The image of the open land filled with wild horses running free has become threatened by the U.S. government that seems to have aligned itself with “Big Cattle”. Today, there are more American wild horses being held in facilities than currently in the wild. Since the 19th century, the number of wild horses free in the West has declined by 98%. The practices of removing American horses off public lands has decimated their numbers and raised taxpayer costs by $80,000,000 each fiscal year. Thousands of wild horses are being herded by helicopters and vehicles into holding pens annually. The ones who survive separation from their families, substandard veterinary care, electric cattle prods or other horse ‘management’ techniques are stockpiled …show more content…
Though BLM has claimed there have been no deaths or injuries to wild horses or burros during the roundups, NBC correspondent Lisa Myers’ exposé on wild horses clearly captures on film a foal being trampled to death in a BLM holding …show more content…
In June 2014, nonprofit organizations and friends of wild horse preservation petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the animals as an endangered species so as to protect them from cattlemen who would prefer the public lands be used for grazing herds than those “pesty” wild horses (though the cattle population drastically outnumbers wild horses). The groups requested that the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) recognize North American wild horses as a distinct population segment (DPS) of the species Equus caballus and protect them on all US federal lands. “These horses are different, they are treated different under the law, they behave differently and there’s some evidence they are genetically different,” Jennifer Barnes, a lawyer for Friends of Animals based in suburban Denver. The petition argued that 40% of America's wild horses’ habitat had been lost since President Nixon passed the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act in 1971 which
The use of horses for human consumption dates back to the earliest use of animals for human consumption. Horses are used for food in many counties but are also considered inhumane in other countries. In the United States specifically, horsemeat is not the norm for consumed meat. There seems to be a problem that has arisen. It is suspected that horses being slaughtered at horse slaughtering factories are not the most up to date, pain free for the horse, and human as people suspect them to be like beef kill floors. There are many pros and cons to horse slaughter that accompany the pressure groups on each side of horse slaughter. Another big controversy with horse slaughter is the argument of legalizing horse slaughter and what those details will entail in the law.
Estimates are that at the turn of the twentieth century over two million wild horses roamed free in the western United States. However, having no protection from their primary predator, man, by the 1970’s there numbers had dwindled to less than thirty thousand. In 1971, after a massive public uproar, Congress by a unanimous vote enacted the “Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act” (Act) that characterizes wild horses and burros as national treasures and provides for their protection.
The large herds of horses did not pose a particular problem until the western United States became settled and cattle and other grazing animals were added to the native range. The arid lands of the west could not support large population of grazing animals, so it became policy to shoot Mustangs.
The horse is a highly respected animal in United States culture. It has been worshipped and paid tribute to through art, books (Misty of Chincoteague, Black Stallion), movies (Black Beauty, Spirit), and television shows (Mr. Ed). The horse industry is huge in the United States, encompassing everything from rodeos and racing to horses owned for purely pleasure. There have been statues erected of famous racehorses, as well as museums devoted entirely to equines. "Horse culture" is a huge part of American culture. The slaughter of horses for human consumption does not seem to fit into that culture. However, despite initial reservations, many Americans may agree that the slaughter of horses is better than alternatives.
On March 10, 1892 the Billings Gazette reported, “The opening of spring may be more red than green for the horse thieves and cattle thieves of Johnson County” (Brash, 143). The writer of the article could little have known how truthful their premonition would prove to be. The late 1800’s were turbulent times in the West. Large tracts of publicly held range ground would be at the center of Wyoming’s very own civil war. Gil Bollinger, author and western researcher, reports that by the 1870’s and 1880’s fencing of land to enclose both crops and water sources was common (Bollinger, 81). This practice, however, was still illegal according to the federal government. In 1877, the United States Government sued Swan Land and Cattle Company, in an effort to set an example that all fences on open range must come down (Bollinger, 81). The fencing of lands was a major problem, as agricultural producers needed open access to the limited resources, especially water. Johnson County, in northern Wyoming, was an agricultural nucleus for cattle and sheep producers who knew the lush grass and good water supply would greatly benefit their operations. Since fencing was illegal, these resources were available to everyone. Cattle operators, large and small alike, ran their livestock loose and participated in large roundups once a year where all the cattle were branded. Slick calves, called mavericks, were often unrightfully claimed. Lack of fencing made any free ranging livestock available to whoever was devious enough to take them (Smith, 25).
In the journal article, "The Frontier Army and the Destruction of the Buffalo: 1865-1883, Smits asserts that the United States ' post-Civil War frontier army was the driving figure in the near extermination of the Great Plains buffalo. This process, which was orchestrated at the highest level of command ,and carried out throughout this ranks, was launched in order to drive the Plains Indians tribes into reservations. This paper will dive into the rationale of the army for their systematic eradication of the buffalo, how it was accomplished, and the major consequences of their pursuit.
Larson, Peggy W. Animal Abuse Inherent In Rodeos 2008 PO Box 28 Geneva, IL 60134
In 1971, the federal government passed an act that allows them to pull wild horses and donkeys from land in the west. Ever since 1971, the federal government has been removing wild horses and donkeys from these westward lands. The land that these animals occupy are federally owned pieces of property. While the federal government extracts these creatures from this land, they must consider how these animals are captured, managed and cared for inside facilities, and how it affects the surrounding population of people.
The underlying issue of wild horses is the overpopulation of a particular species, which is contributing a serious ecological disaster, overgrazing. The degradation of the land has a domino effect, which will lead to more issues. It is important to maintain a balance between the need of the species, and what is healthy or the environment. The issue created controversy, is central to the passing of laws, and creates an opportunity for the government and the community to work together. There are many way to solve the issue of the wild horses and the issue that are created due to their existence. Issues such as a reduction in the number of the horses removed from the range. Increased use of birth control, a partnership with the Humane Society,
In 1865 the frontier line generally followed the western limits of the states bordering the Mississippi River, bulging outward to include the eastern sections of Kansas and Nebraska. Beyond this thin edge of pioneer farms, lay the prairie and sagebrush lands that stretched to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Then, for nearly 1,600 kilometers, loomed the huge bulk of mountain ranges, many rich in silver, gold and other metals. On the far side, plains and deserts were part of this region; here laid the "Last Frontier"--- the "Great Plains". "For a long time, the region had been called the Great American Dessert, a barrier to cross on the way to the Pacific, unfit for human habitation and therefore, to white Americans, the perfect refuge for Indians." (Tindall 857) Apart from the settled districts in California and scattered outposts, the vast inland region was populated by Native Americans: among them the Great Plains tribes -- Sioux and Blackfoot, Pawnee and Cheyenne -- and the Indian cultures of the Southwest, including Apache, Navajo, and Hopi. Soon these Indians were pushed away from their "safe haven". "They lost an estimated 86 million acres of their 130 million acres."(Tindall 873) The reason to this is because the white man went westward to expand.
4.)"Rodeo Facts: The Case Against Rodeos." Winning the Case Against Cruelty. Animal Legal Defense Fund, 1979. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. .
For centuries, the wild horses have roamed the Colorado Plateau and they should be able to continue living in the park. The horse population of Colorado has dropped ninety-eight percent since the 1800s. This is mainly because the BLM has rounded up many of the herds from the Mesa Verde area. Contrary to many people's beliefs, horses are not a nuisance to the park because they are a native species. The horses are in the park to get the food and water they need to survive in a
Horse slaughter is inhumane and cruel because the horses are normally shipped for over 24 hours in cramped, dirty trailers with no food or water (ASPCA). They are given no rest and remain standing for this entire time. When they get to the holding pens at the slaughterhouses, the pens are muddy and filled with diseases. Many of the horses here are skin and bones, sick, and oftentimes injured from transport and being in such tight spaces with other horses. On top of all of this, they are treated brutally and carelessly. Any horse can
...ghteen hundreds there were seventy five million bison in North America. When the nomads and euroamericans started hunting them for their hides and using them for the main form of trade, along with other natural factors there population took a devastating turn for the worst. “By the eighteen eighties only a couple hundred bison had found refuge from commercial hunters, drought, and the destruction of their grazing land by farmers and livestock in Yellowstone national park” (Isenberg 164). Yellowstone was made into a safe haven for the bison and the United States government did allow the railroad to cross throw Yellowstone because it would affect the safety of the bison. People started to capture the bison and domesticated them to rebuild the population. Bison became a symbol of the American west, which is why the euroamericans started to regenerate there population.
America focuses heavily on its livestock and crops earning us a major role in global trade as a farming nation. Unfortunately this has led to some poor choices in treatment of our animals. Many farmers who believe in animal rights say that it started back when farmers only tended to fewer animals, “Ownership of farm animals became concentrated in fewer hands, and flocks and herds grew larger. As a result, the individuality of animals was lost to their owners and they began receding from most people's everyday life” (Namit 29). When people lost their connection to the animals that provided their food, the quality of the animal's lives began to dramatically decrease. Consumers constantly pushed farmers to their limits with high quotas. To keep up with demands agriculturalists turned to some unorthodox practices to keep costs low and still maintain their annual quotas; “To raise efficiency and cut costs, farm animals began to be engineered for abnormally rapid weight gain, fed unnatu...