Kathleen Parker, in her column in the June 28 Herald, regarding the slaughter of wild horses and burros, displays a common ignorance of the facts. Protecting mustangs and U.S. rangeland is an oxymoron. These feral equines are destroying the natural fauna and flora of our public lands. Humans introduced them to this environment and humans have the responsibility to remove as many as is needed to restore some balance to the ecosystem of our desert southwest. These feral equines live in a rangeland with too few predators. The overabundance of feral horses and burros in our desert southwest is causing an environmental crisis.
Parker implies the cattle-rancher lobby outguns the wild horse lobby. However, the cattle rancher lobby is outgunned by the environmental lobby. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) supervises leases of public land to cattle ranches. As a result of overgrazing and poor care of waterways in the past, public pressure has ensured the BLM carefully limit and regulate the range leases to cattle ranches. The BLM can control where cattle go; they cannot control where feral horses and burros go. The result is cattle leases are not allowed where there are significant feral equine numbers. The horses win by default.
Parker appeals to our sentimental attachment to horses and burros citing the inhumanity of death by slaughter. How about slow death by starvation of every herbivore in the overgrazed land. These equines are capable of eating grass to a shorter height than many of the herbivores that are legitimate wild residents of these lands. She should go look at the barren landscapes caused by overgrazing by feral equines.
Parker goes on to raise the specter of illegal slaughter of feral equines in Canada and Mexico. She tells about hoses being “crammed into double-deck trucks without water on a journey that may last as long as 24 hours.” No one can transport horses into Canada or Mexico without encountering a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector at designated border crossings. Try to cross with a truck full of horses anywhere else and you will be turned back. The inspector will have to be shown proof that these horses were off loaded for rest and water every six hours of their journey. Double-decker trucks for horses have been illegal for many years and each animal is required to have adequate space. They are not crammed in. The destination in Canada or Mexico must be a recognized inspected slaughter facility. Slaughterhouse workers need to handle the process in such a manner that the animals are quickly and humanely rendered senseless simply because that is safest for the workers.
What is her solution? Parker talks about tortured horses beyond earshot. But has she seen the out-of-sight wildlife and horses dying of starvation?
The U.S. government, primarily the BLM, has been working on solutions to this problem in a crisis mode for several years. They need our support and encouragement.
I am a conservationist of public lands and a part owner of a rescued Mustang whom we love. What are you?
Richard Guthrie
Snohomish
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
