SOURCE:  The Desert Independent

http://rtfitchauthor.com/2015/08/18/wild-horses-vs-cattle/

Editorial By Robert Winkler
Publisher of The Desert Independent

No WELFARE rancher wants wild horses competing with his cows for forage on the public land he is getting on the cheap, so the horses gotta go.

Because the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) comes under the US Department of Interior (DOI) and NOT the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) it lacks the expertise to manage what amounts to the Nation’s beef supply.  And that is exactly what it is trying to do by damming the will of the people of the United States of America and promoting cattle production.

Because of this food supply promotion, ranchers (typically multi-million dollar outfits and larger) have been getting what amounts to US Government WELFARE in the way of grazing allotments on the PUBLIC’S land.  And are the ranchers grateful for this government WELFARE program? Hell no, to this day they complain when they pay only $1.69 per cow/calf pair per month while their cattle over graze on the public’s land and pollute the public’s streams.

And the wild horses must go.

No WELFARE rancher wants wild horses competing with his cows for forage on the public land he is getting on the cheap, so the horses gotta go.

Round em up.  Helicopters.  Run to em to ground.  Scare the crap out of em.  Run em ‘till they drop.  Who cares if some die in the process.  BLM’s gonna just put em in some wild horse concentration camp.  No shade.  Some out of the way place.  Private property.  Don’t want these camps in the news.  Can’t have the public seeing our once beautiful symbol of the west, now incarcerated.  Their sad eyes.  Broken families.  Reminds me of another time and place.  Europe 1943…

And it goes on.

Cattle it seems will always trump wild horses.  The will of the people be dammed.

In case you didn’t know…

The Federal Livestock Grazing Program costs American taxpayers $123 million yearly.  Removing the cattle would actually save taxpayers money.  Planned helicopter removal of wild horses will cost nearly 10 times more than the revenues received from livestock grazers.

“The continual damage to the land from cattle and sheep grazing and the yearly drain on taxpayers who foot the bill for welfare ranching has to stop,” says Toni Moore of The Cloud Foundation (TCF).

To hear the BLM tell the story, it’s the wild horses that do all the damage.  Now, one would only have to think about that for a minute. Let’s see, horses have been in North America for about 9,000 years.  There shouldn’t be much left of anything, not a blade of grass, not a bush, nada.  Not after all that time.  The ranges should be bare if the horses do so much damage.  How does the BLM think ANYWAY?

“BLM’s historic scapegoating of wild horses is a smoke screen,” says Ginger Kathrens,* western rangeland damage is caused by millions of head of privately-owned livestock, not our publically owned and theoretically protected wild horses.”

Until the BLM finds addresses the real culprit, the overpopulation of welfare livestock, our historic wild horse herds will soon become extinct.

*Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of TCF, a Colorado based non-profit which advocates for the protection and preservation of wild horses on public lands.