“In my humble Opinion” by R.T. Fitch

BLM Wild Horse Holder, Ree Drummond, Dances with the Devil

“Where’s the Beef?”

In response to Debbie Coffey’s article published on 2/12/2018 I would like to add that I was not the least bit surprised that Ree Drummond (Pioneer Woman) would be experiencing ‘the vapors’ over her little rodeo routine at the National Cattleman’s Beef Association convention earlier this year.

Why not?

She and her husband have made tens of millions of dollars off the backs of wild horses who have been ripped from their rightful range, their families smashed to pieces and what’s left of the gender segregated herds are farmed out to the likes of the Drummonds at great expense to the tax-payer while privately owned, federally subsidized cattle are put on the horses range.

Why not?

In my opinion Ree is a phony, Ree is greedy, Ree is a magnet for attention, and Ree doesn’t give a horse’s behind for the wild ones because if she did care about the horses, that are under her care, she would NOT be a part of or partake in any activity sponsored by one of the most pro-horse slaughter organizations in the United States.  But she did.

Ree admits that she is a fraud on her own blog and Facebook:

“Finally, I shared this on Facebook but wanted to share it here too: I did not grow up in the country.  I can’t saddle a horse.  For years I thought heifer and Hereford were the same word.  And last week I delivered the keynote address to the big, annual gathering of the National Cattlemen’s Association.” 

Yipppie, I am so cool.

Former Wild Horses feeding time at the Drummond Ranch ~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

You don’t need to grow up or live in the country, you don’t need to know how to saddle a horse or even live with a pony in your backyard to know the difference between what is right and wrong for these creatures.  Predatory horse slaughter for human consumption does not take place in this country so why would she run and jump right into bed with an organization that wants to sell all the wild horses off to Canada or Mexico where they would be grotesquely murdered then eaten by foreigners?  Phony or just plain stupid?  Let the reader decide but anything that will make her look 20 minutes younger or have one more person ‘friend’ her on Facebook then I guess she is all in.

This speech was her chance to speak on behalf of the horses that she uses for her advertising and promotions and she did not make any effort to step up to the plate, she blew it and proved, once again, that the horses are nothing more than dollar signs and their future and well-being are of no consequence.

How do the Drummonds fit into the Wild Horse picture?

In layman’s terms:

The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 (signed unanimously by Congress with President Nixon’s sign-off) ensures that wild horses and burros can live out their lives, unmolested, on US Public lands in 9 western states under the care and watchful eye of the Bureau of Land Management a part of the Department of Interior.

Over the years the Act has been bastardized by amendments, so the Congressional rights of the wild equines have been eroded away by grazing, extraction and hunting special interests.

Now, the BLM rounds up and removes what it deems to be “excess” wild horses and burros, with little to no scientific supporting data, and warehouses them on contracted cattle ranches (like the Drummonds) while allowing private, subsidized cattle to graze on the wild horse’s former range on public lands.  All of this at tremendous expense to U.S. tax payers and the potential extinction of our wild horses and burros.

So, in my humble opinion, instead of spending tens of millions of dollars to pull wild horses and burros off of their protected land and put them on cattle farms while putting private cattle on public lands why don’t we just (wait for it) leave the wild horses on their rightful range, free, with their families and keep the cattle on the cattle ranches.

Is it really all that complicated?