By Andrew Cohen as published at The DoDo.com
“‘Feel Good Sunday’ finds us sharing the thoughts of a friend, a friend not only to us but also to the wild horses and burros of the United States. Over the years he has written and shared his thoughts on the plight of our wild equines in an effort to make our west a more secure place for them to dwell. Today he tells us why he does what he does and in so doing, he echos the thoughts of many of us who are not as talented and therefore have difficulty putting such thoughts into words. Thank you for all you do, Andrew, and please continue to do more of the same.” ~ R.T.
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photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation
I write about wild horses. I write an awful lot about wild horses. And it’s not just because I cherish the animals or admire all that they have done through the centuries to ease our burden here in North America. I sometimes get grief about my focus upon the nation’s herds, and I know that many people who don’t “get” horses, or who have never been near a horse, cannot fathom the depth of passion the animals engender among their human supporters. What can I say? I can’t help it and I won’t stop.
I write about wild horses for many of the same reasons that I write about mentally ill prisoners who are abused in their cells or about indigent defendants who cannot afford a lawyer or anyone else who has a voice, and rights, but who cannot be properly heard or who cannot have those rights acknowledged. Mordecai Richler, the late, great Canadian writer, long ago captured the essence of what I try to do with all my writing: “The novelist’s primary moral responsibility is to be the loser’s advocate,” he said. The actor Ricky Gervais said pretty much the same thing the other day, without the literary flair, when he said: “Animals don’t have a voice. But I do.”
I have a voice and I’ve chosen to speak out for these horses, which are being rounded up by the tens of thousands from our public and private lands and sent to holding pens in the Midwest — or sold into slaughter even though that is against the law. The government and the ranchers say these roundups must happen because there is no room for the herds, or because they graze too heavily upon the land, but ample evidence exists suggesting that this simply isn’t so. The truth is that there is plenty of room out West for these horses and there are plenty of ways in which the herds may be properly managed to ensure their survival without forcing them into cruel conditions or slaughter.
Why that isn’t happening is a story everyone ought to care about. So I write about wild horses because I think their treatment over the past four decades, since the passage of the federal law designed to protect them, reveals a great deal about American politics and the nature of the bureaucratic state. The Interior Department, which has stewardship over the herds, is little more than a straw man for the industries it is supposed to regulate. And those industries, which receive enormous federal benefits in the form of welfare ranching, and which in turn send millions of dollars and boatloads of lobbyists to Washington, want the horses off the public lands no matter what anyone else says.
I write about wild horses because last year the National Academies of Science issued a report scathing in its criticism of the Bureau of Land Management’s scientific approach to the herds. Before the report was issued, federal officials assured advocates that its conclusions would be respected (or at least publicly discussed). But it’s been seven months now since the report was issued and federal officials have done almost nothing about it. That’s just not unjust to the horses, and unfair to their human advocates, and perhaps a violation of federal law, it’s also terrible policy, as a general rule, for bureaucrats to ignore the findings of a report they themselves commissioned and paid for.
I write about wild horses because the last Secretary of the Interior was a rancher who did not even try to conceal his disdain for federal obligations to the horses and because the current Secretary of the Interior, herself a former engineer, has shown no interest in the herds or in addressing the concerns raised by the NAS report. Only the Interior Department, the backwater of all Washington beats, could engender so little muckracking when so much money, and so much else, is on the line. I write about wild horses because their story is the story of every other small interest without political power in Washington or the statehouses of this nation.
They are persecuted. They have rights but no remedies. And their fate isn’t going to get better unless more people come to understand the injustice of what’s happening to them — and how far the gulf is between the noble image we have given them in our national psyche and the reality of their perilous existence. That’s why I write about wild horses and it’s why I am grateful when anyone happens to read what I’ve written.
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Categories: Horse News, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
We who have a voice have to speak for the one who can’t, they are so noble and have been given the shaft for years now, thank you for speaking up for them, showing he other side from the one who wants to just get rid of them in an way they can, even lie about it to get a point across, we thank you so for the correct things you show in your writing. We need lots more help o keep them free and alive, and out of the slaughter houses.
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Many thanks to Andrew Cohen for having the courage to truthfully represent the wild horses in the Public Forum. I think RT has said before – ” the horses are the canaries” of a system that doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to work. It is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous to question government policies. It seems that rule of law doesn’t RULE anymore, even in the Courts, where any technicality is grounds for NOT ruling on the issues or merits of a case which might mean having to apply the Rule of Law. But, after all it is the Year of the Horse which brings enlightenment & optimism and progress for all good. So I guess that means the Broncos will win the Super Bowl. LOL !
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Thank you Mr Cohen and please keep writing.
You are a well known scholar of law with a focus on the Constitution, the Supreme Court and DC politics……sure wish you could help those litigating for the US Equines, wild and domestic. Those animals need all the help they can get and there has to be a way to stop these injustices. Western Watersheds seems to find ways, albeit small bites. But the small bites approach is exactly what the Feds and States and private entities are doing to murder our wild equines and contaminate humans with polluted horsemeat.
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Thank you Mr Cohen and please keep writing.
You are a well known scholar of law with a focus on the Constitution, the Supreme Court and DC politics……sure wish you could help those litigating for the US Equines, wild and domestic. Those animals need all the help they can get and there has to be a way to stop these injustices. Western Watersheds seems to find ways, albeit small bites. But the small bites approach is exactly what the Feds and States and private entities are doing to murder our wild equines and contaminate humans with polluted horsemeat.
(RT/Terry, please cancel my previous post “awaiting moderation”….I can’t even spell my own name…DooooH!)
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Well, as often happens, Mr. Cohen, your words bring tears to my eyes. People often ask me WHY I’m involved in this fight to save them, and my response is often like yours: because they have no voice of their own. So I write, sign/share petitions widely, ask (and sometimes INSIST) people LOOK at the videos and pictures of the govt. helicopter chasing mares with babies trying to keep, of stallions breaking their bones trying to get out of the pens, or young ones laying on the ground because they have run till their hoofs are gone, in pens with no shelter during 100+ temperatures or snow on the ground – I want them to SEE with their eyes what these innocent animals are feeling with their bodies! I use to think that people just didn’t “understand what was happening” and if I could create pictures with my words they would stand up en masse and put a stop to these atrocities. What I finally realized is most people DON’T care because they have forgotten we are ALL connected to what happens here on this planet in one way or another. So I have aligned myself with those to do care and share those petitions, donate to help them in their work either out there with the horses, or in court fighting our own government, or traveling to our national capital to face them head on. I have hope because I’ve seen CHILDREN making trips to DC to speak, gathering funds to do speaking engagements in front of the adults that have abandoned the very rights they were elected to protect. And adults like you, who keep me writing and fighting, because I still believe Margaret Mead was right: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does!” Thank you for setting the bar for the rest of us, Mr. Cohen! Blessed Be!
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Well Said. the Author Is Right On So Many Levels. he sounds Like So Many Of Us. Those Of Us Who Love The Horse.
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Thank you Andrew, for having the courage of your convictions, and using your gifted eloquence for these innocents.
Please share with us any positive steps we concerned citizens can take, we who write, and sign, and talk, and rescue but who are as marginalized by our government as the horses are. We all need a way out of this death march of Democracy, and soon!
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Beautifully written Mr. Cohan , great piece to show and explain to those who don’t understand exactly whats is really going on with Our Mustangs….. It puts all that people need to know in a way they will understand Bravo !!!!!
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Thank you Andrew for writing such a beautifully written and informed article on the plight of our wild horses. Your dedication and compassion in speaking out with the facts and truth is appreciated. We must continue to share with others our voice for the protection of these magnificent creatures. Ricky Gervais had it right when he quoted, “Animals don’t have a voice. But I do”. Hopefully, there will always be enough voices needed to make the difference in ending the horror that’s been inflicted upon our wild equines. Thank you R.T., for another “Feel Good Sunday”.
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Terry’s photo here is haunting me… and makes me think someone should make a coffee table book showing an imprisoned (tattooed, branded or numbered) horse alongside a similar human facing injustice. I think this would be profoundly moving and might help folks who don’t understand what is going on understand better this shameful state of affairs. Any of you great photographers interested, or maybe Carol Walker and Terry can put something together now that Carol is on board with SFTHH. Even a homemade PPT or Mac slide book inexpensively printed but made publicly available (with actual information, like “Salt Wells survivors, Nov. 2013” or photos of the injured and dead) would be a powerful tool: the truth.
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