Press Release from Protect Mustangs.org
Conservation group wants error fixed and wild horses used to combat desertification
BLM Removing Native Wild Horses from Nevada’s Antelope Complex ~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation
SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. (November 28, 2012)–Native wild horses have been erroneously classified as “feral” horses in the recent publication in the journal Environmental Management. The authors of the report call for wild horse removals from U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management rangeland–to fight climate change. The report also calls for the removal of livestock grazing on public land and reintroduction of predators to control native ungulate populations. Protect Mustangs is asking for the errors to be corrected because America’s wild horses are a native species and play an important role in reversing desertification. The horse E. caballus originated in North America. The Conquistadors reintroduced the native species to it’s native land and therefore these native ungulates must be protected.
“This report has glaring errors,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “It avoids classifying America’s wild horses as natives to justify removing them from large areas of public land. Commercial livestock and the extractive industry is destroying the range not wild horses. We object to the proposal to remove native wild horses. We request they rectify the error calling them “feral” horses. Indigenous wild horses need to be protected not wiped out. They can help heal the land.”
Science proves wild horses are native wildlife in North America. According to a paper by esteemed PhD.s J.F. Kirkpatrick and P.M. Fazio entitled Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife:
“The key element in describing an animal as a native species is (1) where it originated; and (2) whether or not it co‐evolved with its habitat. Clearly, E. 6 caballus did both, here in North American. There might be arguments about ‘breeds,’ but there are no scientific grounds for arguments about ‘species’.”
“The non‐native, feral, and exotic designations given by agencies are not merely reflections of their failure to understand modern science but also a reflection of their desire to preserve old ways of thinking to keep alive the conflict between a species (wild horses), with no economic value anymore (by law), and the economic value of commercial livestock.”
The newly published Environmental Management report titled Adapting to Climate Change on Western Public Lands: Addressing the Ecological Effects of Domestic, Wild and Feral Ungulates calls to protect large tracts of the range and suggests climate change will worsen impacts. The report calls to remove the miscategorized “feral” horses as well as burros from large areas of public land.
In contrast, Princeton University and the Savory Institute have stated wild herds heal the grasslands. Recently Princeton published studies mentioned in Wildlife and cows can be partners not enemies in search for food. The Savory Institute has proved that Holistic Management, which mimics wild herds such as wild horses, can heal the land so livestock can thrive.
“Removing the very last of the wild herds is a bad idea and calling native wild horses feral is bad science,” states Inez Fort, vice president of Protect Mustangs’ board of directors.
Protect Mustangs is asking the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to utilize native wild horse herds to combat climate change and help livestock grazing programs on public land. Reintroducing predators, to control population in a natural way, is deemed acceptable by the wild horse conservation group.
“Native wild horses heal the wild land–they can reverse desertification and replenish the biodiversity of the West,” explains Novak.
Holistic Planned Grazing according to the Savory Institute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5LHoh-OKUfU
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Categories: Horse News, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Thank you Carol. I have just about heard all I can take from these global warming, land thieving, control freaks who have no interest at all in preserving our environment, but simply want to control who can use public land. I suggest if these environmental scientists and groups that want to save the planet feel so strongly about global warming that they simply pool their money, and buy the land they want to tie up and prevent other interests from using.
In Franzen’s The Rise of Horses, 55 Million Years of horse evolution, the evolution of the horse and the horse ancestors and the presence of horse fossils are tied to the lowering of sea levels during glacial periods creating land bridges that allowed to horse to cross from North America across the Thune Land Bridge into Northern Europe as well as the Siberian Land Bridge into Asia. This theory is clearly supported by geologists, paleontologists, and climate scientists at NASA. While there may be some behaviors man could curtail to help alleviate this situation, but we simply cannot continue to have science that consistently falls apart to take the place of science that stands up to historical evidence.
Theese cycles occur with regularity every 23,000 years while a competing cycle occurs every 16,000 years. I hate to break it to the environmental terrorists who are trying to hold us all hostage to their views (sorry–I didn’t think I would ever be you to use the two words together, but after reading how environmentalists were overjoyed that Hurricane Sandy struck the northeast devestating so many millions of people, and costing billions of dollars in business loss while the elderly and the handicapped are stuck in cold, dark, homes (if they were lucky), it was more than I could take. We had better wake up and demand that Congress take some control of these prophets of destruction before they do to all of us what global warming never could.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Milankovitch/milankovitch_2.php
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anyone would take the time to research the whole wild horse and “public” lands issues you would discover a couple of oddities.
First is that the Wild Horse and Burro act actually inflated numbers by confiscating tens of thousands of horses and classifying them as “mustangs” when the law first took effect.
Second you would find that Article I, Section 8, clause 17 of the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government from owning lands within the individual states for reasons other than “Forts, dockyards, arsenals, and building needful for the running of the federal government.”
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and your point is ,bob?
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This article correctly points out that horses are native to N America and that studies show the herds actually heal the environment, help prevent wildfires and more. What’s not mentioned is that wild horses comprise less than 0.5% of ALL grazing animals on public lands in the 10 western states where they live. That is my estimation based on research I’ve done of wildlife/livestock/wild horse populations (yes, I have a spreadsheet!) so I could see for myself what the composition of grazers really is when I realized BLM could not be trusted to tell the truth about the cause of adverse wild land impacts. It’s pretty obvious that NUMBERS alone – one half of one percent – make the case that wild horses are NOT the problem. The problem is the millions of LIVESTOCK being run on publicly owned lands which we all subsidize at $500 million to $1 billion annually and the fact that the vast majority of those $ are going to major corporation “ranchers” (Waltons, Hiltons, Hewlett/Packard, etc.) who are “placeholding” public lands or using it as tax shelter. MORE federal waste of our funds! Stop subsidized livestock grazing and leave NATIVE wild life including wild horses alone.
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I totally agree. And, I also would like to add the Wild Buffalo as a native species…..stop the slaughter, shooting on site, harassing them, even babies….bears and wolves are protected.. Public lands are for all grazing animals, not just for livestock…. They are all part of our heritage and should be protected and preserved as our history.
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Right on, Anne! It is such a hypocritical lying attitude that ignores the horses and burros place in North America and how they restore and complement the other species! We must get rid of the narrow minded officials that perpetuate this war on these noble returned native species. I go into this in considerable detail bringing in new information in my book The Wild Horse Conspiracy available on amazon.com and now as an eBook with color pictures at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009XJ64P4
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http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Milankovitch/milankovitch_3.php
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1331. Congressional findings and declaration of policy
To require the protection, management, and control of wild free- roaming horses and burros on public lands. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; that they contribute to
the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people; and that these horses and burros are fast disappearing from the American scene. It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands.
1971 Act—I can’t find the word “feral” in here—just “wild free-roaming” 3 times and “fast disappearing ” once– Congressional findings and declaration of policy— (yeah, I know this Act has been undermined)
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Agenda 21 for Dummies…You Tube video explaining what they are doing and why. BTW…Obamacare is a huge part of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzEEgtOFFlM
Hope all you Obama voters are pleased with yourselves! I’m pretty disgusted. Live for my horses because I don’t know when that will know longer be allowed.
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More news today…Feinstein heading commission to investigate feasibilty to bring GITMO detainees to U.S.; Susan Rice (Obama’s 1st choice pick to replace Hilary Clinton as Sec. of State, not only is ALL FOR THE U.N. IMPOSING THEIR LAWS ON USA, she is a large stockholder in the Keystone Pipeline company and would be the main person to decide yay or nay on going forward with the Keystone pipeline. U.S. is funneling weapons to our enemies in Middle East, as well as to the drug cartels in partnership with Hezbolah in Mexico. WELCOME TO YOUR FUTURE!
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I am sick about this. The blood of our horses is being spent to fulfill the political ends of what I will very loosely refer to as the “green” agenda, but apparently enough of us were willing to sacrifice their freedom for something that we thought we might get…There are some things that simply cannot be sacrificed, and if anyone tells you the price you have to pay is the blood of a horse, the price is too dear to pay. It is just that simple.
While it is easy to villainize these ranchers, and I have done it a lot, there is a context to this that is different that in the past. We have never stopped to consider the cost of “The Great Outdoors Iniative” or the “Wilderness” plan. We found the memo with all the secretly designated national monuments of which two have been declared under Executive Order, but we never added up the total effects of the Sierra Club, CBD, Defenders of Wildlife, and all these other groups who keep sending us petitions to save this wolf, or that bird, or this endangered silver thorned amoeba. But they sure aren’t doing anything to preserve wild horses as wild animals on their federaly designationed herd areas. Se
President Obama signed away a few million acreas of “mostly” public land for a habitat for the Spotted Owl in Northern California as well as an excution order for the Barred Owl since that ole bully of an owl keeps endangering the comeback of the more favored Spotted Owl. I don’t know how other people feel about this, but I hardwired to be uncomfortable when I see the government trying to interject its preferences for which breeds or species get to live and which are condemned to death. These officials are merely mortals, and most of them are far too fallible to be entrusted with decisions God and nature should determine.
Studying the evolution of horses and their ancestors is a lesson is Darwinism or the survival of the fittest as well as the constant interplay between the the horse and the ecosystems where it has lived. It is hard to imagine an animal more perfectly suitable and adaptable through psychology, physiology, innate intelligence as adaptability, and one of the most stable social structures of any animal on earth. We should be studying them in the wild, not destroying them.
Secretary Salazar just signed an agreement with Mexico to make sure that the Colorado River takes water all the way to the Gulf of California. What earth shaking move does the Secretary have in mind to fill the Colorado River with water? Is this what all the talk is about regarding the destruction of four damns that help to supply electricity to parts of the West? How many people will lose their property?
I guess like some of the ranchers, I too, have a deep connection to the place where I grew up. I’d be so very angry if the government built a fence to keep not only me, but everyone else who had ever loved the places I love from being able to visit them again. It’s too bad the rancher’s decided to fight the wild horses and deprive them of water.
If the ranchers and their representatives realized how the presence of our horses in Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and other places is—because it means that horse lovers from every state in the country at least every now and them take a look at places like Cody, Wyoming, and actually have some investment in the outcome as long as our horses are there, they might have thought twice about supporting removing our horses, and maybe the real horsemen among the ranchers could have helped the BLM bait trap and apply PZP to mares who had already added a foal. But no….all of this is much too simple, too humane, and too fiscally responsble, too lawful, and too American to solve anything. Instead of being partners, we are supposed to be on opposing sides…Shame on us all.
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thank-you viktoria , i have been saying, preaching about obozo,now for awhile now. you can go to my facebook page got alot of information ,all bad for all of us . scary and it is going to be very bad.look at freedom outpost and d.c. clothesline.
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First you must check the source, the motive and then follow the yellow brick road….which appears to lead right to the multi-national corporate bait trap.
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-14965-8_12
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Multinational Enterprise and Subsidiaries’ Absorptive Capacity and Global Knowledge Sourcing
Industry Sectors
• Energy, Utilities & Environment
• Oil, Gas & Geosciences
• Finance, Business & Banking
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I can’t look at this now, but thank you for this Louie. It’s a little above my theoretical framework, but i hope to get to it. It may make a few of these loose pieces fit.
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Allan Savory and Huggins Mantanga on Holistic Management
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http://circleranchtx.com/?tag=biodiversity
PERSONAL OPINION IS NOT SCIENCE
Burro eradicators say that although ancestors of equines once roamed North America , they became extinct in the Pleistocene Period, roughly 10,000-12,000 years ago. They acknowledge that Europeans reintroduced horses and burros 500 years ago. However, they continue, modern day horses and burros that were introduced to North America are non-native.
Circle Ranch Horse Tooth
This native horse molar was found in an archaeological dig at the Circle Ranch Indian Cave in June 2011. It is over 10,000-years old.
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This is where we ask ourselves ==What exactly is the Agenda here,? All who are involved in this Gut wrenching fight to preserve The Animals that built America, unfortunately know there are a myriad of problems here. Real understanding of this issue is of utmost importance dialog and Science MUST PROVE THE CONTRARY ==THESE ARE INDIGENOUS NECESSARY ANIMALS AND THEY MUST BE PROTECTED BY STRINGENT LAWS.. Anything to the contrary should be dealt with immediately as it is diabolical and wrong .
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first of all we have to have a leader who really cared about our great nation as much as we do. this invader ( i’ve said it before ) wants nothing more then tear america and her people up. on feb.25th he was at a townhall meeting that the freedom outpost covered . the name of the article is the betrayal papers: in plain sight , a national smoking gun it’s a 5 part series . all the pieces are there. and this article was in the d.c. clothesline last year but was titled obama : the last american president , can’t remember the rest of it . you should be ablr to pull it up.but every time i hear the news — i think of that story and every thing is looking just like it . with the problem with isis , the war in russia , he says that the hard line republicans are more of a problem then them . he wants them all rounded up. he’s also has every body fighting so he can push every body to the cities.he also wants an uprising so he can declare marital law because if we fight back he doesn’t have to quit being president until that is lifted. it all in those articles . please read.
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GOD help our Wild Horses, Burros and us!!!!!!!
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Dear Marcie, exactly !!!!!!!!!
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I’m probably about to become a very unpopular fan of Straight from the Horses Heart but here goes…
They want to right a man made wrong…
Let’s first of all understand the dictionary of those who wrote the report. To them the term ‘feral’ means that at some time every ‘wild’ horse in America had a domesticated ancestor. Genetics will confirm this. They do however recognize…
“While federal agencies have primary authority to manage federal public lands and thus wildlife habitats on these lands, states retain primary management authority over resident wildlife, unless preempted, as by the WFRHBA or ESA (Kleppe v. New Mexico 1976). Under WFRHBA, wild, free-roaming horses and burros (i.e., feral) by law have been declared “wildlife” and an integral part of the natural system of the public lands where they are to be managed in a manner that is designed to achieve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance.”
We have to remember their report refers to all the wild horses not just those under the control of the BLM. Also remember the description of ‘wild’ as stated in the WFRHBA which is…
“”wild free-roaming horses and burros” means all unbranded and unclaimed horses and burros on public lands of the United States”
“Unbranded and unclaimed”…not exactly a scientific designation.
After having studied this report I believe the bulls-eye rests on the livestock industry. They go to great detail about the damage done by the livestock…
” Soil compaction from livestock has been identified as an extensive problem on public lands (CWWR 1996; FS and BLM 1997). Such compaction is inevitable because the hoof of a 450-kg cow exerts more than five times the pressure of heavy earth-moving machinery”
By compacting the soil the rains run off rather than soak in. Also mentioned is water diversions for livestock…
“Water developments and diversions for livestock are common on public lands (Connelly and others 2004). For example, approximately 3,700 km of pipeline and 2,300 water developments were installed on just 17 % of the BLM’s land base from 1961 to 1999 in support of livestock operations (Rich and others 2005). Such developments can reduce streamflows thus contributing to warmer stream temperatures and reduced fish habitat, both serious problems for native coldwater fish”
They not only recommend the removal of mass herds of livestock but also more control of the ‘wild ungulates’ i.e. deer and elk…
“Where key large predators are absent or unable to attain ecologically functional densities, federal agencies should coordinate with state wildlife agencies in managing wild ungulate populations to prevent excessive effects of these large herbivores on native plant and animal communities.”
Other recommendations to help include reintroduction of natural predators…
“Where wild native ungulates, such as elk or deer, have degraded plant communities through excessive herbivory state wildlife agencies and federal land managers need to cooperate in controlling or reducing those impacts. A potentially important tool for restoring ecosystems degraded by excessive ungulate herbivory is reintroduction or recolonization of apex predators. In areas of public land that are sufficiently large and contain suitable habitat, allowing apex predators to become established at ecologically effective densities could help regulate the behavior and density of wild ungulate populations, aiding the recovery of degraded ecosystems . Ending government predator control programs and reintroducing predators will have fewer conflicts with livestock grazing where the latter has been discontinued in large, contiguous public-land areas. However, the extent to which large predators might also help control populations of feral horses and burros is not known.”
What these folks are advocating is the correction of a man made problem. The complete and total mismanagement of our public lands. Overgrazing by livestock being the major culprit. Their recommendation for the ‘fix’ is the removal of the stressors from large areas to allow for revitalization. Yes their recommendation includes some of our ‘wild horses’ but we can counter with other options.
First of all remove all the livestock being they are the most and the worst then re-evaluated after five or ten years. Don’t disrupt all living things when it is clear who does the most damage. They use the DOI/BLM numbers of wild horses and burros to be about 40,000 but we know this isn’t true and I think with some renewed data input the effect of this project would be quite minimal on the horses and burros. After all there are over 1,000,000 elk and untold numbers of deer, millions and millions of cattle and sheep so 40,000 horses and burros are the very least of their problems.
Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 [FLPMA])…
“FLPMA directs the BLM to “take any action necessary to prevent unnecessary or undue degradation” of the public lands. Under NFMA, FS management must provide for diversity of plant and animal communities based on the suitability and capability of the specific land area. FLMPA also authorizes both agencies to “cancel, suspend, or modify” grazing permits and to determine that “grazing uses should be discontinued (either temporarily or permanently) on certain lands.” FLPMA explicitly recognizes the BLM’s authority (with congressional oversight) to “totally eliminate” grazing from large areas (> 405 km2) of public lands. These authorities are reinforced by law providing that grazing permits are not property rights (Public Lands Council v. Babbitt 2000).”
This tells me that the BLM has only one good course of action to comply with this report and that is to eliminate grazing permits. Wild horses and burros are not permitted animals and have been deemed as wildlife…
“BLM lands and national forests must be managed for sustained yield of a wide array of multiple uses, values, and ecosystem services, including wildlife and fish, watershed, recreation, timber, and range.”
I guess my bottom line is I do not see where this report is calling for mass removals of wild horses. They do want some moved from areas where the damage is most severe but that is an opportunity for the BLM to Move horses NOT Remove horses.
Their numbers of 40,000 spread over 32,123,699 acres indicate the concentration is quite low (803 acres per horse and burro) but in fact over half of them live in Nevada making their density much greater. How about we relocate some Nevada horses to Colorado or Idaho or Wyoming of Montana or California where population density’s are not so high? How about we do that with a bunch in holding as well? Possibly because the WFRHBA says…
“Sec. 10. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the Secretary to relocate wild free-roaming horses or burros to areas of the public lands where they do not presently exist.”
So Sec. 10 either needs to be better defined or changed to allow for better usage by wild horses and burros.
We must also consider that this report is merely a recommendation. Will the Federal Government ever put it into action? Will the BLM finally listen to some science rather than just improvise their own? Since the report leaves the end result to the agencies, local govenments, and the general public we will have to make our voice strong and loud.
We agree that overgrazing is a major problem. We also agree that nature needs to be allowed the opportunity to recoup. We concur that livestock are the major problem followed by deer and elk in numbers we can’t even guess. But we do not agree that wild horse removal by the BLM definition (permanent) is justified as their numbers just do not contribute that much to the overall problem.
OK…now you can let me have it. I’m a big boy, I can take it!
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Steve, the problem is the word feral. You are exactly in that most of the horses and burro ancestors that were brought to this country were domesticated. But domestication or the lack of it has nothing at all do to with whether of not Equus caballus is native to the US or not. The problem is the dual use of the word feral by those who want to remove our free-roaming wild horses. The second meaning of the word is non-native, invasive, exotic which horses clearly are not. As you point oout we are dealing with problems humans created.
I have changed my mind a little bit about removing all cattle because as I have studied this issue, not only in the West but looking at areas in Africa and other places, it appears that cattle and horses (bovids and equids) are complementary grazers and that land, grasses etc. where far fewer numbers of cattle co-exist with horses, the grasses and the animals appear to be healthier. You could include another species other than cattle, or reduce the number of cattle further and add antelope or some other species, but it looks like the worse thing you can do is remove horses from land unless your purpose is to reforest the land, which they will do as has been demonstrated on Shackleford Island.
i have been amazed at how stubborn the BLM and western ranchers have been about the wild horses because our colleges of agriculture in the east teach rotational grazing where you alternative which species uses the same land, or if you have more land, you can graze the cows and horses together, then rest the pasture altogether. Therefore, this whole remove the horses strategy has seemed theoretically and in practice to be counterproductive to producing healthy land, grasses, and preventing the desertification of the West.
I do not know what sciences these wildlife people have to master, but I have never heard so many cockamamie ideas about how to do anything as these people come up with. As far as I am concerned (and my opinion matters not one wit to them or anyone else) I would love to drop them all off in the land of Lost and let them fend for themselves in the truly wild socialistic Darwinism they seek to want to create. I do believe that Darwin is well-supported by horse evolution and if there were not such a thing as Darwinism, then someone would have to invent is to explain horse evolution, but what I object to is human beings trying to make decisions that God, nature, or the natural world will create on its own. There are people among us who are so arrogant that they believe they not only can predict the future, but that they are wiser than the rest of us and wiser than God, so they want to create the world we going to live in or create the world they think we should live in. That is why I have had a sudden attack of anti-wildlife groups and anti-environmentalism. I am not opposed to wildlife or having a healthy environment. I am opposed to the self-appointed Masters of the Universe.
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I don’t see how they get the words so turned around. Feral is a behavior (adj) and Native is a condition (n) Feral vs. Wild or Native vs. Alien but not Feral vs Native…that’s just wrong.
I fear the ground must have time to aerate after well over a hundred years of millions of cows and sheep trampling the earth into near concrete status. We can’t go plow it all up to let the rain water (what little there is) in and it’s going to take nature a while to do it on it’s own even if we do remove all the cattle. The report eludes to the fact that ranchers will not be affected nearly as bad as one might think so why not let the earth repair itself?
I do not see where this group of scientists show any animosity towards the horses in fact they are quite clear the livestock are the problem. Nor do I see where they consider horses and burros second class citizens for being a possible alien…I can’t find any questioning of any of the animals native or alien status. Lord knows cows and sheep and bighorns are alien. But we do know they cannot argue equus caballus is not native as the DNA is quite clear. They may try but that’s a BLM characteristic…you know…saying something is absolutely true when everyone knows it’s a damn lie!
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And FENCES….BIG PROBLEM ond Public Lands:
http://circleranchtx.com/
Human Tampering: High Fences, CWD and Breeding Programs. High fences and CWD are related. High-fencing appears imminent in far-West Texas mule deer country. Here is what we know about it from experience elsewhere.
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), already in New Mexico mule deer herds, was recently found in far-West Texas. CWD is invariably fatal and highly contagious to all of the deer (cervid) family. All cases of CWD in the United States can be traced back to Colorado; all Colorado cases can be traced back to the Foothills Wildlife Research Station (operated by the Colorado Department of Wildlife) in Ft. Collins where “management” activities conducted in the 60’s had the tragic unintended consequence of creating a new disease, a deer version of “Mad Cow Disease.” Deer and elk were confined with domestic sheep which had been exposed to scabies, behind high fences, fed and watered from common points. The disease was not recognized until several infected animals had been transferred to other high fenced areas. They in turn infected other animals. Some of these got loose; others were sold or given to other states. The genie was out of the bottle.
Without high fences there would never have been CWD. High -fenced areas accelerate the spread of CWD, because the disease-transmitting agents (prions) remain in the soil for many years and infect animals that are confined on infected feces and urine, or are bumping noses with other animals at feed and water points. Heaven forbid that CWD ever finds its way into the many high-fenced small properties of Central and South Texas: It will devastate Texas deer herds.
CWD-infected mule deer can live for years and spread the disease. Swift removal by natural process is the best way to suppress CWD. In open ranges with widely-dispersed deer populations, mountain lions are the best tool. Sick mule deer are vulnerable, and lions seem immune to CWD (based on failed brain-to-brain experimental transfers).
Generally, high-fence game farming is economically unsustainable, and as usually practiced is damaging to wildlife and habitat. The set stocking of unnaturally high numbers of deer devastates the habitat inside the fences, as does set stocking of cattle at any density inside any fence.
A primary high-fence objective is genetic manipulation. Animals are bred for one characteristic: big racks. Eventually, these find their way back into the wild population with unknown effects on native gene pools.
High-fenced deer are often raised on artificial food and minerals. We do not understand the lasting effects of these on deer or other species but for example the copper in antler-growth supplements is lethal to desert bighorn.
Captive fawn survival compared to free-range deer is reported in Texas to be as low as 14%: In my opinion, this is probably because does are not giving fawns their natural antibodies including “medicine” coming through weeds and other natural food, and, is a result of genetic-tinkering.
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I think one of the more amazing things I’ve learned about Western wildlife is pronghorn antelope won’t jump fences…
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Pronghorn are not jumpers. They need 18 inches to crawl under fences. A study completed a few years ago on the Wyoming migration of pronghorn was completed with wildlife corridors set up in every area that was private or public lands so the herds could get under the wire. Now, this recent success is being threatened by gas leases. It has to be fought for all over.
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Louie,
Thank you for explaining the prion thing to me. I have read about it in numerous articles, but even when I reserached it, I couldn’t find enough about it written in a way I could understand it other than it was a bigger threat to animal health and possible to humans if it mutates…There was an article about an albino deer being shot in Wisconsic and the people were upset because the deer was living on a refuge that was supposed to be protected from CWD—that doesn’t quite make sense, but the buck was white and the people opposed shooting white deer…still I guess I don’t get it yet, but I am closer.
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Pronghorn and fences of any kind don’t mix. They need open range. http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/pronghorns-get-free-rein-on-the-prairie/article1253962/?service=mobile
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This is a tactic, not an accidental misclassification. In nevada policy makers tried to change the definition of ‘wildlife’ to exclude mammals in impact reports. The truth is that the naturalized or native status of wild horses is unclear, and interpretations depend upon which line of evidence you follow. For example, early DNA research suggest that horse populations may have more in common with populations not introduced by Europeans. Some hypothosize that these are descended from horses that roamed in the Americas before mankind (Pleistocene era), and were later reintroduced. The important point is that these unanswered research questions are highly political with major special interest money determined to rewrite prehistory to their advantage. What policy makers need to be made to understand is that the question is mute. The public decided long ago that these Horses were our *cultural* resource. We legislated that they should be protected and they are *our* resource to decide how our public servants should protect them, not the other way around. Special interest groups have meddled in public land managment long enough.
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Current DNA evidence shows that not only did Equus caballus exist here at the same time the mammoth and other animals did (last appearance date could be as recent as 7,600 yrs.) but that Equus caballus was one of four Equus species that is known to have lived at the same time in the same region. The fossil evidence supports the DNA evidence. The trouble with the DNA evidence with horses is that it is difficult to extract. What scientists believe is that Equus caballus was as it is now a species with very vast differences in shape and size (ectomorphology) just as it is now where Arabians and Clydesdales are both members of the same species. There are far fewer species than taxonomists who only had their training and the visual matches to go by, than what DNA now shows.
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It’s convenient for the BLM and FS to classify wild horses and burros as “feral” and, by extension, “pests” in order to use pesticides to “manage” them. PZP, SpayVac, and GonaCon are all classified as pesticides by the EPA. The agencies are also mandated to “protect” them. IMO, whether application of a pesticide equals protection under the government’s 5 criteria is valid. The closest is Annual (Native) PZP. PZP-22 and SpayVac fail some of the criteria. I think GonaCon (which is being used to control Brumbies in Australia) could be tailored to pass, and hope that’s being researched.
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I should have said “suspect” rather than “valid”. Way too early for my brain to connect with my fingers!
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lol I know that feeling Linda! You may be on to something here. Why exactly is PZP listed as a pesticide?
BTW I think SpayVac is a goner. The research was way too iffy, the side effects to hazardous and the BLM was the only customer so no market. The BLM knew this too because they didn’t flinch when threatened with 2 lawsuits…they simply sent the researcher on leave of absence and stopped the whole project.
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I think I saved a link to why somewhere in my hundreds of files. As I remember, the reasoning goes something like this: The FDA regulates chemical birth control for humans, and has nothing to do with animals. Chemicals and medications for animals are the responsibility of the USDA. USDA testing and approvals can take nearly as long as the FDA. Testing and approvals of pesticides through the EPA is a much shorter process. Voila … animal birth control fast-tracked as pesticides.
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Reblogged this on cindymendoza47.
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