What's your opinion about wild horses?

Question

i just watched the documentaries "Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies" and "Cloud's Legacy: the Wild Stallion Returns" so i'm on a bit of a wild horse mania ;P. from watching the movie, i am very much against the idea of rounding up wild horses to keep the populations low, but i would like to know how others feel about it. but i do like the idea of really kind horse people buying the horses that have been rounded up and giving them a good home. so what's your opinion about wild horses? let them all be free or keep the populations low?

Answer 1

I watched all of the Cloud episodes. It is unfortunate that some horses are injured or killed in the roundups. It is the dark side of handling the wild horse population. If they are left alone, they will overpopulate the range. This is happening with elk in Rocky Mountain National Park. If this happens, it will be damaging to all wild horses and other wild life. I don't see any other alternative to what is being done. In the Cloud series some mares had been shot with birth control darts and that seems to be working. I love wild horses and am glad that some still roam the West. I don't want to see them disappear. There has to be a balance, As bad as the roundups are, it is a necessary evil.

Answer 2

Wow, almost everyone here is talking like wild mustangs breed like rabbits. If people would leave nature of all kinds alone they would work themselves out. The reason that most grazing animal populations are over crowded is because people, the most invasive species on earth, have pretty much wiped out their predators. I have seen wild predators take down wild horses so I know that they are capable. Thankfully predators like the wolf and cougar are making a comeback and spreading across North America. If given a chance they would regulate the ecosystem a little better Until then, being as we as humans caused the problem, I guess it's our responsibility to look after it.



By the way, bison are really not a native species either. They are descendants of a prehistoric animal that crossed over the Bering Strait. Also, I'm not against killing any kind of animal for food as long as its done in a humane way.

Answer 3

The probably with this question is that you have to keep the populations low. If they get out of control, the entire population suffers from lack of food and space, etc. So, just like with deer, fish, and any other wild animal, the populations have to be controlled so that the entire ecosystem does not suffer. This is especially true because wild horses in the US are just decedents of domesticated horses brought over by the spanish in the mid fifteen hundreds and sixteen hundreds. We have the responsibility to take care of this.



The means of this control is the debate. Do we shoot the horses like we do deer? Not likely because we don't see horses as a source of food. Humans as a species is too connected to horses to do such a thing (I personally could never do it). Therefore, we have to take the individuals out of the population--rounding up. This is a problem too because what do you do with the horses? Though horses themselves can be cheap to buy, they are not cheap to maintain. Therefore, not every horse, probably not even half will be sold. That's where wild horses are put down and used for whatever purpose (like their meat being used in dog food, for instance).



I think it is important to control the horse populations because their overpopulation can effect not just them, but the other animals in the ecosystem as well. However, we need to find a solution to the problem of what to do with the horses once they are removed from their herd. Can we relocate them into a new herd? Make adaption free or help out with the first years of owning one? There isn't just the animals to take care of, but the economics--making affordability, etc--the affects the horses can have on different communities if they are relocated. There's just a lot of problems with the whole ordeal. It's not even really anyone's fault. It's just a mess.



This is my opinion really, and I'm not just bsing it either. These are the same kind of issues people have had to consider with plenty of wild animals. It's just far more complicated because it's horses. Like I said, not many people are willing to eat them like they are deer.

Answer 4

Did you know that we the taxpayers have been paying over $30,0000 That is Million anually to feed BLM horses that are old or unadoptable to be kept in feedlots!! While we have children going to bed hungry right here in the U.S.\



In my opinion that an agregus waste of money! I am a horse owner and lover but that is rediculous!!

Since the no slaughter meat horses here are 7 to 10 cents a pound!!



If horses must be put down, I would rather know they were fed to something or someone than fed to maggots.



My daughter has a girl apprentice training with her from Canada and she said horse meat is very good and she has no bad feelings about eating it.

Answer 5

My opinion is that they are invasive species that have won public favor, but invasive species none the less. Pigs were released by settlers too, but they are hunt down and shot, not given sanctuary- And pigs are a lot smarter than horses, as scientific studies have proven again and again. I've yet to see a mustang that is more talented and accomplished than a well-bred competition horse, and many of them are conformational wrecks, thank-you uncontrolled breeding and inbreeding.



But I do not see why people are against thinning out the herd. These animals are invasive and protected by humans- They have no natural predators, and it is rather rare that a disease wipes out a good number of them. They breed unchecked except for the BLM roundups- It'll all fine and dandy to whine about taking them out of "Their native home", but when it comes down to it they are not going to be getting any more land to forage in, and if we want to entertain the notion these are wild horses we cannot feed them. So, do you know what would happen without the BLMs involvement? They'd die. Slowly, cruelly, probably from starvation and hypothermia. And we all know what would happen then- Oh, the animal activists would start whining again about how they are suffering, and soon enough we'd be feeding a bunch of horses that have absolutely no use- Like I said, they are not even a native species. If we want to protect the "Wild West", we'd be better off concentrating on NATIVE species that are not thriving in captivity, like, I don't know, bison.

Answer 6

I had a horse like yours. He used to be well, after which obtained worse. I made up our minds to take him clear of barrels for a pair weeks and do a little trails. The couple weeks went through of a few strong path rides, and I made up our minds we could return to the world and notice the way it is going, he used to be not enviornment bitter, and used to be best simply loping round. When I post the barrels, the what a few humans say "ordinary barrel horse" got here out. This wasn't when you consider that he used to be fried or did not have the learning, its when you consider that he had no want, no ardour, not anything. He simply hated barrels. He had the pace, he had the expertise, he had the breeding, he simply did not adore it. I probably feasible that you are horse simply does not adore it. It can emerge as detrimental to preserve to push her to do them. If you have no indicates arising, and feature someday over the summer season, I might advocate attempting whatever new along with her, deliver her someday clear of the barrels, possibly check out her on livestock, and trails. When you do that see if she acts up, if she does, her mare facet probably popping out, after which she jsut could want an perspective adjustment. If she best with the holiday, and while you come again to barrels and her perspective comes again, she simply could now not be into it. Good success.

Answer 7

Well think about this.



If they didn't round them up the population would get totally out of proportion to the environment. The horses would eventually consume every food source and cause other species in the environments to die off. Some of which are endangered as it is.

Answer 8

Mustang populations need to be controlled to prevent overgrazing which leads to soil erosion and starvation. Rouding up the mustangs with helicopters may not be the best way to do it, but the BLM is experimenting with different methods, such as hormonal implants in some fillies and mares which temporarily prevent them from coming into estrus, breeding, and contributing to the overpopulation.

Answer 9

Herds need to be maintained, if there were too many there wouldn't be enough grazing land and over population would in turn effect other life.

Answer 10

Wild horses or ferral in the America's aren't actually wild they are actaully escaped horses that have adapted to live in the wild. Better for them to be in a good home - we have all romanticized the wild horse thing better for the horse to have a home and to be taken care of.