I am the Todd,that Roadkill refered to in his post.Besides the qualifications he already mentioned,i have been employed by the BLM as a farrier,and as a horse wrangler,responsible for the gather,and care for these horses.I was also involved with the adopt a horse program,placeing horses,and the subsequent compliance checks on these same horses,untill the elapsed time and title was granted to these adopters.My Grandfather,was employed by the Feds as a range con,and retired from that posistion after many yrs of service.I come from 5 generations of people who have spent their entire lives on western rangelands and have monitored and recorded their observations through these generations.The Rangelands of the west,are in the worst condition,over the last30 yrs,than they have been in the last 100 yrs.Ironically,that was about the time that the wild horse Annie laws were inacted,and the care of such horses came under the Juistiction of the Feds,rather than the states.Now as i said,i worked for the feds,and they have management plans,that would benefit the vast multiple land use,but their hands are tied,and their plans,constantly blocked by personal interest groups and their lawsuits.The BLM is damned if they do and damned if they don't.In themeantime,the problem just gets worse,to the point,that drastic measures must be taken.Most of these good intentioned,but truely ignorant protection groups,don't even realize,the damage to these animals that they impose,with their legislation.I would like to see their management plans,if they were all of a sudden were faced with the burden of the care of these horses,and the total expense of this undertakeing.I know it would change,because i have seen it personally,on severall occastions.The Adopt a horse program,has been a complete failure,at best,and the expense is burdened by the taxpayer.If this program,had been a buisness,in the private sector,it would have gone bankrupt,long ago,and probably been brought up on criminal charges as well.The majority of horses gathered,are completely unadoptable by the public,and the majority of horses that are adopted,are by people who are no where near qualified to work with these horse.Most qualified trainers,will not take these horses on,as they take more time to work than is profitable,and if they did,most adopters,are not willing to pay,what would be charged.There are some success stories,but the majority of them do not end up so.These horses,end up being neglected spending time in isolation of a 20 by 30 pen,not getting the care they need,as no vet or farrier will deal with them.After much deliberation,they end up at a sale somewhere,and often to a slaughter house.Worst case scenario,is the adopter,has a friend or relative,that fancies themselves a horse trainer,cause they watched one of the many "HORSE WHISPERER" video's,and their gonna teach this horse a thing or two.Most times it ends up with physical injury to both,and most definetly mental injury to the horse.After all of this,the end result is the same as said earlier.It takes a good hand,with experience,dealing with these raw wild animals,with a very keen sense of self preservation.I like to see a band of wild horses out there,as much as the next guy,but they need to be managed just like anything else.They are NOT a native species to the western range,and are not the only species dependent on that range.Especially with the depleating of rangeland due to urban srawl fire damage and other issues,that resource is limited,but the horse population is getting bigger,due to missmanagement.Wild horse sanctuaries are overflowing,and a huge expense to the american Taxpayer.It doesn't take a genious to figure out,what needs to be done.Like it or not,it can be a means to an end,that is better to all concerned,includeing a healthier better managed wild horse population.I BASE THESE OPPINIONS NOT ON INFO READ OR OTHERWISE LEARNED THROUGH SECONDHAND INFO
Topic: western hunting in desperate straights (Read 2399 times)
