Within the last week or so, a number of articles report how the BLM’s advisory board just voted to kill off 45,000 wild horses in their care. Yes, that appears to be their idea of "taking care" of America's wild horses -- kill them off.
After back-checking this, I found that with only one "NO" vote, the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board has indeed voted in favor of killing all of the 45,000 Wild Horses currently in their short term and long term holding facilities. And yes, that's 45,000 horses.
As one report stated, the BLM uses the term "euthanasia" but that is incorrect since what they want to do does match the definition of "euthanasia." They must not understand that euthanasia is "the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals, as with people or domestic animals, in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy." But those 45,000 wild horses are not "hopelessly sick or injured."
They have been rounded up by the BLM to be "cared" for -- not murdered because they have become "too expensive" to care for. Besides, they became "too expensive" because of the government got involved with them. Fact is, the BLM is the reason that the wild horse program is "too expensive" to maintain.
The BLM decided to round them up instead of allowing them to live out there natural life cycle where they belong, but Environmentalists wants them off public lands.
The intent behind this vote is to make it OK to simply kill the 45,000 wild horses. And yes, it is apparent that this is what the BLM sees as their final solution for America's Wild Horses.
And no, since the Federal government breaks the law every day these days, it doesn't matter to them that the wild horses are protected by an act of Congress. The hard truth behind the law protecting America's wild horses is that the law was made to protect them against the public -- but not the Federal Government in the form of the Bureau of Land Management. And yes, the BLM is the biggest threat to our wild horses.
And no, I still can't get past the idea that the BLM is supposed to be protecting them and not rounding them up for extermination which is exactly what they are doing. And by the way, the Obama administration's 2017 budget for the BLM directed them to slaughter and/or sterilize America's wild horses instead of spending what is needed.
Before someone writes to tell me that the wild horse program "needs Millions of dollars." The truth is that they only need Millions of dollars because BLM bureaucrats have created this expensive program. A program that doesn't work, but one that they keep dumping money in.
Now while I known that people who read my blog know full well that I have not been for any of the policies out of the Obama administration, there will be some who will surely say, "here he goes again!" But friends, this is the sort of mindless policy that has me at odds with Obama and those he puts in charge of agencies like the Bureau of Land Management.
First the BLM came up with the idea of rounding up our wild horses and putting them in an adoption program long before they even knew if there would be enough good people out there who could afford to keep a wild horse. That, my friends, is called putting the cart before the horse.
It was absurd to round up a bunch of horses with no idea if there would be people ready to adopt them -- that is other than killers who "adopt" wild horses to sell them for slaughter. And also, with the economy as bad as it is, there are people who may have the $125.00 to adopt -- but not the funds to house, feed, and care for a wild horse.
That's why a lot of wild horses become a burden after they're adopted by well-meaning people. These are wild horses and a lot more horse than must understand. Go to auctions and you will find them after the owner realizes that his or her adopted horse was more than he or she could handle. I've been there and seen them.
The adoption program has been a failure, but the BLM has rounded up all of these wild horses. So now the BLM is stuck with thousands of wild horses in waiting pens. Yes, "waiting pens." The pens that they were supposed to be in while waiting to be adopted are now pens used as while they wait to be executed.
So the adoption program hasn't worked, next thing the BLM has tried is to sterilize the wild mares. They started with the mares at the Burns BLM Facility in Oregon. And no, that hasn't worked so now the BLM just wants to kill them so that they will be within their budget for fiscal year 2017.
Remember that I said the Bureau of Land Management’s Budget Proposal for 2017 is the cause of their ability to slaughter 45,000 wild horses. Well, in the budget proposal, there is a clause that would remove the protection for wild horses and burros from being sent to slaughter.
Yes, it's another end-run by the Obama administration. Don't believe me? Well, here is Section 110 of President Obama's Interior Budget Request:
TRANSFER OF EXCESS ANIMALS
SEC. 110. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of the Interior may transfer excess wild horses or burros that have been removed from the public lands to other Federal, State, and local government agencies for use as work animals: Provided, That the Secretary may make any such transfer immediately upon request of such Federal, State, or local government agency: Provided further, That any excess animal transferred under this provision shall lose its status as a wild free-roaming horse or burro as defined in the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
You can look at the whole document here:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2017/assets/int.pdf
This extremely disturbing proposed change to the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act puts the vast majority of our wild horses at risk of being slaughtered by the BLM.
The BLM may say that this is to expedite the transfer of horses to other agencies that might have jobs for the horses, but in actual fact, stripping the protection of the Act from the horses makes them a target for slaughter, with no over site, and no responsibility taken by the BLM. Remember the 1794 wild horses sold under the sale Authority Act, without limitation, to Tom Davis that ended up at slaughter? The same thing is going on here.
Given that state and local authorities in many states have repeatedly called for the slaughter of wild horses in holding facilities, it is easy to see that once they remove the protection for wild horses and burros -- they will in fact be sold for slaughter. This nasty final solution, that is reminiscent of how the Nazis slaughtered the Jews, is the BLM's way of getting rid of what some in the BLM call their "Wild Horse problem".
Americans don't want the wild horses slaughtered. The vast majority would like to see wild horses remain wild and free on our public lands, and managed on the range, not rounded up with helicopters, warehoused in holding facilities, and secretly shipped off to slaughter by crooked BLM officials.
Yes, Americans would like to see wild horses and burros managed humanely, not experimented upon and sterilized and then slaughtered. And since wild horses are in only 12 percent of our public lands, and there are currently more wild horses that are captive in holding facilities than on the range, the actions of the BLM has been deceitful, dishonest, and designed specially to eliminate wild horses from public lands.
So why is the BLM doing this?
In short, Environmentalists, money, and corrupt politicians.
The Bureau of Land Management is under fire after deciding to slaughter 45,000 unadopted wild horses which they have been keeping in holding facilities across the Western Untied States. The wild horses were removed from their natural habitat by the BLM, but why?
Let me make something really clear, since the BLM has been at war with cattle ranchers for more years than most realize, I think it is a bullshit lie to say that the wild horses are being gathers off public lands so that ranchers can have more land to allow their cattle to graze on for profit. That makes absolutely no sense at all when considering how the BLM has been forcing privately-owned cattle producers off of public lands.
This is taking place because of Environmentalists and their money!
Environmentalists have long held that cattle and horses destroy the earth. They believe that they ruin the ground and eliminate the ability for plants to flourish.
Environmentalists say the threats wild horses pose to the environment are serious, with the grasslands they occupy covered with "biotic crusts" that hold desert soils down, preventing them from being blown away. They say wild horses "trample and pulverize this crust with their hooves, damaging the earth."
Friends, these are some of the same Environmentalists who want to eliminate cattle and horses but want to reintroduce bison to public lands. They refuse to acknowledge their contradictions in that bison and cattle are both bovine animals. And as for the wild horse, they have been in North America since the Spanish landed here in the 1500s. Yes, over 500 years ago.
What the Environmentalists don't say is how there were millions of bison, which of course are in the bovine family, here for thousands of years. And no, their hooves did not damage the earth. In fact, they refuse to admit that science have proven that their hooves help break that crust so that plants are able to flourish by getting pass the crust. So frankly, their argument of horses trample or pulverizing the earth is all just bullshit!
The hypocrisy of the Environmentalists is that they refuse to acknowledge that the manure of wild horses, like that of cattle, returns needed nutrients to the earth. They refuse to acknowledge that, and also that wild horses are essential to the ecosystems which they have become a part of.
Friends, Environmentalists only see is their own self interest. And sadly since they have lots of money and political clout in Washington DC, they are the reason that the Obama administration will ensure that the BLM does away with America's wild horses.
There are about 33,000 wild horses running free in the United States. There are approximately 45,000 in BLM holding pens. If the wild horses were people, then the mass extermination of the horses in those BLM
concentration camps holding pens would be considered genocide. But Environmentalists don't care that they want over have of the entire population of wild horses killed for their own self interest.
And frankly, Environmentalists will get their way simply because they own the Obama administration, the Democrat Party, and even a few Republicans. They will get their way and have those horses killed because they know that they can buy politicians who prostitute themselves for campaign donations.
Our only solution is to get those politicians out of office and replace them and these policies with people who will use some sanity when making policies. To couple that, another huge solution that should be applied, and I have no idea why it is not, is to make ALL policies regarding these herds in accordance with existing laws which are already in place that are meant to preserve America's wild herds. Work with the laws in place. Adhere to the legislation that has already been passed to protect the herds. By doing this, then maybe we can arrange things to keep the herds.
We cannot keep the herds safe as long we have Liberal politicians in office and positions of authority in federal agencies who are more concerned about filling their pockets with big money from Environmental groups that want to see the horses killed. That's the bottom line.
That's just the way I see it.
Tom Correa