BLM Paying Land Owners to Care For Wild Horses

[JLMissouri]

On my local radio station the BLM (Bureau Of Land Management) has been advertising for weeks looking to pay land owners to care for wild horses. This seems crazy and unsustainable to me, So I did some research to find out what the deal was. If we are moving these horses of the range and housing them on farming ground we will eventually run out of land as these horses continue to breed. Joan Guilfoyle, head of the Wild Horse and Burro Program, says the wild horse population doubles every four years.

I have nothing against horses, but I think there is better ways to spend public money than housing what were once wild horses. In one of the articles I finally found what they were paying for the care of the horses, a $1.30 a day. The federal budget for tending to wild horses and burros has more than doubled rising to $75.7 million last year from $36.2 million in 2008(2012 Numbers).

Not sure how they consider this a fix, if we start housing captured horses on ground that could be used for profitable stock we are not solving a thing. If we do nothing to the horses on the range they will overpopulate.


http://http://thecoloradoobserver.com/2012/06/spending-on-horse/

http://http://www.newson6.com/story/13908594/senator-tom-coburn-were-throwing-money-away

[poppy]

We cannot have wild horses running around free. Those horses will never be truly happy until they become wards of the state.

[wy_white_wolf]

Being a non-native animal on this continent with no natural preditors there population needs to be controlled. They should be listed as an invasive species.

They need to lighten up on the rules for adopting these animals. I did adopt one when I was a senior in HS. Broke her to pack that fall during hunting season and to ride the next summer. A local ranch bought her from me as they are very hardy animals and work great as ranch horses. I would have continued to do so as a money making project but going away to college hindered those plans.

Back then it was only $25 to adopt one. No other quaifications. Now the hoops one has to jump through are ridiculous.

Too bad the ATV has pretty much replaced the horse as the prefered ranch/range transportation.

WWW

[arabian knight]

3,000 Miles, 18 Wild horses, 6 months, 5 states, 4 men.
A documentary about Conservation, Exploration, and Wild Mustangs.

http://unbrandedthefilm.com


This one was ridden by the cameraman, and was in the documentary movie. "Wild Horse Wild Ride", and was trained by my friend from AZ. now living in MO.

http://www.wildhorsewildride.com

And paying land owners to help care for these horses is a Great Idea. I Love It. I sure is better that some money is being used for something good instead of stupid things like.

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to spend $500 million on a program that will, among other things, seek to solve the problem of 5-year-old children that “can’t sit still” in a kindergarten classroom or One professor at Stanford University was given $239,100 to study how Americans use the Internet to find love.

[MO_cows]

Out west, the BLM or one of the alphabet agencies pays people to feed elk, too. "Wild" ain't what it used to be.

In the case of the horses, they aren't really wild, they are feral. I like the thought of having them living free, but it's expensive to manage them. If the restrictions were not so tight on adopting them, people who are good horse trainers could adopt them in larger numbers, get them broke and sell them. A lot better life for the horse to have an individual owner and a job, rather than standing around a dry lot for their lifetime. When they have an adoption event and horses are not adopted, they should allow people to buy them as long as they plan to train them and not just ship them for slaughter.

[MJsLady]

How about we humans make better use of our land and quit encroaching on the herds land?
That would be my solution. Make the herd lands protected areas and leave these God given creatures alone in their beauty.

As far as over populating, nature takes care of it's own in regards to that.

[||Downhome||]

There are natural predators, Mountain Lions would be top of the list though.
And if you get technical about things they are a reintroduced species.

One reason the BLM wants to do away with the herd that they are mandated by law to protect is the Horses roam in areas abundant in certain radioactive minerals.

No Horses, no Spectators.
No Eyes to see whats going on.

There are numerous groups watching the BLM and Herds right now.

[where I want to]

Thinking of paying people to board wild horses as a temporary fix that will have bad side effects is more accurate. A way of postponing an ugly decision or avoiding the consequences of making a bad one.
I love horses but I'm not so delusional as to think that I can have my garden, house, clean water, other animals and never restrict the number of horses.

[Allen W]

Nothing new, they have to do something with the old or otherwise unadaptable animals. Just another highly efficient government operation.

[fordy]

.............Actually , we Don't have Too many Horses...........We're just a little bit short on Indians ! So , the Interior dept. needs to encourage the Indians to increase their birth rate ! Then , the feds can take bids on TeePee's from the Chinese TP makers , and maybe contract some Tomahawks , Bows and arrows .
.............We're probably going to be a little short on Buffalo as the number of Indians gradually increases . Ted Turner is going to get a lot richer once this deal gets going .
.............War Paint and scalping knives will become big sellers as well . Won't it be neat for all the Pale faces sitting on their porches to see Smoke signals being sent from far off mesa's and wondering if the sender can spell correctly ? Exciting times not to far away for those living close to a Rez ! , fordy

[Molly Mckee]

I doubt that many people will board wild horses for $1.30 a day, unless they have lots of unused land and very good fences. If you have to feed the horses, do any vet work or farrier work, $1.30 a day isn't enough to pay the bills let alone make any money.

[willow_girl]

As far as over populating, nature takes care of it's own in regards to that.

Letting animals starve to death is gross mismangement IMO.

There is nothing "natural" about this situation! Horses are not even indigenous to this continent!

[Westvalleyfarm]

Congress running this country trillions of dollars in the red, while taking money by force from some to give to others. I'd say that's a little mismanagement too.

On the grand scheme of the federal budget this is small potatoes, but that's how most people get into financial trouble. They slowly bleed money away, instead of one thing sucking all the money away.

[MO_cows]

If the rules surrounding adoption weren't so restrictive, they wouldn't have so many horses to care for. They want one individual person to adopt one horse for their own use, which is a great ideal but there simply aren't enough individuals who want to do this, and/or who are up to the challenge of training a mustang.

Typical government logic that anyone making money on the deal is "wrong", when in fact it could be the best thing for the horses, if managed properly. If they had some market value besides their meat, they wouldn't have to hold them for years and pay for their care.

They do need to keep pulling excess horses off the range for the sake of the horses themselves, and to avoid overstocking and abusing the land.

[where I want to]

Originally Posted by MO_cows

If the rules surrounding adoption weren't so restrictive, they wouldn't have so many horses to care for. They want one individual person to adopt one horse for their own use, which is a great ideal but there simply aren't enough individuals who want to do this, and/or who are up to the challenge of training a mustang.

Typical government logic that anyone making money on the deal is "wrong", when in fact it could be the best thing for the horses, if managed properly. If they had some market value besides their meat, they wouldn't have to hold them for years and pay for their care.

They do need to keep pulling excess horses off the range for the sake of the horses themselves, and to avoid overstocking and abusing the land.

The government is hung up by their own acquiescence to law suits and public opinion noise. They have been sued repeatedly, had to make a Congress faced with horse welfare groups happy and dealt with PETA-lites.
What happened was people 'adopting' numbers of horses then selling for meat or people who adopted free horses only to find out you actually need to know something about horses to train them. Mustangs can be challenges to train even for those with some experience.
So the government is held responsible for anything they do that goes wrong and held responsible for anything they don't do that goes wrong.

[JLMissouri]

While a lot of people will have a problem with it, I would rather someone eat a horse instead of letting them overpopulate and starve while destroying the range. Atleast then somebody will get some good from the mustang and the ones that are left will have less pressure on the resources and the environment.

Big predators would fix the problem if nature was allowed to take its course, but that isn't going to happen as there is too much human involvement. The current amount of predators isn't even making a dent if the population is doubling every four years. Even if you didn't range any cattle on the public land the horses will overpopulate in short order. Large predators cannot fill their role because people will still be ranching and farming and a large group of predators wouldn't be feasible. I know if I started loosing stock to large predators I would do something about it, so would the farmers in that area. Because humans keep the predators down, we have to fill their role to balance the system.

I agree they need to loosen up the adoption process. That would help a little, but there isn't enough homes if you paid people to take them. Only option the animal lovers may be able to handle is mass birth control. BLM already tried that to a degree with little success. So unless they can figure out something better what to do? Maybe start fixing all the mustangs? Be hard and expensive but better and cheaper in the long run. If the wild population doubles every four years I wonder how fast the cared for population doubles? Very temporary band aid on a leaking dam.

[itsb]

the (wild horses) we have around current river,are NOT wild as mo-cow stated they are feral,,go to the sale barn on a Saturday nite and you will see a horse not sale,then go to the river on sunday and BAM you see a nother wild mustang,seem kind of funny that we did not have wild horses until the horse market droped,it is also kind of funny that wild horses have sway backs and shoes ?

[jwal10]

I chuckle every time this comes up, here. If people even knew what went on. It is a money grab to keep a few "animal lovers" happy and quiet. The problem is these horses are not native. The BLM in the late 70s and early 80s bought stud horses, many work horse breeds to raise the meat ratio for slaughter, when horse meat prices were high and being shipped over seas as a delicacy. A couple of years after introduction, 90% went to slaughter. I was there, hauled both ways and auctioned them off after the people had adopted all they wanted. These horses never went to adoption pens, straight off the truck, through the auction ring and then headed straight to Canada for slaughter. Oh, a few were bought and took home, but a small percentage, to appease the agitators. These horses now need better feed or they starve. Most of the original studs didn't live the first winter, so, more were brought in until the hardier cross breeds could survive. All was good though, someone was doing something, no reason to go check out what really was going on. Many more horses were dying than had been. These were Nevada horses hauled to N.W. Oregon. If they were left alone they would manage their own numbers like they did for decades before the do-gooders couldn't see anything die a natural death.

Burros never were worth anything and the herds are small and in more out of the way areas. Same as horses, let them manage themselves, survival of the fittest....and free.

Elk, we have a herd at Jewel Oregon, 3 times the number to be sustainable so they have to feed them, managed just like cattle. Spread them out, they will make their own way, nature and hunters will keep them check instead of killed on the highway, BUT people CAN see them this way and feel good....James

[arabian knight]

And who gets all that money from these BLM auctions. Some of those auctioned of are hundreds and into the 1,000's to get one. Where is all that money going?

[arabian knight]

And I put it anybody on here to do this with a wild mustang in only 100 days and compete like these 100 folks did. From day at the auction to the show was 100 days.

This was 2nd place winner in the Mustang Million horse show.



He also won 3rd place in that same show on a different horse.