Callie Hendrickson, executive director for the White River and Douglas Creek Conservation Districts in Rio Blanco County, told the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands that excess wild horses and burros have caused considerable…
Serving Meeker and the White River Valley since 1885
Callie Hendrickson, executive director for the White River and Douglas Creek Conservation Districts in Rio Blanco County, told the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands that excess wild horses and burros have caused considerable…
The subcommittee hearing was a kangaroo court intentionally stacked against the wild horses. What a disgraceful event.
Overpopulation is the Big Lie, the pretext for BLM’s war against the wild horses. It’s BLM’s version of the “Shock Doctrine,” wherein BLM concocted a phony crisis to push through policies antithetical to the Wild Horse Act against the will of The People.
There is no overpopulation of wild horses. In fact, per the guidelines of BLM’s own geneticist, more than 70% of the herds suffer from arbitrary management levels (AMLs) set below minimum-viable population (MVP). Low AMLs enable BLM to claim an “excess” in herds whose numbers, even if they were over AML, would still not reach MVP. So being “over AML” is meaningless. But those low AMLs — along with falsified, biologically-impossible herd-growth estimates — do have a purpose. They give BLM a way to scapegoat the few wild horses for the range-damage done by the millions of livestock that overgraze the public lands.
As for the wild horses being held in captivity, they are the “legacy” of former Secretary Salazar’s equid cleansing era, during which he had tens of thousands of wild horses removed from the range. However, according to BLM, the mortality rate of captive wild horses is about 8% a year. So, obviously, since they are not reproducing, their numbers will steadily drop, showing that BLM’s billion-dollar figure for their care is bogus — it’s another lie.
Regarding adoptions, they have not declined. It’s just that BLM used to count sales-for-slaughter as “adoptions.” Now, only “forever-family” placements qualify. However, mustangs are not homeless horses. They are wild horses that belong at home — on the range.