Navigate

Quote

Horses - if God made anything more beautiful, he kept it for himself.
Author Unknown

The Ecosystem

How Wild Horses and Burros benefit the ecosystem

Both wild horses and burros complement the North American ecosystem by dispersing the intact seeds of many native plant species in their feces, and, in fact, have been deliberately reintroduced by ecologists to fulfill this much needed ecological purpose. They also aid greatly in the creation of humus and the building of soil, as well as enhance the food chain through contributing their Earthly remains to their predators (puma, black bear) and scavengers (corvid birds, vultures, hawks, rodents, wild dogs, bobcats, insects, etc.); and even, in the final case, to the fungi which decompose their remains and to the plants which absorb their nutrients through their roots. Livestock, on the other hand, are removed by humans for consumption, contributing little or nothing to the ecosystems they--through no fault of their own--despoil!

Wild horses and burros break ice during winter freezes, thus making accessible food and water for a variety of animals, including deer, bighorn, cats, wild dogs, rodents, rabbits, and birds, who would otherwise perish. Similarly, during summer months, they paw down to subterranean waters, thus making water accessible to many creatures who would otherwise perish.

WILD HORSES AND BURROS SPREAD THEIR GRAZING AND WATERING USE OVER A LARGE AREA, UNLIKE CATTLE, AND AID IN FIRE PREVENTION:

In spite of contrary claims, wild horses and burros are capable of leading a semi-nomadic lifestyle in the vast semi-arid reaches of the West. They may roam over a few to several hundred, even a thousand or more, square miles, depending on the lushness of vegetation and the availability of water and shelter. They do not camp on streams, rivers, lakes and springs, as do cattle and sheep, but judiciously disperse their takings over a much more extensive area then do these domesticated animals. Thus, in many grazing allotments where wild horses and burros are removed, purportedly to allow cattle and sheep to graze, in fact, the great majority of the land and forage in inaccessible to livestock, but would be accessible to the wild horses and burros. They would continue to survive in these areas without overgrazing them. This indicates the prejudiced scapegoating of wild horses and burros that goes on in order to perpetrate and perpetuate vested and exploitative, ecologically disharmonious livestock grazing on our public lands!

The wholesale removal of wild horses and burros allows dry fuel buildup and increases major fires. Wild horses and burros are much more capable of processing dry and course grasses and other vegetation without overtaxing their metabolism, when compared with ruminants (i.e. cattle) who must more thoroughly decompose every bite, which they ingest. In the Virginia Range of Nevada's Storey County, wild horses are valued by the citizens both for their beauty and for consuming dry, fire-prone vegetation whose combustion jeopardizes their homes. In the late 1950's, Storey County became the first government in the U.S. to pass a law protecting its wild horses, because it appreciated these free spirits and their many ecological services.

Under moderate temperatures, a wild horse band rotates its visit to a required water hole over a period of 3 to 4 days. When a band of seven or so wild horses visits a watering source, it is not to linger, but only to quickly drink, then return to its extensive upland territory. Wild horses and burros are also capable of taking advantage of remote and ephemeral water sources, which they smell in the air, and due to their greater mobility as compared with livestock. So after a summer cloudburst, they may be absent from their main watering source for several days.

THE FACTS ABOUT GRAZING ALLOTMENTS/CORPORATE WELFARE:

In the U.S., this assault on the natural freedom of wild horses and burros is largely due to a narrow public land grazing interest that is largely in the hands of the small , yet powerful, group of super rich and/or knee-jerk establishment, that favors the western ranching interests. The many benefits provided to the public and the public lands are rarely admitted to by public servants in the BLM and USFS, the two agencies charged by the Act with preserving our wild horse and burro herds. This is because they are staffed in large part by people who serve their own, often family, traditions of private livestock grazing on public lands (a form of welfare like crop subsidies have been recognized to be). The long history of both agencies has been to secure livestock monopoly on the public lands. Also, since the horse is not a game animal, they have little use for it in its own right--and prefer to collect hunting fees from hunters. It is plain that until our public servants learn to recognize and become genuinely committed to natural values of a wide variety, including diverse and intercomplementary species, or until people of this enlightened mind are appointed to positions of public trust over public lands, the profit-oriented interests will only continue to despoil the public lands ecosystem and to denigrate and eliminate the wild horses and burros, while propping up their own destructive, short sighted traditions of overgrazing.

The entrenched, wealthy corporate livestock interests believe they are entitled to exploit PUBLIC lands for their sole benefit and personal profit--and in the case of wild horses and burros, such entitlement, is in direct and deadly conflict with the existence of the public's animals! Few small "family owned" ranches rely on these lands for their livelihood. Given the opportunity, species such as the horse, which is not as far removed from the wild type as other domestic species, will revert within a few short generations to its free surviving mode of existence--and most importantly, they will stabilize at sustainable population levels--if given the chance.

On BLM lands, 5% of cattlemen (often rich, hobby ranchers, alias bankers and doctors) possessing over 500 cattle control 58% of all herbage allotted to livestock, 32% goes to ranchers with 100-499 animals, and 10% goes to the small rancher with less than 100 cattle. In spite of this inequity, the already "give-away" grazing permit of $1.81 per Animal Unit Month (AUM) (several times below fair market value) actually may only cost the permittees 90 cents or less, since more than half of their federal grazing fees are used for them to develop their ranches--in many cases by usurping water from wildlife and wild horses and burros, needed to maintain viable populations.

CASE IN POINT: The latter proved to be the case in the Diamond Range of eastern Nevada. Here in the summer of 1997 one of America's last viable herds of over 1,000 was reduced to a measly, non-viable 100 or so by the BLM. The excuse given by the Ely District BLM manager was that ranchers controlled the water and refused to share with the wild horses, in spite of the fact that their livestock graze BLM lands! Two illegally shot wild horses were discovered by biologist Craig Downer in the Diamonds, one with its left ear cut off, as if for claiming an illegal bounty offered years ago by a rancher in Central Nevada. Clearly the taxpayer is footing the bill for wild horse elimination; and the natural world, is paying the dreadful price of this foolish and entirely UNNECESSARY extravaganza!

Help Us

Quote

The Ecosystem

How Wild Horses and Burros benefit the ecosystem

WILD HORSES AND BURROS SPREAD THEIR GRAZING AND WATERING USE OVER A LARGE AREA, UNLIKE CATTLE, AND AID IN FIRE PREVENTION:

THE FACTS ABOUT GRAZING ALLOTMENTS/CORPORATE WELFARE: