A loss in the feral horse battle

[Jimbee]

Who is pocketing that cash, it certainly isn't all going to horse "conservation"!

Talk about a way to piss some people off, go out and kill a bunch of horses!

They are thick here in New Mexico!!!

This book talks a little about wild horse issues.

 

[OKHunter84]

Too bad Mike Lee can't set his sights on this issue. You could sell 64k horses, save millions and make millions. Quit worrying about selling public land.

 

[roosiebull]

Write to your legislators and ask them to fix the issue.

I live in Oregon

If you know anything about our state politics, you would know that this wouldn’t do anything good

Feral horse control would have to be done at a federal level, there is no way the state will ever get the ball rolling, it is very well known how hard horses are on the landscape, but it’s way too big of a step to do anything about it

A few years ago a buddy and I did a spring road trip, our last stop was a friends property in prairie land, and a very good mule deer wintering ground, he was telling me about all of the sheds, so I was pretty excited, I have never seen a place where you could actually walk around and pick up a bunch of sheds

We ran into a few big horse herds getting into the property, and it was the first time I had seen more than a couple feral horses… the first group I thought it was cool, but then a few herds later I was thinking it was a little excessive. It was late afternoon so we got camp setup and went to bed.

The next morning we get up at daylight, load our packs, and head off to the shed promise land… we ended up seeing a bunch of critters, but every single one was a horse. We found a total of one little old chewed up chunk of a shed, and everything was tore up with horse sign, it was wild.

He couldn’t believe it, and it was unrecognizable from the last time he was there, and he used to spend a lot of time there (murderer’s creek unit)

That was my first real exposure to feral horses and their impact

My next eye opener on the subject is when I would go over to Burns where my sis in law lives, her husband was a wrangler at BLM there and I would go help him feed when I was there, and that really blew me away how much money is spent just in alfalfa every single day, I literally couldn’t believe it, how is this sustainable, and what’s the plan here??!! Oh, there is no plan, just keep throwing down millions of dollars of feed with no management plan… what in the actual….

It’s absolute lunacy

 

[Jason Snyder]

Feral horse control would have to be done at a federal level, there is no way the state will ever get the ball rolling, it is very well known how hard horses are on the landscape, but it’s way too big of a step to do anything about it

Of course it would have to be federal. It’s federal land that supports the majority of wild horses.

Write your US legislators and ask them to do something about it.

 

[mt terry d]

How many guys would hunt them if it was allowed? Grip and grins with a stallion, talk about getting a large reaction from anti hunting community.

We could impose a shot distance limit to placate the anti-hunters.

 

[Tilzbow]

Just getting down to the AML (appropriate management level) established as part of the Wild Horse and Burro act would be a great start and likely resolve most problems. Write your senators and congress representatives and tell them they need to work to get to these levels ASAP. See link and picture for more information.

Horse lovers (and democratic politicians) want to rely on fertility control. The problem is that takes decades. Horses live a long time, predators have little impact and they will outcompete native game animals which really becomes an issue during drought or heavy winters. Populations must be lowered much faster than this method alone allows.

https://www.blm.gov/sites/default/f...Wild_Horse_and_Burro_Population_Estimates.pdf

 

[S-3 ranch]

Who is pocketing that cash, it certainly isn't all going to horse "conservation"!

Talk about a way to piss some people off, go out and kill a bunch of horses!

They are thick here in New Mexico!!!

I was pronghorn hunting in NM and the owner shot a few horses after they busted my hunt , I asked why and he said they where a nuisance and not his .
I asked if he had just pissed off the neighbor, he said “ I doubt it “ their not his either, I am from Texas never gave me a second thought it would be illegal
WTH are people thinking burro’s and horses, wild sheep, goats that have no ownership should not have federal protection
I almost plowed into a wild donkey in Hawaii and probably would have been financially responsible for the damage
Pfft idiots west of the Rio Grande pulling political stunts

 

[Ryan Avery]

How many guys would hunt them if it was allowed? Grip and grins with a stallion, talk about getting a large reaction from anti hunting community.

I would be first in line.

 

[Fatcamp]

It's my food stash in the coming apocalypse.

 

[WRO]

I was pronghorn hunting in NM and the owner shot a few horses after they busted my hunt , I asked why and he said they where a nuisance and not his .
I asked if he had just pissed off the neighbor, he said “ I doubt it “ their not his either, I am from Texas never gave me a second thought it would be illegal
WTH are people thinking burro’s and horses, wild sheep, goats that have no ownership should not have federal protection
I almost plowed into a wild donkey in Hawaii and probably would have been financially responsible for the damage
Pfft idiots west of the Rio Grande pulling political stunts

They’re livestock on private land and are treated as such without repercussion.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[WRO]

Seems like a good use for thermal scopes and helicopters.
There use to be a huge feral horse issue along the John day river in OR, they were destroying private land but spent a lot of time on BLM. Eventually the landowners got tired of it and eradicated like 60+ horses. There is no longer a feral horse problem in that particular area.

They need to just list them as feral non native like audad are listed in some states. If you see one on public ground it’s free game, even with no regulations on audad we still have a healthy population in OR but mostly on private ground. I think horses should be the same. If they want them on reservations, private land or reserves awesome, as soon as they get loose on public land then allow Lethal removal.

Longview ranch did it, they took out like 300 with copters off their private.

 

[S-3 ranch]

They’re livestock on private land and are treated as such without repercussion.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It was a mixed property, private, BLM ?? State? I just bought the permit
But we saw other people on different parts

 

[Tilzbow]

They’re livestock on private land and are treated as such without repercussion.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It’s definitely not a coincidence that NV has the most BLM land of any state and the most feral (aka officially “wild”) horses (I refuse to acknowledge they’re wild….). I’m pretty sure the numbers I posted above don’t even include the 5,000+ horses in NV that are officially classified as feral and managed by the NV State Department of Agriculture even though they primarily reside on BLM land. Most of these 5,000 inbred feral maggots are found within 30 miles of Reno in the Virginia Range.

BLM is only responsible for the horses officially classified as “wild”. I’m not sure how many of these state managed “feral” horses are in other states. I’m also not sure why these “feral” horses don’t make the criteria for a wild horse since they meet the BLM definition. I do think it has to do with when they classified herds back in the early 1970s after the Wild Horse and Burro act became law. I think if a herd wasn’t classified wild at that time (didn’t exist or didn’t have a large enough population) it’s automatically classified as feral.

Per BLM’s website:

Wild horses and burros are defined by federal law as unbranded, unclaimed, free-roaming horses or burros found on public lands in the United States.

 

[Dan Carey]

But they are so purdy

 

[WRO]

It was a mixed property, private, BLM ?? State? I just bought the permit
But we saw other people on different parts

You can kill them on deeded as long are you’re not in a HMA, realistically within reason you can kill them on private.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MuleyFever]

This book talks a little about wild horse issues.View attachment 908223

I like how the picture is of a chaining to restore native grasslands/shrubs and improve habitat.

 

[MuleyFever]

I haven't spent much time on the SW Desert in a few years. The last time I was out there a few seasons ago we saw many times more horses than elk. Many of the horse herds were in places you didn't see them a few years prior. Its getting worse. Ill be out there this winter chasing elk again. I am wondering how it is now and expecting to be disappointed.

 

[Dan Carey]

Arizona doesn't have a lot of horses, but do have a bunch of them $^%% donkeys

 

[Renegade14]

A guy in Utah was slaughtering and selling horse earlier this year. He would sell plates that were really good, up until the state caught on and shut it down. I would definitely eat it again. Super common in a lot of the world to eat horse, even France and other European countries. A lot of people against eating horse like to cite those countries for how the US should run, but I don't think they'd agree with that cuisine.

 

[OKHunter84]

Just getting down to the AML (appropriate management level) established as part of the Wild Horse and Burro act would be a great start and likely resolve most problems. Write your senators and congress representatives and tell them they need to work to get to these levels ASAP. See link and picture for more information.

Horse lovers (and democratic politicians) want to rely on fertility control. The problem is that takes decades. Horses live a long time, predators have little impact and they will outcompete native game animals which really becomes an issue during drought or heavy winters. Populations must be lowered much faster than this method alone allows.

https://www.blm.gov/sites/default/f...Wild_Horse_and_Burro_Population_Estimates.pdf

View attachment 908275

There was a documentary or news piece I watched about a man in Australia somewhere that was hunting the out of control feral cat population. People were proposing contraceptives for controlling the population, this gentleman said, "they're not screwing all the birds to death, they're killing them."

I thought it was funny and the same thing would apply with the feral horses. In the 30 years it would take from now for birth control to make a difference, the damage to habitat other species would already be done.