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Oregon’s wild horses in crisis

Posted by on March 24, 2014

Keep them on the range

not in holding pens

Attention: Journalists. Please don’t “drink the Kool-Aid” — please don’t swallow BLM’s propaganda. There is no wild-horse overpopulation. There is just the illusion of one, created by BLM. The Agency uses various ploys to jack up its wild-horse population estimates. One ruse: including the potential number of unborn foals — yes, fetuses. BLM’s flimflam figures hold the horses hostage to the Agency’s budget requests, perpetuating 158 full-time-equivalent staff positions. Ranching and mining interests are pleased. Removing wild horses makes room for more cows — the species with the real overpopulation. Mining and fracking projects can proliferate unabated.

Adoptions are not declining. BLM just makes it seem that way. Here’s how: Until 2005, BLM counted sales-for-slaughter as “adoptions.” After 2005, only “forever-family” placements qualified. The reformed record-keeping caused the number of adoptions to seem to decline. The truth is that people are adopting mustangs pretty much at the same rate as they historically have. BLM knows the truth yet continues to deceive the public.

But wild horses are not homeless animals seeking adoption. They are wildlife that belong in the wild. Truth be told, there are too few wild horses on the range. BLM keeps over 70-percent of the herds below minimum viable population. In contrast, there are way too many wild horses in captivity. But who is responsible for all those horses languishing in captivity? Answer: BLM. It is BLM who aggressively rounds up 10,000 or more mustangs every year in what can properly be described as an equid-cleansing policy.

Oregon’s Wild-Horse Manager and the Burns Corral Manager both need to be reassigned to other positions. What a disgrace that 199 wild horses have died in their custody, 81 of which were “found dead” in the corral. Surely BLM-Oregon can find competent, responsible staff to care for its wild horses.

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