a lot worse before anything is done.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Nothing will change unless people become massively aware. The outrage is there for those who are in the know. But a great majority are too busy playing pokemon go to look past their own box.

You're seeing it aren't you? The attack on Life in general? Do you think its a coincidence or is there a group of people purposely destroying our sources of life for their own reasons?

It is a very dangerous time to be distracted.

First bee genocide in south carolina and now horse genocide. What the he'll is happening in USA. Does anyone ever ask people what they want or is it just all about the money.

And upcoming elections are the saddest and worst in history. It likes you could not pick worse 2 people to run for president.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

I didn't read the report i must admit but this is due to your post and other posts. I find this to be quite sickening.Horses are very intelligent & beautiful creatures.

Why are they doing this? why not kill some useless humans instead?

Seriously though, this is like wtf? These horses could be shipped off to another part of the World instead of being killed.

I really do believe there are a lot of people out there who want all our Wildlife killed off for some reason. I'd like to know that reason. Our Oxygen is changing... is this to do with Alien's needing to cange the Atmosphere to suit themselves?

This is horrendous...

Where can we go to protest ?

a reply to: TruthxIsxInxThexMist

If they ship few to my country we would gladly take them

originally posted by: eeyipes
a reply to: tetra50

If they are overpopulated, why not round them up, sterilize the males, and let them loose again to live in peace and freedom?

OR...they could give some sort of birth control to the females...and then let them go.

originally posted by: Balans

originally posted by: Shamrock6
Keep the 40,000 horses in captivity, to an estimated cost of $1 billion over the herd's estimated life span?

With an official +-600 Billion $ military budget, I'd guess your government has your priorities screwed up once again. Same problem, different suffering subjects.

Sorry for the cheap shot but it's true everytime.

Defense spending has decreased by something like 15% over the last five years. Not very much, but still significant.

BLM also had their budget cut.

Did you have a viable point here or just a cheap shot?

originally posted by: tetra50

if the population isn't kept in check in this era famine, disease, and destruction of habitat will occur and 44,000 horses can destroy a lot. It isn't great making those kind of decisions, but they have to be made.

What are those horses destroying? The BLM and the land they oversee was specifically set aside for those wild herds to continue to exist. So, is it oil pipelines they are destroying? Or.....what, exactly?

And the land can only support a certain level of population.

How are so many people so unaware of this simple, basic fact?

a reply to: Shamrock6

LOL, too bad they didn't raise for 15% right?

And you expect from this kind of thinking they will care about some horses?

a reply to: tetra50

thank you. I have been a "horse person" from birth.
Every one of my relatives have or had horses/equines.

Am equine therapy stable is 1/2 mile from my house and I know how absolutely wonderful equines can be with humans dealing with illness/injury/trauma.
And my great grandfather was killed by one of his horses-he hit it and it smothered him against a barn wall.

Horses are a complex problem.
I wish there was a solution.

a reply to: IlluminatiTechnician

in a herd mentality, a female or male unable to breed is a puzzle to the rest. They may kill it or shun it until it dies.

originally posted by: Springer
a reply to: tetra50

Correct, in one of the only utterly unanimous decisions ever in Congress these lands were set aside for the wild Mustangs. Cattle and sheep and pipelines are the invasive "species" here, not the horses.

One last time and then I'm out because once more, I'm being proven right. You people won't listen. You people won't be accountable for what you have done; but here we go: Those lands can only support so many horses. That is why they are "managed" by the BLM. Now because so many people have turned animals loose onto federal land those numbers have swelled to what we see now. It is unsustainable. If left alone the animals would simply enter a boom bust cycle and then starve to death en masse.

The closing of the slaughter houses and the BLM mustangs has conflated into one issue. And I'm going to tell you something else, it is the tip of the iceberg. It is a fraction of the suffering I have seen over the last few years.

This is how it works. So you have a family that isn't very wealthy but they have some land and some cows, so they have some horses, and their daughter loves horses so they have a few more than they strictly need maybe. Maybe she shows Western Pleasure, or halter or does barrels or maybe she just rides with her friends. Now, when these horses had a bottom price of 800.00 they could sell a few, offset the price of feed and have fewer mouths to feed. Suddenly none of those young untrained animals are worth anything, and they couldn't sell them. They couldn't even give them away. So they now have maybe 7 or 8 mouths to feed, train, doctor and look after instead of four or five. This family has just incurred an additional annual expense of about 7-10k and they didn't have that much financial wiggle room in the first place. They are overwhelmed. This was a typical situation, especially in the first few years.

The other Big One is what I call the "production" breeders. The ones who produce mostly low end, often grade, but usable horses and sold them cheap to be used as ranch horses. They usually had a lot of land and ran these horses range pony and free to be brought in a couple times a year to be doctored or take the weanling age young stock off the mares. They would usually have at least 30 or 40 head. They had been doing it this way for generations. Suddenly their young stock that they relied upon is no longer worth anything and they couldn't even give them away (not that most of these people tried), but now, they have 50 or 60 horses running out there. They are facing financial ruin in a few years and they no longer have the emotional, financial or even physical resources to take care of these animals or even feed them.

These are just two examples of how it could go down and there are many variations of it, but it happened over and over and over again. I can tell you for a fact that all of these people mistakenly thought that the market would pick up, that this was only temporary, and many of them kept right on breeding the way they normally would, until they hit critical mass. Then they turned them loose (often onto federal land), or shot them, or let them starve. Now, not all of these people made moral decisions, but plenty of them were just caught flat footed and didn't know what to do.


Every single one of you keeps saying that these animals deserve our respect, and they do, but you are ignoring and have been ignoring the economic situation of the people that these animals depend on because it is inconvenient for you. Even worse, you are ignoring the culture of the people that these animals depend upon because you don't agree with it. Well, just because you don't like how they see and do things doesn't mean that your animal "advocacy" does not effect them and the horses that they have. So all of you just barreled straight ahead and made decisions based upon how you want things to be, not how they are.

The reality is, the land those horses are on cannot support the greater numbers. The greater numbers are there because people turned animals loose and no one wanted to bother with a mustang when they couldn't get rid of the ones that they had. They don't want them because now horses are cheap or even free so why pay an adoption fee and gas to haul a wild one back?

From the very beginning I said this would happen. From the very beginning I told all of you this is what we would see. None of you listened then and none of you will listen now. You'll just shrug and say it's not your fault, but it is, it really REALLY is. There was a quote I saw that said something like no snowflake feels responsible for the avalanche. Well guess what snowflakes, here we are. I hate all of you that are pushing this down the hill from behind your keyboards even more than all of the people that kept breeding.

I think this is my swan song on ATS, which makes me sad because this my internet home. But I can't just let this go anymore. I can't abide by this, so kick me off. Personally Springer, Tetra50 and even the OP (who has been admittedly quite fair to me in this thread), and everyone else who has made the emotional argument instead of the rational one, I want to punch you people in the face. I think you should have to be there when the BLM pulls the proverbial trigger. I think you should have to help put these animals down, because you have made this situation just as much as those people who kept breeding. You pretend that you have a factual argument while you continue to ignore the facts that you don't like, the facts that might mean you are doing it wrong, that you are making it worse for these horses not better. You have killed these animals with your keyboard warrior rhetoric just as much as those BLM employees that will be doing your dirty work. Every time you ignored the reality of the situation because it doesn't fit your world view, because you wanted a simple answer to a complex problem, every time you ignored those of us on the ground and in the trenches seeing the fallout from your ego driven idiocy saying you are making sure these animals suffer you have put one more horse in those BLM pens.

I've been working. I've taken them in. I've fed them, doctored them and tried to heal their minds, and all of you just keep sending them my way. I hate you people. I hate you so much, there are not sufficient words in the English language to describe it. I hate you because you choose to not be accountable for what you have done, but mostly I hate you because you CHOOSE to be ignorant and sway hearts and minds with that chosen ignorance and these animals are suffering for it. The road to hell is paved with good intentions I guess, and personally, I think that you people deserve to burn in it for what you have done.

I was going to jump in, but I see Redhorse has already outlined the reality very well, many times.
You people just don't want to hear and acknowledge the reality. It isn't even that complex are hard to understand!

The fact that ATS is even getting involved in promoting a false conspiracy theory around this, that actually hurts the horses and situation further is causing me to suddenly rethink my attitude towards this site.
Deny ignorance.... it always sounded sort of wierd.... "being in denial about ones ignorance", yep. Sounds about right.