Washington Plans Mass Slaughter of America's Mustangs

[babylonsister]

Washington Plans Mass Slaughter of America's Mustangs
Pressure from cattle-ranching industry could lead to more than 30,000 horses being 'culled'

by Guy Adams in Los Angeles


Wild mustangs, those quintessential symbols of the American West for hundreds of years, are facing their most deadly predator yet: the pen-pushing civil servants of the US Bureau of Land Management.


Washington Plans Mass Slaughter of America's Wild Mustangs

Growing pressure on the horses' traditional habitat has left officials contemplating a program of mass slaughter to reduce the number of mustangs held captive in government-run pens. More than 33,000 of the animals, almost as many as the number still in the wild, have been rounded up and taken off increasingly barren public land in recent years, to reduce pressure on grazing required by the cattle-ranching industry.

But the increasing cost of keeping them fed and watered has left the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) contemplating a program of what it calls "euthanasia" - sending healthy horses to slaughterhouses where they are likely to be turned into steak for export to France.

The proposal sparked outrage from conservationists when it was outlined in a recent Government Accountability Office report, with welfare groups accusing the BLM of holding an unnecessarily high number of mustangs in captivity in order to appease the politically powerful ranching lobby.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/11/30-2

[Luna Lovegood]

1. Thank God for Madeleine Pickins!

I hope her dream becomes reality, I'd love to be able to go camp out there.

So, how do the mustangs threaten the ranchers' cattle?

[SharonAnn]

11. The eat the grass so there's not sufficient grazing available for cattle.

[mckara]

2. How Can These Actions Be Halted?

n/t

[Deja Q]

9. OMG, a question!

So far, nobody's answered. Bit of a shame; I too am curious.

[flvegan]

3. Gotta have our burgers, dontchaknow.

[malta blue]

4. Steak for export to France?

:puke:

[TomInTib]

5. Let BLM charge snowmachiners $250 to enter public lands and parks.

Or maybe some of us with Nothing Left to Lose could go hunt the Horse Hunters.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. I had read that T.Boone Pickens' wife was involved in saving these magnificent creatures.

[defendandprotect]

7. How have we let these violent, insane people stay in office-?? Where are we--??

[StarryNite]

8. Where is Billy Jack

when we need him?

[lennytee]

12. FYI...

http://www.billyjack.com/

[LWolf]

10. K & R

From a mustang lover who has 3 descendants of a mustang "adopted" in 1945 out in the barn.

[redstate_democrat]

13. OMG this is insane.

[Kalyke]

14. The reason I started driving Mustangs in because I alwasy wanted the real thing.

A girlhood love of Misty of Chincoteague - Stormy and Assateague Island. Petting the wild horses on the beach, at 6 years old. Those horses running away when the adults came. Training horses at six becasue the loved me and I loved them so much I was never bucked or harmed. Riding bareback with a stick to touch, ever-so-slightly, on the neck to signal which way I wanted to trot. Rescuing Tennessee Walking Horses at 13.

These horses need to be saved.