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The horse helped man settle the West, but now it is killing the West.

That’s what wildlife experts and rangeland ecologists say.

Nearly 90,000 wild horses and burros roam in 10 Western states where government range watchers say there should be just under 27,000, and the horses are multiplying quickly.

On average, horse populations grow 15% to 20% every year in the wild, and left unchecked, the population across rangelands will double every four to five years, experts predict. The estimate of horses on the range does not include this year’s foal crop, which is likely between 14,000 and 18,000 animals.

“Wild horses are the most wicked natural resource problem facing the West.”

That’s according to Terry Messmer, a wildlife range specialist at Utah State University and director of the Jack H. Berryman Institute for Human Wildlife Conflict Management.

“But this is not the Bureau of Land Management’s problem,” he said. “This is society’s problem.”

I worked with horses, or horseback, my entire adult life. I truly love horses, but I also love the open spaces of the West and the emotionalism surrounding wild horse management threatens the horses, the health of rangelands, and the budgets of land management agencies, and the problem of the overpopulation of wild horses is not going to go away.

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We have some rangelands in the American West that are so degraded today they will never recover,” William Perry Pendley, the BLM’s Deputy Director of Programs said. “What I am being told is there is no amount of money, there is no amount of time, there is no amount of good science that we can throw at this issue that will return these lands to a healthy status. That is a terrible place to find ourselves. We simply cannot allow it to continue.”

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I’ve become angry, confused and disillusioned ... because the horse has risen to the level of deity on the range and is not considered livestock by many groups,” said Terry Messmer. “Everybody shares the blame. As concerned as the activists are, we are not thinking about the long-term welfare of the animals. The consequences in the future may be more untenable and more distasteful than doing something progressive now.

My education and profession for most of my career was Rangeland Management and Ecology. I spent a lot of my life doing my best to provide good stewardship of the public rangelands and forests in my charge. So little public land management is scientific; politics and the judiciary screams direction from Washington and federal courts. I have no hope that the issue of overpopulation of wild horses will be addressed with any level of sanity. Yes, I support allowing for the slaughter (simply meaning killing and processing the animal) as a more humane outcome than warehousing horses in BLM “adoption” facilities.

Lot’s more to this story here, including a pretty balanced presentation, and links to other features.
Deseret News—Crisis in the West

Horse meat is supposed to be pretty good and very lean- I think the American aversion to eating them is due to their close ties with us settling most of the country.

Taco Bell was ahead of their time.

https://www.businessinsider.co...t-ground-beef-2013-3

I've had horse meat in France. it is tasty. had horse meat sushi as well in Tokyo. they are beautiful animals- yes, but so are elk, deer, moose(ok- not really) and any other game animal.

This is no different than the animal rights nazis forcing the shutdown of American slaughterhouses a number of years ago to "save the horse". All it did was result in many horses starving to death with owners who could no longer afford to feed and care for them, or them being shipped off to Mexican slaughterhouses which are far less humane than anything regulated in the US.

I spent my youth around horses and will always have a special place in my heart for them. That said, there is only so much habitat available for wild horses, and if they're not properly managed, much like wolves, deer, and other species, they'll destroy not only the habitat, but themselves as well. The choice is simple. Either have a well managed, healthy, wild horse population and habitat, or let them continue to overpopulate and both the habitat and the horses will suffer for it.

Perhaps someone can explain why this is a crisis, but I’m not getting it. While there are no accurate surveys, the majority of estimates as to the number of bison living in the West prior to its settlement range from millions to tens of millions. Not sure, but I suspect the typical bison eats more than the typical horse, so why is the land in such trouble from 90,000 horses when it was able to survive many millions of bison for years until they were hunted to near extinction? To state a cliche, this does not compute.

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Originally posted by tsmccull:
Perhaps someone can explain why this is a crisis, but I’m not getting it. While there are no accurate surveys, the majority of estimates as to the number of bison living in the West prior to its settlement range from millions to tens of millions. Not sure, but I suspect the typical bison eats more than the typical horse, so why is the land in such trouble from 90,000 horses when it was able to survive many millions of bison for years until they were hunted to near extinction? To state a cliche, this does not compute.

Let’s start here. Did you read ANY of the linked material?

Sounds like the western states better get their shit together.

California will need most of those horses for transportation soon.

Well if wishes were horses we'd all be eating steak.

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Originally posted by gearhounds:
Horse meat is supposed to be pretty good and very lean- I think the American aversion to eating them is due to their close ties with us settling most of the country.

this is true!

And I can just hear the screams of outrage if/when the culling begins!

What is the difference between culling wild pigs and wild horses? Simply put, emotion.

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Originally posted by bigdeal:
This is no different than the animal rights nazis forcing the shutdown of American slaughterhouses a number of years ago to "save the horse". All it did was result in many horses starving to death with owners who could no longer afford to feed and care for them, or them being shipped off to Mexican slaughterhouses which are far less humane than anything regulated in the US.

I spent my youth around horses and will always have a special place in my heart for them. That said, there is only so much habitat available for wild horses, and if they're not properly managed, much like wolves, deer, and other species, they'll destroy not only the habitat, but themselves as well. The choice is simple. Either have a well managed, healthy, wild horse population and habitat, or let them continue to overpopulate and both the habitat and the horses will suffer for it.

Well, I guess we could wait until a plague comes around and kills them by the 1000s, and a lot less kindly than controlled harvesting. I love horses. Rode a lot when I was younger. But, it seems to me that a quick death is preferable to slow agonizing death from disease or starvation.

Make these "animal rights knotheads go out there and witness and help clean up what is left of the diseased and rotten carcasses.

Maybe we can draft them to go out and help clean up the dead horses

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Originally posted by Mr.9mm:
California will need most of those horses for transportation soon.

Oh God.

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Originally posted by Elk Hunter:...
Well, I guess we could wait until a plague comes around and kills them by the 1000s, and a lot less kindly than controlled harvesting. I love horses. Rode a lot when I was younger. But, it seems to me that a quick death is preferable to slow agonizing death from disease or starvation.

And the possibility of equine specific diseases mutating spreading to domestic horses.

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Originally posted by sigmonkey:

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Originally posted by Elk Hunter:...
Well, I guess we could wait until a plague comes around and kills them by the 1000s, and a lot less kindly than controlled harvesting. I love horses. Rode a lot when I was younger. But, it seems to me that a quick death is preferable to slow agonizing death from disease or starvation.

And the possibility of equine specific diseases mutating spreading to domestic horses.

Don't know that diseases would have to mutate to spread from the wild horses to farm animals, pet horses, etc.

Someone mentioned the buffalo.

Well for starters those herds never quit moving (accept to sleep). They ate as they moved across the prairies. Anyone else seen the films of buffalo being harvested in recent years? It happens when the count exceeds the range's ability to support them.

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Originally posted by tsmccull:
Perhaps someone can explain why this is a crisis, but I’m not getting it. While there are no accurate surveys, the majority of estimates as to the number of bison living in the West prior to its settlement range from millions to tens of millions. Not sure, but I suspect the typical bison eats more than the typical horse, so why is the land in such trouble from 90,000 horses when it was able to survive many millions of bison for years until they were hunted to near extinction? To state a cliche, this does not compute.

Could it have anything to do with the development of civilization in the former territory of the buffalo?

Fences, cities, suburbs, golf courses, farms, etc...there is very little unfenced open space left, and what’s left is the less desirable, poorly watered country that can’t support a concentration of animals unable to move freely in search of good grazing and water.

Good response Arfmel, an estimate of the number of bison that once roamed North America has been put at 60,000,000 by more than one source. Using 1800 as a reference point, bison range covered somewhere between 2/3 - 3/4 of the United States, extended up through the prairie provinces of Canada and into eastern Alaska. In the south, the bison range extended into northern Mexico. There were actually two species: the plains bison and the woodlands bison. Over the course of a year the great herds traveled hundreds of miles with the changing seasons, and as Arfmel stated, chasing grass and water. Unlike permitted livestock, these wild horses range across a limited area—24/7, 365 days/year.

If there is no law against hunting them, then have at it or round them up and sell them to a country that wants them...China for example.

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Originally posted by jcsabolt2:
If there is no law against hunting them, then have at it or round them up and sell them to a country that wants them...China for example.

Yeah, there are laws. Lots of laws.