|
America’s
Disappearing Wild Horses
continued
from previous page
The
evolution of the horse began with its ancient four-toed ancestor,
Eohippus, meaning “dawn horse,” 50 million
years ago. This small animal was about the size of a fox and
made its home in swamplands, feeding off plant life. Eohippus
slowly evolved into Mesohippus, the size of an average
collie. Mesohippus had three toes and eventually became
an inhabitant of the prairie. Its shape changed in conformity
as its habitat changed: it grew taller, its teeth and middle
toe grew longer, the latter growing into a hoof. The evolution
continued until Equus caballus — the horse as
we know it today — was formed.
|
|
In most cases,
horses are being removed from the public rangeland because they are monetarily
valueless. One can easily adopt a wild horse for as little as $125 a head.
The taxpayer cost of removing the animal from the wild is $1,125. Cattle
ranchers pay a small grazing fee for each bovine on the range, but there
is only so much land to go around, only so much that can be “rented.”
Contrary to popular belief, wild horses are not destroying public lands
where they’re found amidst 6 million cattle and sheep—it’s
that no one pays to have them there. Or gets paid to keep them there.
In fact, a 1990 Government Accounting Office report showed that livestock
consumed 81 percent of Nevada’s forage in the four studied horse
areas.
Here’s
the catch: Under the Interior Department’s “multiple-use”
regulations, only so many cattle, so much wildlife, and so many horses
are allowed on federal lands. The wildlife is “paid for” by
the American people, and, some would argue, by hunters’ licensing
fees and hunter-run federal and state agencies. Cattle are “paid
for” by the meat industry: $1.35 per head per month to graze the
public domain. Horses, on the other hand, take up one “Animal Unit
Month” (AUM), but no one is paying their way. Each horse removed
from the West frees up another AUM for cattle or sheep or game antelope.
What about other forms of horse management,
like immunocontraception or birth control? Great idea, say some, but not
sound in practice. Where are you going to find the experts and the means
to administer such a program? It works in isolated instances, but to manage
the West’s horses with it? It’s cost-prohibitive, must be administered
yearly, and it’s a great plan in theory, but in reality it’s
just another sidetrack in the game.
Misfits
Among Us
It can be said that no other animal in human history has had the impact
on our lives as much as the horse. Millions have lost their lives in human
wars. They have been used to transport us and our belongings across continents,
to deliver our mail and network our civilizations, and they have plowed
the fields that feed us. In these modern times, the horse is an entertainer,
an athlete, an icon, and a friend—with more than 6 million of them
in the care of American horse “lovers.”
We have long celebrated the horse,
in art and mythology (the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the winged
Pegasus, the Centaur) and in literature and symbolism (we still measure
power in horses). But we have abandoned this animal of the plains. Though
we owe them civilization as we know it, we no longer hear the wind in
their wild ears; we cannot see the fire in their eyes. In return for the
sacrifices of their ancestors, we have done little else but annihilate
and degrade them. They are sonsofbitches. Shitters.
They are misfits.
And shame on us. Instead of demanding
that Congress enforce the existing law that protects these animals in
their homeland—a law brought about by the people, mind you—we
sit idly by and accept the government’s figures and its biased portrayal
of what is happening in the West. We prefer the taste of hamburger over
the image of wild and free-running horses. And we line up at auction yards
to adopt what are now fireless, broken-spirited wild ponies.
Top
of Page • Close
Window
|