Now that LOON got me stirred up about the BLM, their MISmanagement of the wild horses and buroos in the western states is a topic for discussion. In all fairness to the government agencies embroiled with the wild horses, it's my opinion that it's another case of uninformed, yet well meaning public outcry dictating some of the regulations the FEDS have to enforce.

A 1966 question of US Forest Service range management personnel for the truth about wild horses in Wyoming got me this answer. "Most of the horses in our area are some old worn out nags the ranchers don't have the heart to shoot so they turn 'em loose. Some of them are tough enough to survive and some even have new colts and we have a "herd of wild mustangs". The public sees them running loose out in the sagebrush and claim they're a national treasure that MUST BE PRESERVED."
"Some ranchers kept them around for the guides and outfitters who wanted them for bear bait. Actually, all they are is a drain on the rapidly diminishing habitat suitable for other wildlife and the cattle allowed to be grazed on public property."

Rusty's note: While it was still legal to harvest grizzlies in Wyoming in the early 1950s, my dad hunted in the corridor area between Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The guide would turn lose an old plug that looked too weak to live through the winter and let it graze out into an opening in a big meadow (some folks up there call a meadow a park). When the horse got to about the right distance from the blind the guide shot it and let it fall in its tracks. On moonlit nights the hunters would sit up in the blind and watch for the big bears. Dad's bunch never got a shot. It seemed the bruins knew when the men returned to camp because they'd eat up a horse carcass in about three nights without ever being seen.

In recent years, the Bureau of Land Management — BLM— has been rounding up these wild mustangs and burros and selling them to individuals for pets who have to sign a claim that they'll not sell them for slaughter. It seems I read where several "horse lovers" (including BLM employees who had bought these horses under assumed names), were charged with illegally selling the horses to slaughter houses.

The sad thing about this program, if my information is correct, it that its administration costs a whole lot more of our tax money than it returns, therefore is a big waste of money just to pamper some bleeding hearts.

What's your idea about this?