E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Susan Montoya Bryan / AP file
Wild horses scour the ground for strands of hay during an adoption event put on by the Bureau of Land Management in Albuquerque, N.M., in 2009.
The Bureau of Land Management faced a crisis this spring.
The agency protects and manages herds of wild horses that still roam the American West, rounding up thousands of them each year to keep populations stable.
But by March, government pens and pastures were nearly full. Efforts to find new storage space had fallen flat. So had most attempts to persuade members of the public to adopt horses. Without a way to relieve the pressure, the agency faced a gridlock that would invite lawsuits and potentially cause long-term damage to the range.
So the BLM did something it has done increasingly over the last few years. It turned to a little-known Colorado livestock hauler named Tom Davis who was willing to buy hundreds of horses at a time, sight unseen, for $10 a head.
The BLM has sold Davis at least 1,700 wild horses and burros since 2009, agency records show [1] -- 70 percent of the animals purchased through its sale program.
Like all buyers, Davis signs contracts promising that animals bought from the program will not be slaughtered and insists he finds them good homes.
But Davis is a longtime advocate of horse slaughter. By his own account, he has ducked Colorado law to move animals across state lines and will not say where they end up. He continues to buy wild horses for slaughter from Indian reservations, which are not protected by the same laws. And since 2010, he has been seeking investors for a slaughterhouse of his own.
"Hell, some of the finest meat you will ever eat is a fat yearling colt," he said. "What is wrong with taking all those BLM horses they got all fat and shiny and setting up a kill plant?"
Animal welfare advocates fear that horses bought by Davis are being sent to the killing floor.
“The BLM says it protects wild horses,” said Laura Leigh, founder of the Nevada-based advocacy group Wild Horse Education, “but when they are selling to a guy like this you have to wonder.”
BLM officials say they carefully screen buyers and are adamant that no wild horses ever go to slaughter.
“We don’t feel compelled to sell to anybody we don’t feel good about,” agency spokesman Tom Gorey said. “We want the horses to be protected.”
Sally Spencer, who runs the wild horse sales program [2], said the agency has had no indication of problems with Davis and it would be unfair for the BLM to look more closely at him based on the volume of his purchases.
"It is no good to just stir up rumors,” she said. “We have never heard of him not being able to find homes. So people are innocent until proven guilty in the United States."
Congress reverses a move that previously prevented the slaughter of horses for exportation of the meat. Paul Crawley reports.
Some BLM employees say privately that wild horse program officials may not want to look too closely at Davis. The agency has more wild horses than it knows what to do with, they say, and Davis has become a relief valve for a federal program plagued by conflict and cost over-runs.
"They are under a lot of pressure in Washington to make numbers,” said a BLM corral manager who did not want his name used because he feared retribution from the agency’s national office. “Maybe that is what this is about. They probably don't want to look too careful at this guy."
******
Wild horses embody the mythic West: Painted Indian war ponies and the cavalry mounts that chased them, pony express runners and the tough partners of cowboys.
At the turn of the 20th Century, they numbered in the millions, but most were rounded up, slaughtered, and used for pet food or fertilizer, until by 1970, there were only 17,000 left.
In 1971, Congress stepped in to save the remaining herds, passing a law [3] that declared wild horses “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West” and made it a crime for anyone to harass or kill wild horses on most federal land. The law tasked the departments of Interior and Agriculture with protecting the animals still roaming the range.
Dave Philipps / ProPublica
Tom Davis at his corrals in La Jara, Colo.
In a sense, the Bureau of Land Management -- the part of the Interior Department assigned to oversee the wild horse program -- succeeded in this a bit too well. Protected horses naturally began to reproduce and by 1983 there were an estimated 65,000 horses and burros on the range, competing for resources with cattle and native wildlife.
In the name of maintaining a sustainable balance, the BLM began removing horses from the wild. It now rounds up about 9,400 horses a year, which has kept the wild population at around 35,000.
The captured horses are put up for adoption. Almost anyone can have one for as little as $125 as long as they sign a contract promising not to sell it to slaughter.
Adoptions kept pace with round ups until investigations in the late 1980s and 1990s showed that many adopters, including several BLM employees, had turned a quick profit by selling the horses to slaughterhouses. To discourage such re-sales, the BLM began holding the title of sale for a year. Today the agency says it visits almost every adopter for a “compliance check” within six months to make sure horses are well cared for.
The restrictions protected horses, but discouraged adoptions, a trend compounded more recently by a bad economy and soaring hay prices.
Today, only one in three captured horses finds a home. The rest go into a warren of tax payer-funded corrals, feed lots and pastures collectively known as “the holding system.” Since horses often live 20 years after being captured, the holding population has grown steadily for decades from 1,600 in 1989 to more than 47,000. There are now more wild horses living in captivity than in the wild.
For decades, government auditors [4] and wild horse welfare advocates have warned that the policy of capturing and storing horses is unsustainable and have pushed for the BLM to use fertility controls, introduce predators or expand wild horse territories, but the agency has made little progress toward these goals. In the first half of this year, for example, it treated fewer than half as many wild horses with a birth control drug than was planned.
"I think they are caught in an old way of doing things,” said John Turner, an endocrinologist at University of Toledo who specializes in wild horse fertility control. “Once they round up the horses, I don't think they like to treat and release. They would rather remove them."
Driven by the cost of caring for unwanted wild horses, the annual price tag of the program has ballooned from $16 million in 1989 to $76 million today.
Cost pressures prompted Congress to pass a last-minute rider to a 2004 law directing the BLM to sell thousands of old or unadoptable wild horses for $10 a head without restrictions -- even for slaughter -- but the agency has not done so, fearing public outrage.
Instead, since then, the BLM has been selling horses, but requiring buyers to sign contracts [5] saying they will “not knowingly sell or transfer ownership of any listed wild horse and or burro to any person or organization with an intention to resell, trade, or give away the animal for processing into commercial products." Violating the agreement is a felony, but there are no compliance checks similar to those done when horses are adopted.
Even when priced at less than a few bales of hay, these horses had little appeal: Sales dropped [6] from 1,468 in 2005 to 351 in 2008.
To explore other options for reducing the number of horses in holding, top BLM officials gathered for weekly closed-door meetings from July to October 2008. According to meeting minutes obtained by the Conquistador Equine Rescue & Advocacy Program, they considered selling thousands of animals for slaughter and even large-scale euthanasia, but concluded such actions would enrage animal-welfare activists to the point they might "threaten the safety of our facilities and our employees."
No clear plan emerged.
As the wild horse program’s situation grew increasingly dire, a new option came knocking: Tom Davis.
******
Davis, 64, a plain-spoken man with a sun-beaten brow, makes his living hauling livestock, but says reselling wild horses now accounts for a substantial part of his income.
By his own account, he has worked around horses all his life -- on racetracks, on ranches, and even rounding up wild horses for slaughter before the 1971 law put a stop to the practice.
For most of that time, he has lived in the tiny town of La Jara, in Colorado’s mountain-ringed San Luis Valley, just down the road from Ken Salazar, the former U.S. Senator who now heads the Department of the Interior.
“When my dad was alive we farmed their land,” Davis said of the Salazar family. “I like them. I do business with them. I do quite a bit of trucking for Ken.”
(Salazar did not respond to repeated interview requests for this story.)
On a warm morning in May, Davis gave a rambling two-hour interview on the 13-acre spread of corrals and truck lots where he lives.
Leaning against the fence of a muddy corral where a half dozen horses nibbled hay, wearing dusty overalls, Davis gave a simple reason for becoming the BLM’s main buyer.
"I love wild horses to death,” he said. “It's like an addiction. For some it's drugs, for me it's horses."
According to BLM records, Davis first contacted the program in January 2008. Documents obtained from the agency show he filled out the application [7] to become a buyer over the phone, aided by Spencer, the BLM’s sales director, who wrote in his answers to questions on the form. (A BLM spokesman said in an email that agency employees often did this in the program’s early days, but no longer do.)
Under a question concerning Davis’ intended use of the animals, Spencer wrote “use for movies.” He later told other BLM employees he sold the horses to Mexican movie companies to use on film shoots.
Under a question about what type of horses Davis preferred, the application noted he would take males or females, so long as they were big.
At the bottom of the application, Spencer wrote that she and Davis had “Discussed goal of providing a good home and making sure none of the horses end up at slaughter plants.” A few weeks later, the BLM sent Davis 36 wild horses from its Cañon City, Colo., holding corral.
That was the only load the BLM sent Davis in 2008, records show. But in 2009 -- a few months after the meetings about the holding crisis and two weeks after Salazar became head of the Interior Department -- the agency started sending him truckload after truckload, from all over the West. Soon he was by far their biggest customer.
Davis bought 560 horses in 2009, another 332 animals in 2010, 599 more in 2011, and 239 in the first four months of 2012, agency records show. While most BLM buyers purchase one or two horses at a time, Davis averages 35 per purchase and has bought up to 240 at a time.
The animals came from the mountains of California and Wyoming, the mesas of Colorado and Utah, and the deserts of Nevada and Oregon. Many had lived for decades in the wild: Mature band stallions and resilient mares of every color descended from the first American horses.
Davis has paid the BLM a total of $17,630 for the animals, far less than BLM has expended to provide them – the agency estimates it costs $1,000 to roundup a wild horse and records show it has paid as much as $5,000 per truckload to ship them to Davis. Similar horses that are not acquired from the BLM and can legally be sold for slaughter fetch $300,000 to $600,000 on the open market, according to sales prices from regional livestock auctions.
Some BLM corral managers said in interviews they felt uneasy shipping so many horses to a single buyer, and one they knew so little about, but said such decisions weren’t up to them.
"That all happens in Washington," one said, echoing the comments of many. "We are just peons. We do what we are told."
Davis said BLM employees occasionally asked where his horses ended up, but said he tells them it’s “none of your damn business.”
"They never question me too hard. It makes 'em look good if they're movin' these horses, see?" he said. "Every horse I take from them saves them a lot of money. I’m doing them a favor. I’m doing the American people a favor."
******
So what happened to the wild horses Davis purchased from the BLM?
The agency can’t say for sure. It does not hold onto the titles of wild horses acquired through its sale program as it does with horses that are adopted. Officials also have no process for following up to make sure buyers use animals as they claim they will in applications.
In the interview at the ranch, Davis said he had found most of the mustangs “good homes” on properties mostly in the southeastern states. Asked if he would provide records of these sales, he responded, “Ain’t no way in hell.”
Other people who find homes for rescue horses in the region say they rely heavily on advertising and web sites to connect with buyers. Davis does not appear to do so.
“I’ve never heard of him,” said David Hesse, who runs Mustang and Wild Horse Rescue of Georgia [8]. “If he said he is finding homes for that many old, untamed mustangs, I’m skeptical. The market is deader than dead. I have trouble finding homes for even the ones that are saddle-broken. Wild ones? No way.”
On some sales applications, Davis has said he sells horses to graze on land used for oil and gas drilling in Texas, but oil industry experts contacted for this story said they had never heard of such a practice.
According to brand inspection documents [9] required by Colorado when livestock is sold or shipped more than 75 miles, Davis and his wife say they have sent 765 animals with BLM wild horse brands to a sparsely populated stretch of arid brush country along the Mexico border in Kinney County, Texas. (The records do not give specific addresses where animals were sent, but identify small towns, such as Spofford, as their destination.)
It’s impossible to confirm that the horses actually arrived there or to know where they might have gone next, however, because Texas is one of the few Western states that do not require brand inspections when horses are moved or sold.
Just south of Kinney County is Eagle Pass, a border town that isthe only crossing for horses going to slaughter in Mexico for hundreds of miles.
There have been no horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. since 2007, when Congress barred funding for U.S. Department of Agriculture horse meat inspectors. Since then horse slaughter has been outsourced. A 2011 report by the General Accountability Office [10] found the export of horses for slaughter to Mexico shot up 660 percent after the ban.
In Eagle Pass, as at other crossings, slaughter horses are checked by USDA veterinarians. A USDA spokeswoman refused to make veterinarians available for interviews, but confirmed that vets sometimes see wild horses bearing the BLM brand in slaughter export pens.
Brand documents leave almost 1,000 of Davis’s wild horses unaccounted for. That means they should still be within 75 miles of his residence -- if he has complied with state law.
Asked if this was the case, Davis first said the horses were still on 160 acres of land he leases from the state of Colorado. Then he said some had been shipped out of state without brand inspections, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 18 months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
"Since when is anything in this country done legal?" Davis said in a phone interview.
******
Had BLM officials inquired further about Davis, they might have found reason to question his plans for wild horses.
Davis is a vocal proponent of slaughtering wild horses in the holding system, which he considers a waste of resources. During the interview at his home, he said he would purchase far more horses if the BLM allowed him to resell them to so-called “kill buyers.”
“They are selling me mere hundreds now,” he said. “If they sold me 50,000, I guarantee I could do something with them. I would go to Canada. I would go to Mexico.”
Davis has close friends who export horses for slaughter, including Dennis Chavez, whose family runs one of largest export businesses in the southwest. In 1984, when Davis authored “Be Tough or be Gone [11],” a self-published book about a horseback ride he took from Mexico to Alaska, he dedicated it to Chavez’s father, Sonny Chavez.
Also, despite the obstacles that impede U.S. horse slaughterhouses, Davis said he has been trying to drum up investors to open a slaughter plant in Colorado.
He said he had approached pet food companies to buy the meat and asked Ken Salazar’s brother, John Salazar, who is the head of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, to help him get a grant to finance the business. John Salazar declined to help Davis, and so far the slaughterhouse venture has not gone forward.
“How can the BLM say with a straight face they are protecting wild horses when they deal with this guy?” said Leigh, of Wild Horse Education.
Animal welfare advocates have raised concerns about Davis’ purchases, but they say federal officials paid little attention.
In late 2010, the BLM rounded up 255 horses in the Adobe Town wild horse area [12] in Wyoming. A local loose knit group of advocates had been photographing the herd for years. After the round-up, group members called BLM officials, looking to adopt a few of the animals, particularly an old stallion they had named Grey Beard [13].
They were told that the horses had been claimed by an anonymous buyer who planned to resell them to large landowners looking for agricultural tax exemptions. The advocates tried to learn more about the buyer, but Spencer refused to give his name, citing privacy policies.
According to interviews and agency emails, group members told Spencer that anyone buying that many horses at once had to be a kill buyer.
Sandra Longley, one of the advocates, said in an email to another advocate that Spencer had assured her that the buyer in question had a long relationship with the BLM and was “above reproach.”
A BLM spokesman said Spencer did not recall the conversation.
According to BLM records, most of the horses were sold to Davis.
Warnings from advocates about Davis do not appear to have prompted the BLM to reconsider selling to him.In fact, internal agency email shows that officials actively turned to Davis to absorb freshly rounded-up horses so they wouldn’t end up in the overloaded holding system.
In January, the manager of the agency’s corral in Burns, Ore., emailed superiors in Washington, D.C., to ask what to do with 29 mares, almost all of which were pregnant. Spencer replied that Davis would take them.
In March, a corral manager emailed Spencer to say he had 92 “nice horses” just rounded up in High Rock, Calif., and to ask if Davis could take some of the geldings.
A day later Spencer replied, “Davis told me that if the geldings are in good shape he will be able to place them into good homes.”
“How many would Mr. Davis want to buy?” the corral manager asked Spencer. “And are there any specifics that he is looking for?”
“He said he’d be interested in all of them, no specifics,” Spencer replied.
Spencer said in an interview she is under no pressure to approve buyers with questionable backgrounds and feels confident that “we do not sell to people we feel are going to do bad things to the horses.”
When asked about Davis, she said he had been thoroughly checked out and she had confidence in him. More generally, she said that if there were problems with a buyer, she would know.
“People watch where our horses go and the brands are very distinctive,” she said. “If things were going on, we would get a call.”
Davis’ most recent purchase was in April, when he bought 106 animals. Since then, the agency may have opened an inquiry into what he has done with horses bought from the BLM. In June, an agency investigator contacted this reporter seeking information about him. This month, however, the BLM assistant special investigator in Santa Fe (the contact supplied by the agency on this matter) said he was "unable to confirm or deny" that the BLM is investigating Davis.
Animal welfare advocates say the agency’s reliance on Davis is just another indication of how the wild horse program and its overburdened holding system have been mismanaged.
“He is just a symptom of the train wreck that is the Wild Horse and Burro program,” said Ginger Kathrens, director of the horse advocacy group The Cloud Foundation, based in Colorado Springs. “They just warehouse more and more horses and create their own crisis. Then, after they run the program into the ground, they have to find ways out of it. It is a whole unnatural ridiculous system run amok. And who pays the ultimate price? Wild horses.”
This report, "All the Missing Horses," first appeared at ProPublica.org.
To contact Dave Philipps about this story, email him at horse@propublica.org.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- 'Smiles': New street drug tied to 'Sons of Anarchy' death
- Killing of wolf pack criticized by key Wash. state senator
- Well-dressed armed robbers sought in brazen NYC jewelry heist
- World War II bombs in Gulf of Mexico need to be checked, experts warn
- Video: Cheerleaders raise special-needs girls' spirits
Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
How about relaxing the regulations, reducing the price, and increase the flexibility of requests! This would allow more adoptions and eliminate the need for "knee jerk" reactions to problems. Solutions, are not part of the plan with government agencies, which leads to problems like this!
"Since horses often live 20 years after being captured, the holding population has grown steadily for decades from 1,600 in 1989 to more than 47,000. There are now more wild horses living in captivity than in the wild." This led to "birth control drugs" used less than planned... ??
EVER HEAR OF CASTRATION? Cheaper and 99.9% effective. Why are people 'allergic' to gelding? Whosoever is running this gov outfit needs to take some lessons in animal husbandry....
Well, gosh, it sounds like they need natural predators. Too bad there aren't enough wolves around to pick off the herds... *cough*
Gotta do something with them. The horse populations on the west coast are getting overpopulated and diseased. There was a time when we could use them for dog food, now we cant even sell them to canada where people eat horse regularly.
occasionally the indian tribes round them up and sell them but thats not enough to control the populations. Unless we bulldoze our homes and roads and start living under logs in the forest we are going to have to control the animal populations--driving a hybrid wont cut it.
Am I noticing the start of a trend from NBC here? You city folks don't get it do you?
Who cares??!! I dont see the animal rights groups stepping in to help out, instead they are whining about some guy, who is taking care of the problem..
This mess is to a large degree the result of an unrealistically romanticized view of these feral horses and burros. They are not native to N. America (The N. American hoarse went extinct about 12K years ago along with saber toothed cats and cheetah) and they are highly damaging to the arid western ranges where they are found. While a mountain lion may occasionally kill a young horse, these animals have no natural population controls as is often the case with introduced species. Several tests suggest horses are actually less intelligent than cows which we eat with abandon. They were originally domesticated in the far east as beasts of burden, for milking and for meat. Now that they have become a "pet" species here we bend over backwards and spend absurd amounts of money trying to "save" them, all at the expense of native wildlife.
Of course sterilization and adoption would be preferable. The former is expensive and the latter has run it's course with few vacancies available for these animals. Using them as the livestock they were bred to be, including slaughter, makes the most sense until some sort of realistic and effective method of population control is developed.
I grew up around these animals in the West Desert of Utah and I have owned horses so I'm not a horse hater. There is a representative population of true Spanish Mustangs roaming free on the National Horse Preserve on the Wyoming Utah border and I support that. The animals in question here are a mix of escaped and abandoned livestock. I don't favor feral horses over other domestic livestock - they all need to be removed from our arid western lands, particularly our public lands, where both species are highly detrimental to the soil, watersheds and native species of plants and animals.
Alex: Ever tried to geld a wild horse?
I wouldn't mind having a horse burger now and again. I've eaten things that were presented to me as frog, alligator, and even rattlesnake. Whatever they were, they tasted good. So serve one up to me (so long as it's pink goo free).
Seems to me the guy is selling them for slaughter. No way is the guy legit. But with that said, there really shouldn't be this taboo reaction to eating horse. I can eat a deer, I can eat a cow, I can eat countless animals and people are OK with it. But the second I say I want a nice cut of horse meat, people freak out and say "Gross." Horse should be on the dinner table just like cows.
Still this guy seems like a real scumbag.
If we can't eat them WHAT are we supposed to do with them? Stop romanticizing wild horses, they're NOT native and they're NOT endangered. Fat, young colt sounds delicious. Slaughter them and serve them up hot to hungry people in need if you feel like doing something charitable.
Gelding a colt is NOT expensive....this is just pure laziness on the part of the BLM....those of you sniping about "who cares" "they're not even native to the land" yadda yadda yadda are likely just ignorant of any pertinent facts regarding horses in general, let alone wild ones.
A program of sterilization would solve the problem... the first step is to get people who actually know what they are doing to run the program. Pencil pushers in govt. have no business deciding how to handle this.
Oh, and Richard 197, journal journal, smackwhackle...you want to eat horsemeat? Move to France..... the lot of you are nauseating.
DrRiverSong: what makes a horse sancrosanct? Pigs are very intelligent, but are widely consumed. In fact, I just had two ham steaks last night, along with mashed potatoes and baked beans. Cows, lamb, deer, rabbit, pheasant - also quite tasty. You're not one of those save only the cute ones are you? By absolutely no means whatsoever am I saying slaughter them in an inhumane way. There is a large population my pretty ponies and there is also a large population of hungry people.They are a legitimate source of nourishment (the ponies, that is).
BUT...because I am a bit of a dick...Dripping, tasty horseburgers, covered in cheese, some onions, maybe a bit of HORSEradish. Horseribs - meat falling of the bone...MmmmMmmm Good.
Smells like this guy is being sold horses because he knows Secretary Ken Salazar, the well known friend of ranchers and enemy of wild animals.
While you are 'fixing' these wild horses, how about 'fixing Tom Davis . . . he definitely needs to be taken out of the Colorado gene pool
They have 47,000 in holding pens and thats growing every year. Who would want a wild horse to begin with? Now that you have thought of no one, who would want 47,000 of them. There are no that many people in the USA that would want one ever. Food source sounds good, if the different factions that want them saved dont want to buy them then eat them.;
"Wild" horses and burros are no different than feral dogs, pigs, or pigeons. They didn't evolve in the current ecosystems they are now destroying. They are very aggressive toward our native bighorn sheep and mule deer, fouling and defending water sources to the detriment of our indigenous wildlife. I live in the northwest Phoenix area and the wild burros are almost as common as illegal aliens... wait i got it! Let's issue a feral burro to each illegal and give them a ride back to Mexico! Problem solved!
It's a sad story .... I love animals...
Is the problem too many horses or is it that the cattle ranchers don't want them eating off the forage on the public land they lease at rock bottom prices? This is what you get when you let the ranching concerns kill off all the predators. No wolves, no cougars and too many foals survive to breed. Realistically how many horses can be adopted? Not all that many. A horse is not something most people ever ride let alone buy. Who still uses horses besides ranchers and the Amish? Not that many people in America. The article doesn't say anything about selling them overseas to countries that still actually still uses horses.
10$ a head delivered? Think he's making any money? Like he said he loves horses "to death".
I agree that they need to cull the herd but let's stop being naive and/or two faced about it. This guy has found his scam and the taxpayers are paying the price. The Government should just ship them to Canada, Mexico or Japan and make the money from it. Not some Western Sleaze.
workingpoor - I believe the article covered Canada, they don't want them either. Horse meat is good (are it in Germany) and should be shipped to the soup kitchens all over feeding the poor. If they don't want to eat it they just aren't hungry enough and should GO GET A JOB. Make what Mr. Davis is doing right under Colorado's nose (I bet they know he's doing this) and make it legal.
Absolutely disgusting.
Davis signed documents vowing that the horses would not be killed. Track the horses and then have davis drawn and quartered.
The BLM has a history of selling off PUBLIC land leases for pennies. They also sell timber for pennies. The BLM is a corrupt racket, a pathetic joke. Those horses, if left to nature, would cull themselves (interesting how this story coincides with the butchering of a wolf pack) but the BLM is busy 'managing' those lands for kick-backs, bribes and under-the-table dealings. They are a sham and should be removed, all they are good for is fleecing the tax payer, destroying animals and the land they are supposed to 'protect.'
Selling them to a butcher for ten dollars a head? Please. Horsemeat sells for more money than beef in certain markets. If the BLM were really looking out for the taxpayers, ol' Horse Butcher Davis should be paying one hundred dollars a head.
As to 'culling the herd' their methods are obscene. They run horses to death, chase them so terrifically with helicopters that young foals literally loose (as in destroyed and torn off) their hooves, think about that for a minute. Talk about cruelty, your government is beyond cruel.
Ummm I am from canada we do not eat horse here moron.
I think that it is pretty obvious what Davis is doing with the horses. The BLM is just looking the other way because they do not want to know and he is solving a problem for them. The reality is that these horses are not native to the area and do not have enough natural predators to control the population. I love all these people spouting off about protecting these wild horses and how bad it is to sell them to slaughter. What I do not here is any of these bleeding hearts saying they are willing to adopt these horses or put up the money to care for them. They are not an endangered species and the population needs to be controlled somehow. I think they need to be realistic and legalize what Davis is currently doing under the table. That way at least the government, instead of this crooked rancher can make the money off of it. At least then maybe the program to keep the herd sizes under control will at least pay for itself instead of being a drain on the taxpayer. I know that people are going to say I am cruel and heartless because I think that we should allow slaughtering of these horses. The reality is that I love horses and prior to hurting my back used to ride pretty regularly. I have many friends that own horses and that are involved in the horse industry. I am, however, also a realist and understand that something needs to be done. While some people may find the idea of eating horse meat disgusting, there are many people in the world that do eat horse meat and even prefer it to beef. I would also venture to say that there are plenty of hungry people here in the US who would give it a try, particularly since their alternative may be not eating at all. Davis is nothing but a lying sack of @!$%# and I think that everyone knows it. So let's take him out of the equation, bring the practice above board, and allow the program to benefit from the sale to slaughterhouses instead of letting this liar be the one to make the money.
Horses are animals like any other. Slaughter them as you would a cow or pig, if there are excess numbers of them. Mindless sentimentalism seems to be the cause of the problem.
One of the main reasons horse meat isn't available in the US is because some of the drugs used to treat them are harmful to humans. A few years ago I knew of a test group of mares were given a birth control shot (don't know the details of how it worked exactly). If BLM implemented a round-up, gelded stallions, give mares the bc shot, then release back into the wild, pretty soon the population would stabilize or even drop. Seems like that would be a more efficient use of funding.
The particulars of the horse situation aside, this is just another case of the government looking the other way to "solve" a problem. Either enforce the laws you have, or change them. To say there is no reason to "check into" what Mr. Davis is doing with so many horses is denial on the government's part. And I agree with those who said get some people in the program that know what the #@!* they are talking about and doing. As a matter of fact, there are probably hundreds of government agencies where this miiiiight just help us all.
I wish the horses could shoot back.
@ Miss Copper's Mom, Yeah I am aware of that effort that was initiated years ago when the processing of horse meat was outlawed for sale to countries that consume them. But, could you be more specific and tell us with all your wisdom, What Drugs? A birth control drug called gonacon is being tested in some wildlife populations but it didn't come out to 2011. In cattle I use an abortion drug called lutalyse to get rid of the unwanted calf or ensure that when I bring a heifer in as open and don't want her calving out of season. I just am curious what drug is it that you say is dangerous to human health? Perhaps all drugs are. You probably support a womans right to abortion as the owner of livestock I have the right to cause them to abort as I see fit. I personally see horses as a legitimate livestock animal with profit potential to a rancher that chooses to use them in this manner. You know what you don't have to eat it but you need to wrap your head around the fact that some countries do, most notably France, so famous for it's quisine. An old guy down the road from me (in this hard farm and ranch country) eats Raccoons. He says they are quite tasty. It's his right to do so, I just don't find them appetizing. Squirrels, Black Bear, Carp, and a myriad of other domesticated and wild animals are consumed. You and everyone else has a right not to consume any of these. What you don't have a right to do is dictate to others what they should be allowed to eat unless of course they have the taste of say Jeffrey Dahmer then you might want to step in there/
Wow. America Obama favors horse slaughter, Not surprized being that Salazar is his secretary of interior and this horsekiller Davis is friends with Salazar.Knowing people that have worked with the Department of Interior that have resigned because of Salazars obvious hatred and disdain for Our Wild Mustangs, mostly every wild herd of Mustangs do trace back to the original spanish barbs, these horses are not domesticated pets running free there actual lineage traces back . HORSE SLAUGHTER is WRONG. All horses deserve a second chance at life, all horses deserve to die with dignity and respect when thier time is called upon them . No Horse should be horrifically,barbarically butchered at the hands of some Hot Tamale Horse Hating Mexican or some Canadian psychopath that works for Belgium owners. Enough is Enough STOP KILLING OUR AMERICAN HORSES AND OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE,""THE WILD MUSTANG""" Impeach Horsehater Obama and Salazar and sell Davis for 10 cents to the local dog pound. RRRRRRRRRRRRR.People need to be educated about the truth and realities that take place in this once great country. Donate your unwanted horses to a 501c3 registered non profit equine rescue. They will help the horses in need.
Jaimie L....You are an idiot! The fact that some wolves were shot over the weekend has nothing to do with the horse population, because horses are not on the menu. Wolves prefer deer, elk and smaller game.
Look this is a mess. Everyone agrees to that. First off they should set a max population for the horses and give them x-number land. Kind of like a reservation. A new head of MLB should take charge someone who knows what needs to be done. Some of the cattle land grazing leases may need to be let go in order to provide the land. Those horses in the pens may need to be sent to a slaughter house so the MLB can straighten out the mess that they have made.
Not the best sollution but with the economy in the shape that it is in nobody is buying horses. After setting population limits and land limits then you need to periodically round the herds up and use that horse birth control and gelding of horses to control the population. Allow only the best of the herd to bred thereby maintaining and improving the species. I love horses and want to see this problem come to an end. The Chincoteague horses are managed that way.
Devils son:
Agreed. Whenever the wrong way wins over the right way, always, follow the money.
JS in SD:
I've never been asked, and if I were, I'd definitely choose the care and birth control of wild horses over war in Iraq and Afghanistan, bailing out Wall Street and the banks and giving so my public servant representatives may be treated like royalty any day.
wtf? Sally Spencer? davis, "What is wrong with taking all those BLM horses they got all fat and shiny and setting up a kill plant?"
sally, admit what's going on instead of being the lier you are being bought off by your buddy davis. it is what it is...but i can't stand a lying mfr
Jamie L,
I'm not sure your serious but your right, only wolves would do it I think. When burros move into a new area the first thing they do is run off the cyotes and they can't take on horses either. Natural predators would keep the herds strong and healthy culling the weak.
Lack of food would also cull the herd, just like what will happen with humans when we run out of food. What culls the number of predators?
Davis is making $ off the tax payers plain and simple. WTF is our government not making $? 1763 horses only cost him $17,630, and he sold them for a minimum of $300k. A profit of $282.4K, I bet he loves horses. Meanwhile our dipchit government spends $1.76 MILLION on capturing those same horses. Even if we sold them for slaughter we would still be losing $. I know let us cut Medicare and Social Security instead...
These were "wild" horses, what drugs would they have in them? Where would the drugs come from unless we injected them with drugs after we captured them? If it is safe to eat, then dinner is served.
@ Jaimie L #1.2
Let's see how good my power of observation are today.(let me see if I can get my psychic on)
Jaime, you are in your late 20's, born and raised in a large urban area, not far from a coast. You are a registered Democrat, but think of yourself as an independent. You consider yourself an environmentalist, but are not extreme. Am I close? (I am just kidding, btw)
I do not mean to pick solely on Jaimie here, so this is for the rest of you as well.
I would say that you are divorced from reality, although it is probably not your fault. My question is this (and this goes to Theo below as well) "Just exactly when did the human become an UN-Natural Predator?" Or does that only apply to us White Hunters, and not the "Native American" Hunter? Because we use firearms instead of bows and arrows? (a gun is simply a more sophisticates projectile launcher than a bow) Are we being prejudiced now?
I have always considered myself part of nature, probably because I grew up with it. And I see it as part of our duty to PROPERLY manage, to the best of our ability, a balance in nature, because we are in fact part of it and there is no practical way of extricating ourselves from it. And when I see, for example the explosion of the deer population here in the mid west, I am concerned with the probability of a great contagion (such as Chronic Wasting Disease) taking hold in those populations and decimating the deer. I am also concerned with the economical damage (crops and cars) caused by this 'over population', and have repeatedly asked the P&W to broaden hunting restrictions.
I do not live in a region with wild horses, but I can not see much difference. And if you really want to protect them, sometimes the best thing to do is to harvest them. Or mother nature will, and she is really nasty about taking care of over population.
@ Theo-3270314 #1.5
You hit the nail on the head with that one. (I blame the Spanish) lol...
DumbFarmBoy (Quite appropriate):
When obtaining food was made possible with the advent of the grocery store.
Just another excuse to attempt to justify hunting for sport. Nature has always managed to take care of what man, through our interference, constantly screws up.
It's impossible for me to understand the thrill hunters get from killing another living, breathing entity for sport. It's sick.
Wild horse sanctuaries, like the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary in western South Dakota, have ample room to take in many more of the unadoptable wild horses. They use an injection, given to the mares once a year, to prevent conception. And gelding the stallions is a sure fire way of preventing pregnancies also. Every year thousands of veterinary students are going to schools paid for by the US government via student loans and grants. Why not have the students receiving these funds spend a week or two at the BLM holding pens gelding the stallions and giving the injections to the mares. That would keep the population in check.
The main reason the horse roundups started in the first place is because cattle ranchers near the public lands the horses live on wanted to use the public land to raise their cattle. They don't pay taxes on the land, they don't own the land, but insisted they needed to run their cattle there to increase profitability. So the horses had to go. These animals never harmed anyone, they ran free on public lands that are some of the roughest terrain anywhere, unfit for farming. Once these greed ranchers saw the land could and would support the wild horse population, they wanted free use of it for their cattle. And their profits soared, so they wanted more and more of the land to use for free.
These wild creatures were caught and tamed by the first pioneers in the United States. They carried the explorers, pulled the wagons and plows that settled this country from coast to coast. If the wild horses hadn't been here, can you imagine how long it would have taken to settle this land? The American public owes a debt to these beautiful animals, and all they want is a chance to live and hopefully run free. Don't we owe them at least that much? The cattle ranchers should keep their cattle on their land and let the publically owned horses stay on the publically owned lands they've earned through centuries of work and friendship with people.
Just another reason to get rid of obama becouse this is happening on his watch. Not knowing anything about it isn't an excuse as he shouldn't be out pandering for votes more then he does the job we're paying him to do.
I hope the meat goes to the welfare people and deducts from their food stamp collection !!!
Theo and DumbFarmBoy - well said, you both pretty well sum it up. As for those that are offended or disgusted by this - go take a chill pill. Wild horses are NOT endangered, they are NOT cute little "my friend flickas), they are NOT usefull for anything other than watching run around, and they certainly are not usefull as a domesticated pet. MANY countries consume horse-meat since it is high in protein, low in CHL, and usually not pumped full of anti-biotics like some of the beef you find in the grocery stores. In some countries, horse meat is more prized than the best of beef, and to be honest, it tastes pretty good - I know, I've eaten my fair share in Europe and Asia. The way to manage them is to cull them or at least get some $$$ back for the damage and costs to the taxpayer to maintain them in acceptable populations in the wild. Mr Davis is doing the american taxpayer a service, and his approach is better than what usually happens to these animals once they stray off of BLM or Park land - usually shot on sight. Marty - you've been watching Hidalgo too much. Prize for the most moronic comment of the day - bring back more wolves! Where do you people come from?
Horses are beautiful animals, but why the uproar over slaughtering wild ones? Seems cheaper than the alternatives. IF it's okay to slaughter cows, pigs, chickens, etc, why the fuss over horses?
really?! charge less!! they aren't charging enough!! the government shouldn't be providing these horses to this guy with out charging him at least what it costs them to bring them in!! the horse meat guys used to fork over $125.00 no problem for these horses, so let the government a least charge them what it comes to per head to bring them in.
all i ask is that they cull appropriately, keeping herd stallions and the mares with the best confirmation, health, etc.) and that they oversee the transportation and treatment of the animals on their way to where ever they are going, same as they do (or are supposed to do) all the other food animals.
@ JamieL: LOL, right on.
"Got Horse?" Maybe the price of beef would come down. Muslims and Jews don't eat port and Americans don't eat horse, go figure.
JP:
Although you may have a voice to argue this, neither are you.
You are not endangered, I'm sure you're not Brad Pitt, probably not much useful for anything unique and certainly not useful as a pet, so what should be done with people like you?
@Jamie R - "Alex: Ever tried to geld a wild horse?" and
Suave-3568661 - "Who would want a wild horse to begin with? Now that you have thought of no one, who would want 47,000 of them"
I can assure you it is easier than castrating a Bison :) Though many domestic stallions are gelded when they are rather young its not uncommon for older males to have the procedure as well. They would use a sedative to calm the horse and a analgesic to minimize the discomfort. Catching them once they get loose is the really Fun part as the other is a piece of cake by comparison. The first time I was involved the horse was around 5 years old. The dog grabbed them as the "ahem" oysters hit the ground and ran off for a Scooby snack. My response was a typical male one and then I (being the only guy there) noticed the 5 woman staring at me. Thats when I made like Snaglepuss and "Exited stage left" with undue haste.
Awhile back family and friends all teamed up and took a bunch of horses out west on vacation. Where we got a chance to see some of the wild horses. My ex's cousin ended up buying two Mustangs one is a Bay with White Paint and the other is a standard Dark Bay with a large blaze down his face. The estimated age was around three years old. I'm used to riding the horse I took with me which is a 1750 pound 17.3 Dark Bay Clydesdale . Meeting people out there I got a chance to trade off with a nice guy he rode my Clyde (and was amazed at the Clydes love and skill at jumping) and I rode his Mustang it was like going from a Baja Race truck to a Formula One race car - just a blast:) We gave them a year of gentling and constant fussing, buddying and attention before even starting to get either under saddle. In time and at their pace they learned to do it all even the half pass. Though only about 15 hands both of them are great to be around and reliable as can be. Would I take 47,000 of them? Sure if I had the resources.
Though many of the males would be gelded the problem is usually the Alpha Male is the guy getting all the action. So it may not help very much.
As for Natural Predators culling the herds : they main ones are wolves (to a degree), Grizzly and Cougars (mountain lions). Go ahead and release any or all of the above;) I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to hear the angry screams of the Ranchers all the way to Ohio:) Ahhhh Good Times............
@JP-345944,
RE: "and they certainly are not usefull as a domesticated pet."
"Great Caesar's Salad" what a "Horse Hockey" thing to say!
"Suffern' Saddlesoap" either someone doesn't know "Pony Pucks" about horses or "Jumpin' Jompers" they have p!ss poor saddle skills and know "Buffalo Bagels" about gentling a horse.
What in the name of beelzibub is going on here! -- Colonel Sherman Potter
@ Happy Camper-1814777: Fu**ing CATTLE did't evolve in the current ecosystem either, so lets get them OFF THE PUBLIC land and we will talk about the horses, proper culling and more than $10.00 a head. Talk about publicly funded welfare, Davis and the cattlemen.
oh, and howard44024: this made me laugh, i'd love to hear those welfare ranchers scream...
chloe-2046959,
My pleasure glad you enjoyed it. As for me I'd buy a ticket for that "Show".
Chloe-2046... I'm impressed... you must have taken biology in high school! And while I don't disagree reducing the numbers of cattle on public lands should be considered, the difference is their numbers ARE being managed... excess numbers ARE removed... and SLAGHTERED. Besides, I can't remember the last time I saw a cow biting, kicking, and chasing other animals from a waterhole, unless those tricky bast**ds are disgusing themselves as burros. If you are looking to further your education... I suggest you call the Arizona Game & Fish Dept. Their new state headquarters in North Phoenix is overrun with feral burros, but their hands are tied because of the uneducated, misinformed public.
You must not have visited Washington, D.C. lately; although there, you would find asses as opposed to burros.
Why won't they let us eat them? I used to love horse meat as a kid. Its stupid that just because some people have them as pets, that now I'm not allowed to eat them. I see no problem with horses being sent to slaughterhouses, only problem is I can't get their meat in my grocer's freezer.
Happy Camper-1814777
@ Happy Camper-181477: oh, you and your big know it all head, i have far more than just high school biology sweety and i've been in the field so stuff it and your "if i'm looking to further my education"
the cattle should not be on Public lands and we shouldn't be controlling wildlife in anyway to support (for a variety of other reasons perhaps, for cattle usage NO) that usage, and i never said that the burros could be and/or are a problem that should also be addressed.
this did make me laugh though:
are there more people or horses on the west coast? and if there are more people. how is it there aren't to many people. no one ever explained how it is there are to many wolves, horses etc but not to many people ...
@Debi-1314897 #1.37
I no longer live on farm, hence the "Dumb" part, worse thing I ever did was get a Degree in Mechanical Engineering and move to the City and have to live in and amongst bigoted, myopic, inane morons like you. (see I can name call too)
So, I see you acknowledge that we live in agrarian society. Agriculture,(the source of the food in those grocery stores) has huge affect on nature, you obviously missed the part (ignore the facts) where I stated that
Judging by your other comments to others in the room, I am guessing you are one of True Dope Smokin Hippies Cartman and I complain about. You have the situational awareness of a flea. You are purely emotionally driven, without an ounce of common or logical sense. You grew up in a protected urban environment and have no idea of the dangers of the wild. You have never seen a sick, diseased and suffering animal in your life to base any relevant comment on. You have no Idea the ravages of disease on a population of animals.
The reason you fail to understand hunting, is that you have no basis in reality. You grew up and chose to stay in environment devoid of responsibility. If you want to see "Sick", maybe you should go to some region with these unwanted animals when disease or starvation is rampant, and it is illegal to euthanize them, because some liberal douche bag, got some legislator to pass a purely emotionally based, do nothing but impede common sense law to make themselves FEEL better about themselves.
That goes for you too Chloe,
These are PUBLIC LANDS, the ranchers have just a much right to them as you do. And since I am not near them, I do will and bequeath my rights to those lands to those ranchers. (so now it's two to one in their favor :-P) And the last time I checked, they pay (rent) to have their cattle graze those lands; some income is better than no income.
Something else you idiots fail to comprehend, as a true CONSERVative (a hell of a lot more so than you wanna be environmentalist) : to keep in a safe or sound state <he conserved his inheritance>; especially : to avoid wasteful or destructive use of <conserve natural resources>
I do it because it is the right thing to do, not because it makes me FEEL good, and sometimes you have to do things that are quite appalling, but in the long term are beneficial. Trust me, you wimps, couldn't go a month in my shoes. You possess a squeamishness that can only be obtained in the clean, sanitized urban areas made possible by the farmers and ranchers you criticize.
I feel sick reading this. Davis all but admits he is buying the horses cheap and then illegally having them slaughtered in Mexico and turning a huge profit. It's a big middle finger to law abiding Americans. I think they should take the miserable son of a bitch out to the middle of nowhere, tie a noose around his neck, set him on one of the wild horses and then spook the horse. That would be Justice. This Salazar character at the BLM is obviously taking bribes or has a personal relationship with Davis. Same goes for him. Don't tell me the governments hands are tied. Nobody is really investigating this. If they want you bad enough they will find a way to convict you.
@DumbFarmBoy - Do you ever get tired of being wrong? Don't quit your day job to start a psychic hotline because you're wrong on all counts.
@twis That was my point. The two are not related. If we put the two situations together, it would go a long way in solving both problems. Wolves kill horses all the time. The wolves who were culled were killing horses and cattle. Our government agencies need to start communicating in order to solve these problems more effectively.
Someone makes a $$$ and the horses pay the ultimate price!!!!! Adoptions...I think NOT!
Normally I side on the support for animals, but this is just ridiculousness. Were paying 76million to keep wild @!$%#ing horses alive? Everyday I hear about something that just makes want to stop paying taxes. If we have to many and people don't want them for free, chop them up! use the money to protect endanger species....
Yes, we can pay good money to keep wild horses alive, but we have trouble feeding starving children.
Starving children in America...?
wolfpack, you seem surpised. Why? Because we worry about other countries before we take care of our own?
Strange how people see nothing wrong with eating other species, Bovine, pigs, goat chicken and yet complain about eating horse. I like horses, they are neat animals however back in the 60s before food stamps & hand outs our family eat horse steak & Burger. It was cheap & tasted ok. 47000 horses could feed many people & with the price of other meats, horse is sounding better with the passage of time. Hey people out there that eat dog & think cat taste like chicken. So goes the eating habits of the carnivores.
People are so silly. I worked at an ASPCA and we killed dogs and cats everyday to make room for new arrivals. Those animals we killed were just thrown away. At least these animals are going to feed people. Whatever happened to the saying, if you are going to kill something you should eat it. There are some situations were you can't have your cake and eat it too.
Horse meat is considered a delicacy in some parts of Europe and Asia. I tried it many times in the past while based in Europe. The meat is sweet and tender. In Hungary, some of the best dry sausages and salamis (like csabai) contain horse meat. You should try it, yummy.
no cat an dog's that were killed were NOT thrown away,they were sold to the Dod food plants.
Being born and raised in the south...and having a lot of relatives that lived in the boonies in Tennessee and Arkansas I have tasted more types of animals than I care to remember.
I have tried horse and was not particularly fond of it. Maybe it was the whole Mr. Ed thing that was still on television at that time? Plus, for some reason after trying it when ever I heard a bell I had this uncontrollable urge to have someone on my back and run like hell in a circle while ladies in ridiculous looking hats cheered me on.....
Wolpack2000,
Nice dog!!!
Some of the comments are about the money to round up and keep the wild horses in long-term holding pens. Why is that done? Why not let them be out on the land as the law states they should be.
Here is some info that is overlooked: What does is cost us, the taxpayers, to allow large cattle ranchers to use our public lands.
A 2005 Government Accountability Office (GAO) study cites that the two percent of ranchers have grazing rights on public lands that cost the federal government $144 million a year to manage. The federal government collects nearly $21 million each year in grazing fees from ranchers ($1.35 per head). That leaves a net cost to American taxpayers of over $120 million each year. The same GAO report also found that from 1980 to 2004, the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service (the two agencies managing most federal grazing lands) reduced grazing fees on federal lands by 40 percent, while market fees rose by almost 80%. A cattle rancher on private land has to pay around $30 per head. So we are getting fleeced twice by the cattle rancher that uses public land, once for subsidising their cattle on our land and once for paying for the mustangs to be removed because they say that the mustangs are a detriment to the land.
Let them run free like Deer. Start reserves and make them a protected species. Ship them to other parts of the country. There are whole section of nothing as far as the eye can see. There is plenty of space out there for them to run, unless humanity encroaches them into extinction. Just last year there was a land developer trying to buy up some of the land the horses live on that the BLM owns. I hate government corruption and people who care only for making profits. They are the slime of humanity.
They are feral and unnatural. No different than Asian carp or snake head fish. We need to get rid of them all.
The Spanish conquistadors introduced the horse to this continent while they were decimating the native American population and stealing their gold. Maybe we could send Spain a bill for the horses and let them support them. Oh, I forgot, Spain is broke, too. So, let's just eat the horses like the native Americans would have and call it even. If the tree huggers don't like it, let THEM support the horses by adopting them and providing food and shelter.
The wild horses take care of themselves, nobody feeds them. This is just an excuse to bring them in for a profit, IMO.
What have you got against Spain, mate? Just as the USA is not much like what it started out as, neither is Spain full of the Conquistadors that you mention.... Catalonia has even outlawed bullfighting.
Sorry Carolee, you are wrong. The wild horses and burros would decimate their ecosystem if not culled. If you can figure out what to do with them I am sure the BLM would like to know.
@Mathuin - "tree huggers" care about the environment. These horses are not native to NA and are harming the environment. Horse lover and tree hugger, and IMO these animals have to be culled. Supporting them for a romantic idea of the American West is ridiculous.
Let them go.
Reality, the starving horses are using public property and are grazing public lands that rich farmers use.
Horse, it's whats for dinner.
To all who are saying Wild horses haven't been here long enough to be considered native: Look at yourselves. If you're not 100% Native you don't belong here either. And regarding the "overpopulation" issue: Let's start be eating unwanted children, dogs and cats. Sound reasonable. I don't mean to sound racist but if not for the horse, Europeans would still be scratching their fleas and lice and living in huts with dirt floors. Natives would have been unable to move from one hunting and living area to another. They are a part of mankind's success, and they deserve to be treated that way. I would like to tell that old bastard in Colorado, I would boil and eat him before I'd ever cause a horse to die to feed some greedy human. Without them there wouldn't be us.
so your actually going to claim horses "decimate" the ecosystem more than we humans do? are you serious? we humans with our landfills, nuclear dump sites ,internal comubstion engines, paving over thousands of acres a day for develpoment, etc hurt the ecosystem less than horses?!
Having watched wild horses running free near Reno, Nev. some years ago, it sickens me to think that our government would allow these fine, beautiful animals be used like this. It needs to be stopped.
Deer & squirrel are also fine beautiful animals,,,
Meh - not the same. Squirrels are pests and deer have always been considered a game animal by a majority. Not so with horses.
You know what, I don't like corporate hunting. If you are going to kill animals off by the @!$%# ton, then farm them. The people who shoot deer and squirrels don't come out of the parks with 16 wheelers full of dead carcasses, they shoot a couple take them home and eat them, and spend hours procuring the food that they eat. I couldn't shoot a deer but I have nothing but respect for those types of hunters and that type of hunting.
If you kill a wild horse, 1 wild horse, take it home, make jerky out of it and boots out of the hyde, then fine. If you send predator drones out with infrared nightvision and kill off all the deer , cow, buffalo, then @!$%# you, I wish you would get shot.
How many are you willing to adopt, feed, care for and clean up after? I live on the U.S. Mexico border and when these horses are shipped to slaughter in Mexico, they are occasionally rejected by the Mexican Government (can you imagine being too sick to slaughter?), and the taxpayers are having to pay for their upkeep and rehabilitation - until they are strong enough for adoption or slaughter. The local, state and national animal rights groups are no where to be found - the only time and money they have available is to complain about the horses treatment. It's time for them to put up or shut up! Fund efforts to prevent overpopulation of these herds, and fund alternatives to slaughter.
Just let them go, wolves are hungry too.
Do you really trust the gov.to do the right thing after what you just read.it all about the dollar.they turn a blind eye. God put these animals here on earth,just like he did you an I.we are the one's not shareing the earth.they have the same right here as WE do. all living thing are SUPOSE to be equal.that is the way an the right way.help each other.not just help youself.....
hey pedeped---sorry, but you made yourself too stupid not to reply. The reason governments have to refuse sick animals for slaughter is because they could contain antibiotics or pain medication which would kill the consumer (gee whiz, that would be a darned shame). Same process that's supposed to be followed with downer cows, but isn't, and then you have Mad Cow disease.
I do agree with your ideas of funding to stop reproduction, but I still would rather see my tax dollars going to forcibly stop human reproduction first. They're the problem. The horses used to have sufficient habitat.
It needs to continue until every last feral horse is gone.
We won't be satisfied until we kill everything wild that moves.
They are not wild, but feral. They are the product of humans.
They are a bunch of maniacs,that broke into the Massachusetts colony achieves-its the ones that got in to the UC Davis stuff and told the cops to blind the kids-some of it is ponzi-really ,they are phishers in an achieve using other peoples family names-
It's outrageous that wild horses and burros are removed by the thousands so that cattle grazing can increase by the tens of thousands on the same land which is also subsidized by our government. If you really care, stop or at least decrease your consumption of beef. You'll look and feel better and you'll be part of the solution to climate change since cattle grazing is one of the most destructive human activities for the environment. In addition there are nonlethal alternatives to keep wild horse populations stable.
thank you SB.
Their populations aren't meant to be stable. They are meant to be zero.
Easy solution. Move cattle off all public lands. Protects and makes more space available for both horses and wolves.
Cattle help keep the under growth down. They also make paths, making it easier for deer.
Land needs to lie fallow after hard grazing. Over grazed land is damaged land. The biggest mistake a rancher makes is overgrazing. Prudent land management also requires grazing to accomplish the things flintlock spoke of. I think the best thing is to let BLM manage the land.
Bobby, overgrazing is an easy mistake to make when it's not your land.
No space needs to be allocated to feral animals.
Seems like we need to invest in the prevention programs - fertility controls and predators. If we could re-establish wolf packs back into their ancestral ranges, than this wouldn't be a problem. An ecosystem without predators is unhealthy, as evidenced by horse overpopulation.
You are just the epitome of sagely wisdom in wildlife, lifestock and ecosystem management. What do you do for a living? Sell insurance?
The problem the BLM faces is that horses are expensive animals to keep. Unless you own your own stable and grow your own hay, it's going to cost you something on the order of $300-800/month to keep a horse, depending on what part of the USA you live in and how luxurious you want the accomodations to be. That's a lot of money for most people.
And most people who want to have a horse want to be able to immediately start to ride it, which is just not possible with a mustang. Also, although some mustangs are nice little horses, they aren't competitive as hunters or jumpers or dressage horses, and in open shows (shows open to all breeds of horses), they aren't competitive against Quarter Horses in the western classes. Most mustangs just don't have what the judges of such shows want to see when they pass out the ribbons. And since most youth riders want to show their horses, that immediately eliminates mustangs as a type of horse they want to buy or keep.
So there is just no real market as riding horses for mustangs off the BLM adoption pens. And the horses on the open range keep reproducing; you have to cull the herds, or they self-cull through starvation when the population expands beyond the carrying capacity of the land they live on. Hardly a humane solution.
Also, when the mustang population expands to the point where they start starving, they do tremendous damage to the land they live on, which is actually ecologically very fragile and very slow to recover from damage-- if it ever does.
Unfortunately, slaughter is the only realistic affordable solution to the problem. If the American public is determined to have mustangs on public lands, they have to either be willing to pay the price of keeping the horses indefinitely in BLM pens or be willing to see the horses starve to death. There are no other alternatives.
As far as the myth of the "Spanish mustang descended from the horses of the conquistadores," that is a myth. While the original herds were descended from the Spanish horses, today's mustangs are more likely to be related to horses escaped from ranches or even abandoned by their owners, and as such they really aren't what most people think they are.
I love horses, I've owned horses my entire adult life, and I hate to see sound and potentially usable horses sent to slaughter. But the reality is that there are simply too many horses that people can't afford to keep now. There is a limit to the money available for keeping mustangs, and there is a limit to the number of mustangs that can be adopted by caring people who can use them as riding horses. Those are facts. Aren't people willing to face facts?
Well said Cat Whisperer.
Cat, I could not have put it better. The BLM is doing a good job culling and leaving the best of the gene pool and removing enough animals so they will not decimate their environment. Allot of the people railing against removal of these Ferrell horses just do not understand the issue. The cost of maintaining just one of these horses for a year is staggering and an unnecessary drain on the economy.
Very well said.
In many countries not named the United States of America, horse meat is regularly eaten. There is a need, there is a market (without ubiquitous, choking regulations), let the free market take care of the problem. The only thing better would be that the slaughtering, butchering and packaging be done in the US, it would add jobs and, with all the regulations we have, would probably produce a better product. Those are the cold hard facts, treehuggers.
I've lived several places overseas (4 continents), some where dog is a delicacy. Yeah, Spot.
Too many people that comment here think that the meat they eat comes wrapped in plastic from wild refrigerator/freezers and the shoes they wear come from the leather tree that grows right next to the Benjamin tree that sheds $100 bills. Get a grip.
I am sorry but you are wrong. i happen to know a few mustangs who have done very well in Jumping and dressage. Also this whole thing about slaughter is not about a romantic idea about the horse. And many of the equine advocates are horse owners. While some are city dwellers, they are still horse owners and no full well how much it costs to care for equines. All of you are putting your pocket book before a living, feeling breathing creature who has a good idea of what is happening to them when they are on that kill floor. That is a terrible way to come to an end, especially when you have done nothing to deserve it, except be on the receiving end of human greed. I am a horse (multiple) owner and I do my part to help folks out when they come into hard times with the economy. The poor economy has nothing to do with the horse, and the horse should not suffer because America has forgotten how to control it's own population (human that is). The other biggest foe in this discussion is that horse advocates do not see the Horse as cute and magical. We see the horse as a sentient being, one with a noble history in our United States. One that you can not humanely process in the plants we have today for processing other animals. they do not re-act as the meat animals we process in our meat plants. And if you all have not noticed yet, the majority of Americans do not support the slaughter of horses, nor do they want to eat them.
The Cat Whisperer has it right. I too am a horse lover & owner & was a wreck when I had to have my first ever horse put down as a result of sever pain from an incurable condition. But in the world today we humans often have to intervene with nature because of the actions of others in the past. Without natural predators these horses have done what nature told them to do....reproduced....& they will continue to do so. As nice as castration, hormone injections, adoption, etc. may sound they are simply not feasible solutions to the problem. Neither is starvation! If people are willing to eat horsemeat (admittedly not I) then do everyone a service & humanely transport & slaughter these excess animals. It is an unfortunate solution to a unfortunate situation.
I'd rather spend money to help these animals than Islamic countries who hate our guts. For what we spend on these wars, we could afford to take better care of our domestic problems like immigration control along our southern border as well.
Just let these horses go, and stop killing wolves.
they only thing i disagree with is the over grazing, get the cattle off the BLM lands and other public lands and we would have A lot more grazing land available for wildlife.
The Cat Whisper: You are believing BLM and not taking into account findings by scientists regarding the wild horse. This is a partial quote from an article, but please look it up for the scientific findings showing the horse is to be considered Native :
Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife
by Jay F. Kirkpatrick, Ph.D. and Patricia M. Fazio, Ph.D. (Revised January 2010)
© 2003‐2010, Drs. Jay F. Kirkpatrick and Patricia M. Fazio. All Rights Reserved.
"The key element in describing an animal as a native species is (1) where it originated; and (2) whether or not it co‐evolved with its habitat. Clearly, E. caballus did both, here in North American. There might be arguments about “breeds,” but there are no scientific grounds for arguments about “species.”
The non‐native, feral, and exotic designations given by agencies are not merely reflections of their failure to understand modern science but also a reflection of their desire to preserve old ways of thinking to keep alive the conflict between a species (wild horses), with no economic value anymore (by law), and the economic value of commercial livestock.
Native status for wild horses would place these animals, under law, within a new category for management considerations. As a form of wildlife, embedded with wildness, ancient behavioral patterns, and the morphology and biology of a sensitive prey species, they may finally be released from the “livestock‐gone‐loose” appellation."
Yes it is far better to slaughter some and thin the herds than to let them get overpopulated and all eventually dying of starvation and/or disease.
Plus, Tom Davis is right, horse is really excellent meat, some of the best I've ever had. I've eaten it in Japan. It's funny, they love animals as much as Americans but they don't romanticize them to the point of anthropomorphic hysteria and related laws (they don't give them human qualities and make it a crime to practice meat eating of a viable species). What's also interesting is they don't gloat over the suffering of their neighbors and believe no one should suffer needlessly. No one lives a hard life in Japan yet they have a superb work ethic and the vast majority are employed and contributing members to their society. I wonder which culture is working better for the people, Japan's or America's?
Get rid of all feral horses.
The horses can take care of themselves. I wish the humans could. They prey on the innocent , kidnap them and sell them so they end up in slaughter houses. What a shameful program. Adoption ? what a joke...people cannot take care of the horses they have now. There are no adoption programs but trips to the nearest slaughter house . Breaks my heart ! We need to stop these BLM round-ups....what a lie......our tax payers dollars pay for these horrid round-ups.....
You supply the funds, OK?
These are non-indigenous animals in the Americas. So removing them does NO harm to the natural environment as their presence does nothing to offset any other ecological problem. In fact removing them would help restore the environment to its natural state. So rounding them up and turning them into French cuisine is no big deal. Only horse lovers, most of whom don't even own one, care.
What a pathetic and ignorant statement. There is no natural environment because most of it is overrun by cattle grazing which results in wild horses, wolves, badgers, coyotes...the list goes on... being lethally removed to accommodate the greed of ranchers and hunters. Too bad you don't see and appreciate the beauty of a horse...your loss.
SBDesigner, that should be BSDesigner. You start with insults, try to include and unrelated bit of trivia you think supports your position, and end with a lame emotional attempt to undermine what is a very logical and thoughtful statement on my part. Get over it! I'm right, you're a loser. As to "there is no natural environment", try leaving your house sometime and look around.
Mic, wow, you just condemned SBD designer for saying what I agree with as well, and condemned them for their insult to your comment. Then you go on to insult them back. Pot, meet kettle.
That being said, who the hell are we to kill everything that doesn't fit into our grand plan ? Let them go, stop killing wolves, and let nature take its course. Other plant life will take hold that horses can't or won't eat.
We spend trillions on military and war. If we had been spending the money on our own country all along, we wouldn't need such a huge military. There is now plenty of evidence that FDR was moving all of our B-17's to the Filippines to bomb Japan in 1940 and he sent the Flying Tigers to attack them too under the Chinese flag. He started that war for America when he did that.
Saying a feral horse is beautiful is just like saying a mangey feral dog is beautiful.
This mess is to a large degree the result of an unrealistically romanticized view of these feral horses and burros. They are not native to N. America (The N. American hoarse went extinct about 12K years ago along with saber toothed cats and cheetah) and they are highly damaging to the arid western ranges where they are found. While a mountain lion may occasionally kill a young horse, these animals have no natural population controls as is often the case with introduced species. Several tests suggest horses are actually less intelligent than cows which we eat with abandon. They were originally domesticated in the far east as beasts of burden, for milking and for meat. Now that they have become a "pet" species here we bend over backwards and spend absurd amounts of money trying to "save" them, all at the expense of native wildlife.
Of course sterilization and adoption would be preferable. The former is expensive and the latter has run it's course with few vacancies available for these animals. Using them as the livestock they were bred to be, including slaughter, makes the most sense until some sort of realistic and effective method of population control is developed.
I grew up around these animals in the West Desert of Utah and I have owned horses so I'm not a horse hater. There is a representative population of true Spanish Mustangs roaming free on the National Horse Preserve on the Wyoming Utah border and I support that. The animals in question here are a mix of escaped and abandoned livestock. I don't favor feral horses over other domestic livestock - they all need to be removed from our arid western lands, particularly our public lands, where both species are highly detrimental to the soil, watersheds and native species of plants and animals.
Non-native species, or non-indigenous, have been a headache in North America, no argument. 1490's, the start of many bad years for the Continent.
Are you referring to Mustangs or Europeans? lol!
Davis is a piece of crap and the government shouldn't do business with turds like him. People with money and power and lack of good laws and bad government oversight = this type of rape of nature and the taxpayer.
Ken Salazar is not worthy of his position. He is obviously on the side of ranchers and corporations. No telling how much he makes on this deal which picked up substantially after he came into office.
then do something about it, vote out the current president
Every culture has its own food taboos. Traditional Chinese are revolted at the thought of eating rotten milk (cheese). Some Africans are horrified and disgusted at the thought of eating chickens. We are all familiar with Muslim and Jewish prohibitions against pork.
Other cultures relish things that we consider revolting like grubs, worms, insects, dogs and horses.
Fine, if you are revolted by the thought of eating something, don't eat it. But let's not make cultural preferences into laws of the land, prohibiting things you find distasteful.
Laws limiting our freedom should be based on solid evidence that they protect humans from harm and risk of harm, IMHO.
It makes me sad that I had to scroll so far down to read this. I don't see how you can legislate horses differently, especially when they're overpopulated.
Meat is meat man.
I am flabbergasted, and amazed at how some stick-head folks are killing and eating these "Beautiful Animals"
Horses, are not meant to be eaten. These animals were meant to help us do things.
If these folks are that hungry, they need to get a life.
This is as gross, as gross to get. There is no excuse for eating these "Wonderful, beautiful animals."
We are definitely living in an crazed and mixed up World, which has no standards, or true means for "Living Things"
I STOP eating out of restaurants years ago, I don't know what I am eating any-more. Its almost making me not to hardly eat any meat any-more. "This is crazy, as crazy can get.
"Heathens"
Ok we get it, you think you're better than most people. "Horses aren't meant to be eaten". What the @!$%# are you talking about? They're meat.........they can be eaten. My guess is that your the type of person who cries about the whales and dolphins being killed by Japanese whalers but thinks eating a chicken is totally normal. Wake up you idiot. We are omnivores, we eat meat. Why should it matter what the meat is?
'meat is meat' hell yes, LETS START BY EATING EACH OTHER!!! decrease the surplus population of the most destructive creature to tread earth!! till we get a grip on living this earth without destroying our environmet, we arent capable of making life and death decisions over other living sentient beings....let beauty live and thrive! remember: the breath of god is the wind that flows from between a horse's ears!
the big bad wolf....
meat is meat huh? ok that makes human being fair game too...decrease the surplus populations of humans then we could leave gods creatures alone maybe.....horses are not wild game animals, they are not meat animals, they are not dumber than cows....they are living quicksilver, the gods blessing on the human race...they dragged us up out of the crud of the medieval ages and prehistoria. they have earned better than we give them grudgingly....the breath of god is the air that flows from between a horses ears, and until you have breathed that air, you have no conception of what living quicksilver is.....and no right to condemn one hair of one foal out of the wild herds. those that condemn horses to slow torturous death on the killing fields are no better than meat animals themselves, and trash. so, lets cut a fat chop off davis ass or possibly yours, and barbeque it....and let the horses run free.
We all descend from cannibals. But while other species are available, and in this case a minor problem, we can eat their meat instead.
Horse, it's whats for dinner.
You two above trying to make me feel like an idiot for eating other humans can eat a dick. Everyone knows consuming meat of the same species is not good for said species. Read a godamn book.
LOL, thank you The Big Bad Wolf!, LOL really like the "can eat a dick." and the "Read a godamn book." part, LOL
Ever heard of tolerance Linda? Probably not. What other people believe what kind of animals they can eat is none of your business.
There is no easy answer to this dilemma but even as a horse lover and fomer owner of several horses sometimes it is simply better to cull an overpopulated herd. I think trailering horses a very long distance to Mex. or Can. is less than ideal. It would be more humane to have a US slaughter house where it would be somewhat monitered. People in general are so funny about horse meat use where in Europe it no big deal. I think horses who are wild and kept for years on feedlots is awful and serves no purpose whatsoever. Most people never think twice about cattle slaughter.
So you must turn a profit on the animal you have raised and no longer have use for?
It would be much more humane to put the horse to sleep and have the carcass removed than to send to live butchering your horse, but people who send horses to butcher rarely like horses, in fact they hate the horses and are projecting their hatred on them. Think that's not the care? Take a look at the transporters and the butchers and the meat buyers and sellers--it is repugnant and was stopped but only recently restated by the Hope Faith and Love President Obama.
lilian101........Horsemeat has been a staple forever. I remember seeing horsemeat in the meat section of our local supermarket in Vallejo, CA back in the late 1940's when I was about 7 years old. And I assume Canada still eats this meat as well. This bleeding heart, liberal rag (NBC News) likes to focus on these kind of stories for no apparent reason than to give a stage to the nut jobs out there. And these nut jobs would probably rather let the horses just stay out free on the range.......free to starve to death. It's a non issue.
In the 1940's, during WWII, people were desperate and some resorted to eating horse meat because it was cheaper. They ate it for survival, and kept it quiet because they were embarrassed about it. Now it's illegal to sell horse meat for human consumption in the USA because almost every medication that horses are routinely treated with is banned by the FDA for use in animals for human consumption. The FDA classifies horses as Companion Animals, not livestock. Horses are only ever classified as livestock for the purpose of a tax shelter, but they are definitely not raised for food in the USA. Horse meat was banned for use in dog food in the early 1970's because some sensitive dogs died from eating it, due to the toxic medications or wormers commonly given to horses. These days, horses are walking pharmacies, especially racehorses and sport horses. Some horse medications, like Bute, which is given to 95% of all horses at one time or another, and often given daily to sport horses, can cause serious lifelong illness or death, even if it's present in trace amounts in horse meat, if it's eaten by someone sensitive to it, especially children and elderly people. That's why the EU recently banned the import of US horse meat.
I like cow..meat,,Japanese like squid .sea weed..horse..what ever we don't eat they eat
Horse meat is dam good! You can use it stews, grind it for burgers, 10.00 a head?
Aaaand they catch them for you!!!What more could you ask for! that’s a lot of
meat, fill up a couple of freezers, I never had any burros before but I'm sure
its tasty enough, don’t knock it till you try it, just get those baby’s back
where you can fatten em a little and put them on some decent feed for a few weeks or so..and yum! You have good lean steaks for a long time!
And being wild it is probably low in fat and cholesterol. a heart healthy alternative to beef, just like buffalo and elk.
Hmmm, must be Chevy lovers lovers trying to wipe out the Mustangs.
dogs and cats are put down every day..but hey send your donations to help..save them???
There isn't enough money to save them all. Personal Responsibility, not a strong suit in America. We have as many people in cages as we do animals, things that make you go huh.
you know what a gay horse likes to eat....hayyyy
LOL! Well we know it isn't Chick Filaaaay!
LOL, I've told that joke before : )
Managed to get my hands on some horse meat burgers about a year ago, talk about good!
You are a stinking, stupid piece of cr**, and I hope someone kills and eats you.Just like dame808 and all you other knuckle dragging drooling ugly pieces of garbage. You are the ones who should be slaughtered, not the horses.
Whoa, there, Skylark! I would've thought with a handle like skylark that you'd be all hugs and smiles to the Oneness of the Universe. I suggest you shrug off the hate and statements of ill will and climb the mountain top and wait for the moronic convergence.
skylark, does your mommy know you said that?
Theo,
Can't tell you about a Saber tooth tiger, but I am pretty certain there have never been cheetahs in the North American continent , except for zoos.
I would only wish that man could figure out a better way of handling these things...first the wolves in Washington and now this. Mr. Davis should be banned from any more purchases because for the moment he appears to be a lying, cheating sob and I can bet these horses are not put down in any kind of humane way. I honestly don't know what the answer is, but the White man has now succeeded in destoying what he found here.
Elizabeth - If you want to look you will find many references to the extinct N. American cheetah.
We have no evidence that Davis does not put these horses down in a humane way, that is if HE puts them down at all. Most slaughterhouses prefer to kill in as quick a manner as possible - it's only good business.
Really why don't you review some tapes that are readily availble showing how, cow, pigs, chickens are treated in slaughter houses and then lets talk also if you have children please take them to a slaughter house and let them watch....But I have a solution let's get rid of privately owned herds off public lands now. I am a vegetarian so I won't be losing anything here
And cheetah are why pronghorn are so fast.
I'm a confirmed omnivore and I would much prefer to satisfy my occasional carnivorous cravings with wild game and fish, so yes let's replace cows and horses on our public lands with bighorn, pronghorn, deer, elk and sage grouse.
I was called to Jury Duty in Milwaukee when I lived in that area. During a break in the trial another person and I went to a sports bar named major goolsby's and I ordered a hamburger, fries and a drink. when the food showed up I tried to take a bite and it smelled like a horse. I could not eat the thing and I said,"This hamburger smells like a Horse". The person who served us tried to tell me that it "is 100% pure Black Angus Beef". I did not eat it but I still had to pay an unreasonably high price. the other people at the tables and at the bar said that their burgers did not smell right.
When the trial resumed the Sherriff's Deputy who was on trial acted like a criminal so we convicted him of Felony, "misconduct in Public Office" and he got 5 years with no parole. He sexually assaulted a girl in his patrol vehicle and there were stains on the seat. he got less than he deserved.
If they are going to sell Horses into the meat market why shouldn't the BLM do it and make the money, if they spend so much to take care of the adoptable horses? They should export the meat to japan, china, or africa and apply most of the money to the National Dept.
If it is such high protine meat, it should be used to lift up these impoverished peoples, and I am sure that they would not be so fussy about what they eat. They eat monkeys don't they?
Besides, I could use a new pair of boots. (I eat mostly venison that I harvest myslef now).
I guess I will never understand why eating horses is such a bad idea. Pigs are far cleaner and smarter and we eat them, pigs wont defacate near their food or bed if they are given room to go, a horse will stand and eat and crap at the same time. I say turn them into food for starving people in other countries if we can't eat them in the U.S. I know there are horse lovers that will take exception to my comments, but I feel it is better than allowing them to over populate and starve, and better than having the Govt. continue paying to house them. Sorry just my opinion on subject.
we need to try tea nuts
Have a ball...