Save the Horses: Largest wild herd in the country to be rounded up and sold

[Fireweed247]

Hi All, there is big trouble in Nevada! 1200 wild horses will be rounded up and sold and we all know that means slaughtered! ...the organizer, Lacy J. Dalton is leading the way & activating her friends to help....Willie Nelson has come aboard with this public service announcement. ..(psa).. ..call the Nevada Governor and urge him to intervene and save these horses! read the attachment, call the Governor today and contact me with any questions... forward to all of your friends...call or email me with any bright ideas to make this broad public issue...ie: radio, tv, celeb contacts to add their voices to this psa! and HURRY! Direct all help to me at this email....We can make a difference!

ALL wild horses are in danger of extinction, in all states of the union, if we don't herd together and help!

this is more than just a calamity...this is a travesty and a sin!


Folks,
This is Willie Nelson. We're in extreme danger of losing the largest wild
horse herd in the country. A precious part of our western heritage will be
gone forever unless you help right now.
The Nevada Department of Agriculture intends to quickly remove all 1200 of
these beautiful animals - the whole herd - and send them to the livestock
sale where they can be sold for slaughter.
Call Nevada Governor Gibbons right now and and urge him to intervene on
behalf of OUR wild horses. Call 775-684-5670
These magnificent horses depend on you.

__._,_.___

[FourScore]

1. Yhat purpose does it serve to get rid of these beautiful, wild animals?

Where are the animal rights activists?

This is sick.

I'll make the call but I wish I had more info.

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. When I lived next to BLM land out by the Carson River (Carson City)

These horses would come right into my yard...all so beautiful...mostly mares and colts/fillies...and curious about watching me as much as I was curious to watch them.

[kestrel91316]

3. They are an environmentally destructive, invasive non-native species.

Though the notion of mustangs running free is an attractive and romantic one, I am in support of their removal. The elk and deer have prior claim to the natural resources. YES, Nevada has elk, even out in remote White Pine County (my ancestral home).

It should be done humanely, and they should not be shipped for slaughter but allowed to live out their lives in human custody.

I wanted to add that Nevada is my home state and though I have never lived there as an adult, I am very attached to it. Ecosystem health and restoration is a critical issue in the Great Basin, and removal of the horses is one step in that process. Now if they could just get rid of the damned cheatgrass.......sigh. Nevada's ecosystems are so fragile and so close to the brink that they need all the help they can get.

[sandnsea]

6. What about the cattle?

This isn't about the elk and the deer, it's about ranchers and their cattle who would have the elk and the deer removed too, if they could. Just like they're shooting the wolves again.

[dysfunctional press]

30. the cattle aren't wild.

nt

[demodonkey]

10. So are human beings. Especially in a desert.

If you are a native of Nevada and so concerned about the environment as to want to slaughter horses (because that is what WILL be done with them), I am sure you are working hard every day to see that Las Vegas is torn down and the desert there is returned to its natural, fragile ecosystem?

[bklyncowgirl]

11. Technically speaking horses are a reintroduced species

The modern horse evolved in North America. It died out on this continent at around the time humans entered the picture along with several other large species. Whether it was overhunting by humans that disrupted the population or disease that killed them off is not known. Horses were heavily hunted in Asia and Europe too during the Ice Age but the populations there survived.

As a horse lover I hate the idea of removing these animals and sending them to slaughter. I also doubt very much if horses are competing so much with deer and elk as much as they are competing with cattle whose owners want them gone.

There must be a way of managing the herds and limiting population growth or humanely culling the herd so that at least some mustangs can continue to live in the wild. I don't see life in a BLM corral as a great substitute.

[TransitJohn]

12. Yeah

evolved in North America tens of millions of years ago....:wtf:

[bklyncowgirl]

13. I wonder if there's a statute of limitation on reintroduction.

In Australia horses are clearly a non-native species. So are rabbits, dogs, cats, etc. In America it's a somewhat different story.

The buffalo was reintroduced in many areas as were wolves (very controversial) and several other species but these were recent local extinctions. When you reintroduce a species that died off in an area millions of years ago is it a reintroduction or bringin in a non-native species.

I don't know.

[TransitJohn]

14. Well lets get more recent then

and reintroduce woolly mammoths and sabre-tooth tigers, hell, even giant ground sloths, they were all here in North America only a few tens of thousands of years ago.

[Solon]

26. That wouldn't be a bad idea, if humans could reintroduce them properly...

Many of the Megafauna that became extinct during the past 10,000 years in North America had no other animals to fill their niches(except Humans), most of them were either large grazers, such as the Wooly Mammoth, or large land predators, namely the Sabre-Tooth Cat(its not a Tiger), and the North American Lion. The only major natural predators left are Wolves and Mountain Lions.

Oh, and apparently there is enough surviving DNA from extinct specimens of each of these species to at least study the possibility of reintroducing them into existing ecosystems. Understand that some ecosystems, such as the Great Plains, have no large predators of Bison, they are simply missing, and that niche hasn't been filled in yet, so bringing back some extinct species, where possible, may help in managing the herds and populations of many other wild animals. The ecosystems of North America still haven't recovered from the first human migration here, over 10,000 years ago. Its simply been too soon for evolution to fill in the niches left behind.

[XemaSab]

21. Word.

:thumbsup:

[Fireweed247]

4. I recieved this in an email

but I just found this short article about it, sounds like they might be listening...

County singers team up to preserve wild horse herd in Nevada

Associated Press - April 17, 2008 8:45 PM ET

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Country singer Willie Nelson has joined in a fight to preserve a wild horse herd roaming mountains near the old Nevada mining town of Virginia City - and Gov. Jim Gibbons is getting a lot of calls as a result.

Gibbons press secretary Ben Kieckhefer, asked about a message from Nelson aired on his XM radio show, "Willie's Place," urging calls to the governor, said dozens of people concerned about the horses have phoned from around the country.

Singer-songwriter Lacy J. Dalton, who lives near Virginia City, asked Nelson to help stop what she and other wild horse advocates saw as a move by the Nevada Agriculture Department to round up a herd of about 1,200 horses for eventual livestock sales - where they could be sold for slaughter.

Kieckhefer said Tony Lesperance, head of the Agriculture Department, is working on a management plan for the horses in the Virginia Range, but added it will be several months before anything happens - and public concerns will be incorporated into that plan.

[DesertRat]

5. Off to the greatest page! K&R

[World Traveller]

7. Contacting World Wildlife Fund also on Monday

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Sent e-mail to Governor, Will call on Monday.

I've travelled the back roads of Kenya, where the wildlife (elephants, giraffes, zebras, lions, etc.) can be equally annoying to the local farmers and cow herders, where wildlife competes for food with the very poor locals. Yet the West expects African nations to preserve their wildlife by setting aside national parks and patrolling these preserves to protect the wildlife.

Yet in this rich nation where our basic needs are met, our government is not willing to do the same? It's a disgrace. I hope Willie Nelson and Lacy Dalton are successful.

I will also contact World Wildlife Fund (I'm a member) on Monday.

[XemaSab]

22. Horses are not wildlife

They are an introduced species in North America, and arguably should be given the same protection afforded to starlings and house sparrows: none.

[Voice for Peace]

8. wild horses

I don't know if you have seen a wild horse. A wild horse has a spirit about it. True, it's not ride-able, but it has a spirit about it. And it runs, but not for you, and it stops, but not for you. Its mane flows in the wind, but not for you. Maybe nobody has come to that horse and told him, "You are so pretty, you are so beautiful." But it knows anyway.

And it bucks and it kicks, and it's free. Then human beings come and they take that horse and the first thing they have to do is to break its spirit. And yes, he trots and he walks, and his mane still flows in the wind, but his spirit is not there.

Every human being on the face of the earth is born free and runs free like that wild horse, and then everybody else and everything else tries to break that spirit. And, you know, the horse, won't let anybody ride him, no way. It bucks and kicks and bucks and kicks till its spirit is broken, and once the spirit is broken it has no problem.

It stands there, somebody throws a saddle on its back, gets on top and the horse obeys the commands. Maybe one of the reasons a master is never understood properly by the world is because he takes this horse back to the wild and tries to mend the broken spirit, so that it will dance, it will walk, and it will run again, as this beautiful creature was meant to do.


Edited excerpt, Maharaji in Amaroo, 27 April 2001
http://www.tprf.org

[Fireweed247]

16. wow, thank you for that

That was beautiful. Maybe that is why horses are so special, they remind us of a time when we were free. In today's society, they break our spirits at a very early age.

[XemaSab]

23. Yeah, and I picked up a wild gopher once and it bit the shit out of my finger

Wild horses are not a native species. Yeah, they have a spirit about them, but so do feral cats.

[Voice for Peace]

36. LOL you shouldn't go round picking up wild gophers

[XemaSab]

37. Dude, I learned my lesson.

As if the tetanus shot wasn't enough, the trip to the public health department to have the thing checked for rabies didn't go over well with my boss at all. And the FORMS... :cry:

The only person happy about the whole thing was the tech at Madera County public health who got to section its brain and check for Negri bodies. :P

[liberalla]

9. Time to act! Please everyone, add your voice to this cause.

Thank you!

[shrike]

15. Unintended consequences

The American Horse Slaughter Act brought horse slaughter to a temporary halt last year, though I don't know if this measure is permanent.

This action coincided with a dramatic rise in feed and hay prices; someone told me the cost of a bale of hay the other day and I was shocked. My step-daughter, who has horses, tells me people are giving them away. They are bringing them to swap meets. My sister and BIL, who sell and train horses professionally, tell me the bottom has fallen out of that market, and not just because of the general state of the economy.

Another problem: if you can't send a horse to a slaughterhouse, you have to euthanize them yourself. Not as easy as it sounds: you have to have access to a backhoe and a place to bury them. It's not like burying Spot in the backyard.

Too bad, you say? Well, the problem is, if people want to rid themselves of unwanted animals they'll do it, one way or another. They just have to get creative. My sis tells me there've been reports of of horses running wild in a Kentucky state park. (She's a reliable source, btw.) Someone takes Old Paint for one last ride, then sets him loose. A domestic horse is not equipped to take care of itself in the wild. Plus, these are populated areas. Just think what'll happen if Old Paint steps in the road, and you hit him. He won't be so beautiful and wild and free then.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, I guess. The wild horse round-up in the west is probably economically driven: are they competing with someone's cattle. If they wanted to euthanize them, they do so without sending them to a slaughterhouse. Just get enough heavy equipment, and you're there.

[ZombieHorde]

17. Is a horses life more precious than a cows life?

I don't think so. Cow meat = horse meat (ethically speaking).

[Duppers]

28. nuts!!! nuts!!!! nuts!!!

I grew up on a farm, spent 12 yrs. there, and I knew and loved both species of animals very well. And I must tell you that our sweet mooers did not have the brains that my horse had.

I don't want to see either one slaughtered, starved, or abused, but IF I HAD to make a 'Sophie's choice', I chose a horse to save. It's not just a cultural thing either.

[ZombieHorde]

34. I understand not wanting to eat an animal that you love.

I would not want to eat a dog, since I love dogs so much. I do not think that it is unethical to eat dogs.

I do eat pigs though, and pigs are pretty smart.

[Greyhound]

18. K & R

:kick: & R

[Patchuli]

19. Kicked, Rec'd & Governor Contacted!

Screw the cattle ranchers! The mustang must run free!

[XemaSab]

20. They're not a native species

Why should they continue to degrade native habitats? :shrug:

[Solon]

27. As someone pointed out above, that's not a settled issue...

Native North American horses died out about 10,000 years ago, and it could be argued that the niche they had in the ecosystems of North America were never filled in again until horses from Europe were introduced, thousands of years later. Besides that, if allowing horses to go free degrades the habitats of other animals, what are the effects of allowing cattle to graze in the West? They are a truly non-native species, after all.

[D23MIURG23]

24. K&R

[and-justice-for-all]

25. This is deplorable and barbaric madness...

and the point of killing these free roaming wild horses is.....? POINTLESS!

[LWolf]

29. Unfortunately, wild herds have to be "managed"

to keep population numbers down to sustainable numbers. That's why the blm rounds a certain number up to auction off every year. I support this kind of management.

People who haven't lived with horses see beauty when they see the mustang. I've lived with a mustang, and many other horses, and I see something else.

I grew up with my scrubby little mustang. She wasn't "beautiful" by anyone's standards but mine. She was small, sturdy, and the most reliable horse I've ever experienced, before or since. I was lucky to have her "babysitting" me when I was growing up. She got me out of more scrapes out on the trail than I care to remember.

I didn't have to catch her; she met me at the gate when she saw me coming. I could ride her with absolutely nothing, no saddle, bridle, halter, or other restraining device, and often did. If I wanted to swim in the lake, she'd take me swimming. If I wanted to climb to the top of a really steep ridge, all I had to do was hang on. She'd find a way up, and then find a way down. If I did something stupid and fell off (a frequent occurrence,) she'd wait patiently by my side for me to get up, brush myself off, and get on again. If I wanted to jump over something, she'd take me. I used to put a board over two big barrels and jump it for fun. I didn't realize at the time that a 4 foot jump was a big deal for a little horse.

That little mustang was smarter, sounder, and more feed-efficient than the modern horse. Her hoofs never chipped or cracked; never needed shoes. She was never lame.

These days, I sometimes think the best thing we could do for some of our over-bred modern breeds would be to infuse a little mustang blood back into them. My two mares, mother and daughter, out in the barn now, had a mustang grandsire and great grandsire.

Meanwhile, let's manage the herds, not eliminate them. They are some of the best horses we've got.

[Autumn]

31. I adopted a colt from the BLM

he is the most awesome,smartest little guy I have ever had. Not an ounce of vice in him. I agree with infusing mustang blood. We also have three arabians, but I much prefer my boy to them.

[LWolf]

32. You got that right.

I think it's my early mustang conditioning; I've never been an Arab fan. I understand their strengths and what attracts people. I just prefer a more sensible attitude from my horses, lol. When I lived in CA, I rode with a bunch of endurance riders (on arabs.) I didn't ride endurance races, although they kept trying to convince me to enter with my mustang/quarter/tb cross mare. They just liked doing training rides with me. My mare has the fastest "running walk" I've ever seen. I could walk out for 15 miles, and they'd have to trot out to keep up.

My current two mares are mustang/quarter/tb crosses. My fil, who bred the senior mare, was fond of tb studs. I'm trying to dilute the tb back out of the line, as I don't need that kind of "heat." The senior mare is expecting a foal from a foundation qh stud next month; should I still be kicking another generation down the road, I'll add some mustang back in. This state has a healthy, thriving population of mustangs, including several Kiger studs standing.

[liberalla]

33. kick

[slackmaster]

35. They aren't wild animals, they're feral

North American native horses have been extinct for a very long time.

[liberalla]

38. kick again!

Call Nevada Governor Gibbons right now and and urge him to intervene on
behalf of OUR wild horses. Call 775-684-5670
:kick: