Sunday, November 8, 2009

BLM "Range Management Specialists" Deem Wild Horse Range NOT Suitable for Wild Horses but "A-OK" for Cattle & Sheep

From an 07' Report;

Hundreds of sheep brought in after wild horses removed: a supporter contacted us to report that, after 200 horses were removed in December from the Dry Lake Complex in Nevada, he was shocked to see about 1,000 sheep trucked in to that very area, less than two weeks after the round-up. Questioned on the issue, BLM confirmed that the area includes a grazing allotment for 2,200 private sheep, whereas for horses the “appropriate management level” is set at only 128 head, or one horse per 5,500 acres! What BLM failed to address is why substantially more forage is consistently allocated to private livestock on the very areas that should be “devoted principally” to wild horses under the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act.

The "Science" Behind Wild Horse Roundups
2007, KTVN

Rounding up wild horses carries inherent risks for the animals, so presumably, there should be a good reason for capturing them. In early September, a BLM roundup captured 900 horses in Nevada's Jackson Mountain Wilderness Area, supposedly because there wasn't enough forage to support them. When the horses got to the Palomino Valley holding facility, they started dying because of the feed they received. What bothers wild horse advocates the most is that while the BLM felt there was only room for 200 or fewer horses in the 280,000 acre Jackson Range, they said it was still okay to have 8,000 cattle and sheep grazing in the same area.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was beginning to think all our goverment was corrupt, but reading this about our wild horses and little burros is absolutly is terrible.

Anonymous said...

Our government is so corrupt but people just want to live in their own little circle and are in a state of denial.
When the citizens are completly controled maybe they will wake up. Do not count on it.

Beth said...

One mature ewe with lamb is worth .2 animal units, or 1/5 of a 1,000-pound beef cow. One horse is worth 1.5 animal units, or one and a half cows. Sheep are ruminants and their digestive systems are much more efficient than those of horses, which are hind-gut digesters (not ruminants). Horses must take in much more forage to maintain their metabolisms. Therefore, based on this information, many more sheep can fit on a piece of land than can horses. As long as we are unable to do away with red meat consumption as an institution, wild horses will have to make way for animals raised for meat that consume less forage, especially on our arid western lands that really are not meant to support a high volume of large animals.