browser icon
You are using an insecure version of your web browser. Please update your browser!
Using an outdated browser makes your computer unsafe. For a safer, faster, more enjoyable user experience, please update your browser today or try a newer browser.

a conpiracy against wild horses– an opinion

Posted by on November 14, 2013

OPINION  from Steve

A Conspiracy?

Over the past decade the BLM has rounded up thousands more horses than necessary. Their excuses include drought, something the wild horses have survived for centuries, and over population, something they cannot prove.

Have they set the trap? Are the wild horses and burros incarcerated by the Federal Government the bait? Is it the ‘cost’ of maintaining them the lure?

Secretary Tom Vilsak was quite vocal not long ago telling Congress they had to find some way of dealing with the animals other than slaughter. Now he’s suddenly quite and his department is hiding behind an ancient law to allow the opening of slaughterhouses.

A Federal Judge who had originally issued a temporary restraining order in a law suit about the environmental issues suddenly has a change of heart and has the case thrown out of court.

Congress has the S.A.F.E. Act banished to committees. These committees seem to be chaired by folks who don’t want to discuss it therefore avoiding a vote that could send it to the floor. This allows members of Congress to publicly ‘support’ (co-sponsor) the legislation to appease their constituents while they know full well it’s failure dooms the horses and burros.

A wildlife refuge blatantly sends wild horses and burros off with a known slaughterhouse purveyor along with $250,000.00 tax payer dollars. Was this the test shot? Let’s see how the public reacts so we’ll know how they will react when we slaughter 50,000. Will they revolt? Or will they shrug their shoulders and say ‘we tried but…’?

The case in Colorado against ‘kill buyer’ Tom Davis is never pursued. The District Attorney says it’s been too long a time since the incident occurred. The BLM’s Inspector General is supposed to be pursuing but he won’t return phone calls or emails about any progress.

If you want to establish a timeline it seems to have started in 2004 with the passage of the Burn’s Amendment which allows for the disposal of wild horses over the age of 10 or horses that have been put up for adoption three times and failed to find a home. The sale of these horses is exempt from the normal one year probation before the title to the horse is transferred to the new owner…the title is signed over immediately and as Andrew mentioned there is no Governmental oversight as to the future of these animals.

The BLM says they do not sell to slaughter or kill buyers yet they sold to Tom Davis and 1700 horses disappeared off the face of the earth. The BLM is covering their asses and we know it. They are trying to squeeze every last dollar they can out of the public lands through oil and gas, mineral mining etc. at the expense of what they call ‘a feral alien invasive species’. A thorn in their side because they cannot profit from their existence by law.

Their basis for this argument was published on Aug. 3, 2010 when their ‘paid mouthpiece’, The Wilderness Society, published their ‘expert opinion’…

“America’s free ranging horses are a beloved western icon – and potentially destructive non-native animal that threaten native species and their habitats.”

The BLM keeps touting this fable even though “The Best Available Science” has disproved it over and over. When Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge published it’s intent to zero out the herds of wild horses and burros I made several calls and had discussions about their decision. They quoted the same tripe…feral…non-native…alien etc.

Is the Federal Government in the midst of a massive multi-departmental conspiracy to exterminate these Icons of the American West?

I found it interesting this morning, while watching CBS This Morning, that the USFWS is directly involved in trying to save elephants in Africa…even to the point we have employees over in Africa working to stop the illegal ivory trade. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the elephants and would gladly pull the trigger at a firing squad should they catch the ringleaders. The report says there are only 650,000 elephants down from 1.3 million just a decade or so ago…shameful.

I find it interesting that the same department of our Federal Government sends wild horses and burros to death camps when there are less than a hundred thousand remaining, the majority of which are in captivity.

Is it just me or does something ‘smell’ here? As we look at the pieces of the puzzle, and I’m sure some of you can come up with many more, it really looks as though our Federal Government has made up it’s collective minds to dismiss the Will of the People once again. Recently Congress has taken on a whole new attitude of ‘we really don’t care what the public wants, we only care for the almighty dollar’. Now whether those dollars are going into government coffers or politicians pockets is question of the century!

IMHO
A Conspiracy?

Over the past decade the BLM has rounded up thousands more horses than necessary. Their excuses include drought, something the wild horses have survived for centuries, and over population, something they cannot prove.

Have they set the trap? Are the wild horses and burros incarcerated by the Federal Government the bait? Is it the ‘cost’ of maintaining them the lure?

Secretary Tom Vilsak was quite vocal not long ago telling Congress they had to find some way of dealing with the animals other than slaughter. Now he’s suddenly quite and his department is hiding behind an ancient law to allow the opening of slaughterhouses.

A Federal Judge who had originally issued a temporary restraining order in a law suit about the environmental issues suddenly has a change of heart and has the case thrown out of court.

Congress has the S.A.F.E. Act banished to committees. These committees seem to be chaired by folks who don’t want to discuss it therefore avoiding a vote that could send it to the floor. This allows members of Congress to publicly ‘support’ (co-sponsor) the legislation to appease their constituents while they know full well it’s failure dooms the horses and burros.

A wildlife refuge blatantly sends wild horses and burros off with a known slaughterhouse purveyor along with $250,000.00 tax payer dollars. Was this the test shot? Let’s see how the public reacts so we’ll know how they will react when we slaughter 50,000. Will they revolt? Or will they shrug their shoulders and say ‘we tried but…’?

The case in Colorado against ‘kill buyer’ Tom Davis is never pursued. The District Attorney says it’s been too long a time since the incident occurred. The BLM’s Inspector General is supposed to be pursuing but he won’t return phone calls or emails about any progress.

If you want to establish a timeline it seems to have started in 2004 with the passage of the Burn’s Amendment which allows for the disposal of wild horses over the age of 10 or horses that have been put up for adoption three times and failed to find a home. The sale of these horses is exempt from the normal one year probation before the title to the horse is transferred to the new owner…the title is signed over immediately and as Andrew mentioned there is no Governmental oversight as to the future of these animals.

The BLM says they do not sell to slaughter or kill buyers yet they sold to Tom Davis and 1700 horses disappeared off the face of the earth. The BLM is covering their asses and we know it. They are trying to squeeze every last dollar they can out of the public lands through oil and gas, mineral mining etc. at the expense of what they call ‘a feral alien invasive species’. A thorn in their side because they cannot profit from their existence by law.

Their basis for this argument was published on Aug. 3, 2010 when their ‘paid mouthpiece’, The Wilderness Society, published their ‘expert opinion’…

“America’s free ranging horses are a beloved western icon – and potentially destructive non-native animal that threaten native species and their habitats.”

The BLM keeps touting this fable even though “The Best Available Science” has disproved it over and over. When Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge published it’s intent to zero out the herds of wild horses and burros I made several calls and had discussions about their decision. They quoted the same tripe…feral…non-native…alien etc.

Is the Federal Government in the midst of a massive multi-departmental conspiracy to exterminate these Icons of the American West?

I found it interesting this morning, while watching CBS This Morning, that the USFWS is directly involved in trying to save elephants in Africa…even to the point we have employees over in Africa working to stop the illegal ivory trade. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the elephants and would gladly pull the trigger at a firing squad should they catch the ringleaders. The report says there are only 650,000 elephants down from 1.3 million just a decade or so ago…shameful.

I find it interesting that the same department of our Federal Government sends wild horses and burros to death camps when there are less than a hundred thousand remaining, the majority of which are in captivity.

Is it just me or does something ‘smell’ here? As we look at the pieces of the puzzle, and I’m sure some of you can come up with many more, it really looks as though our Federal Government has made up it’s collective minds to dismiss the Will of the People once again. Recently Congress has taken on a whole new attitude of ‘we really don’t care what the public wants, we only care for the almighty dollar’. Now whether those dollars are going into government coffers or politicians pockets is question of the century!

Comments are closed.