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Ken Salazar, Department of the Interior photo/ Tami A. Heilimann DOI
Secretary Ken Salazar, U.S. Department of the interior, reached out for public support in the L.A. Times yesterday. His opinion article, At Home on the Range, laid out his thoughts on the history of wild horses in America then continued with a message intended to defend current wild horse and burro policy against a growing outcry from animal rights organizations.
As Secretary of the Interior, Salazar oversees eight major federal bureaus including the often maligned Bureau of Land Management, the agency mandated by Congress to preserve and protect the wild herds. Within months of his appointment by President Obama early last year, Salazar announced a plan to create non-producing herds on lands in the east and mid-west, stocking those from the over 30,000 wild horses currently in BLM holding facilities. Gelded herds are to be created on their existing ranges along with an escalation of birth control procedures for mares and the accelerated removal of horses currently living on western rangelands.
We must elevate the stature and care of wild horse herds that will sustainably live on Western ranges for generations to come. As Interior secretary, I am examining ways we can better showcase special herds in signature areas of the West to provide eco-tourism opportunities and provide them greater protection." says Salazar
Animal rights organizations view the current policy in a different light. Thousands of wild horse supporters are taking to the streets in protest, flooding the White House with phone calls and signing petitions demanding a moratorium on all wild horse roundups until Congress can craft a better plan.
The Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA), an umbrella organization with over 90 member organizations, issued a press release in response to the L.A. Times Article which states in part,
Today, it is the DOI on Salazar's watch that is entrusted to protect the wild herds but instead, is now the driving force managing the wild herds to the verge of extinction. Why? Because Salazar's rancher friends need more land to graze their 7.5 million cattle which now have to compete with only 30,000 wild horses."
EWA's response also speaks of concerns recently raised over the Ruby Pipeline, a natural gas transmission line scheduled to run through wild horse ranges. The California Heliostat Project will do the same. BLM and DOI officials have yet to publicly address either of these projects and their impact on wild horses.
To date, the Salazar article has received 61 comments - all negative. He does make one statement on which both sides can agree:
"The current situation is unsustainable."
Comments
I have a hard time believing that Mr. Salazar is sincere. If he is so concerned about ecotourism why is he zeroing out the very herds showcased in the Nevada Tourism Commission's "Wild Horse Adventure" campaign?
"Showcase herds," releasing geldings, etc. are ideas that have been talked about for years, usually when the horse issue gets hot. BLM almost never follows through. But then Mr. Salazar has been dishonest from the get-go, misrepresenting horse population figures.
Mr. Salazar comes from a cattle background. He should stick to stuff he knows about - cows. If his proposed "reserves" are so wonderful, he should move all the cows to the new "Sala-zoos." It would probably make more financial sense than stripping horses from the range.
We'd all be better off if BLM and DOI would just 'fess up, admit that their program is a mess, start again from scratch and utilize resources already paid for by the taxpayers before starting new boondoggles.
Meanwhile, the struggle goes on to protect wild horse and burro herds all over the West. We are leading a fight to raise public awareness, focusing attention on BLM’s extraordinary mismanagement of our horses and burros at the expense of not only the animals, but the American taxpayers. A staggering 12,000 wild horses and burros are to be rounded up in 2010. With your continued support we will keep fighting for their right to remain where they belong—in their homes, with their families on our wide western landscapes.
As Sec Salazar is oblivious to our protests, maybe we will be heard in the next election for Congress------this seems to be the only way for the Horse to speak! If only he was elected,not appointed!
The two things that get to me the most are - 1. Salazar and all the BLM guys always imply that we're asking for a permanent halt to all roundups. Well, of course that wouldn't work! All we ask is a moratorium. Maybe they don't know what that word means. 2. They paint us as wild eyed PETA-ites who want ALL animals untouched by human hands. I don't actually KNOW of any one of us who is radical. What we're asking for certainly isn't "radical"!
Why, in his plan, does Salazar not say that this would only be temporary as all the horses would evenually die and then the wild horse problem will be no more. Does he really think that we don't see how this plan of non-reproducting animals will mean there will be no more and they will die off in about 30 years. This is not the solution we were thinking of. They should remove the cattle and take down the fences so the horses could roam and then they would have enough room and not starve to death. And then they could bring back the mountain lions and wolves the way nature is suppose to work. The welfare ranchers and their cattle are the real trouble.
Re:Wild horses: How do you manage a myth? 4 Minutes ago
Unknowing magical living with human race/Sacred Mustang Clan
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"...agency mandated by Congress to preserve and protect the wild herds." Sad that the word "mandated" is included, yet protecting the wild herds is not being done by this man. It is ludacris to me that this man was appointed, seeing as he is abviously more concerned with his cattle-grazing friends having the wild horses' land to graze on while the horses are considered either starving, which I can honestly say is a lie since I have witnessed very healthy looking horses in holding pens after their after capture. All of the grazing for the overabundance of cattle is a serious issue that Salazar is encouraging, not fixing. Too bad the horses had no say in the appointment of Salazar, I guarantee they would have chosen someone who gives a damn about them.
Its to bad Mr. Salazar is allowed to desimate the Mustang in the name of the people. This is not what I want. No one is listening. I write, I call, and the horse is loosing. When they are gone they will be gone forever.
Mr.Salazar says the horses can't survive with out intervention. If we stopped taking their land, and access to water away they would do just fine.
Salazar should resign over this mustang mess. He has obvious politcal/financial links and/or associations to the profitable cattle industry. The plan is to zero out viable mustang herds and move "showcase herds" to states out of their native ranges like in Calico Hills, in the NW part of Nevada. Such false promises of ecotourism do not make sense; why would you move wild horses from a state like Nevada to some other state in the midwest when you already have the animals on their ancestral rangeland? Keep the horses in Nevada and promote ecotourism there! And why is Salazar pushing his case in LA when there are no wild horses there? We used to have some wild horses out in Death Valley and burros there too, but those have been pretty much already zeroed out and come to an end. Unless the public fights for the wild horses and burros, these American Heritage Species as they were so designated by a unanmous vote of Congress back in 1971 will come to an end. We the must save them.
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