Friday, October 23, 2009

THE Solution

THE Solution -(the only totally correct solution) simply stated, is to leave them alone to run and evolve freely on areas of natural lands that are sufficiently large to their needs, as wild horses.

U.S. Wild Horses

However, as the adage goes, "the devil is in the details".  And, until such time as nature obliterates most of the present human overpopulation of the U.S. and the world, the above stated solution seems totally unrealistic.  So, from all present indictions, this SOLUTIONS page will remain very much a frequently changing "work in progress", because so much of what possibly could be actually doable, best possible, alternative plans for wild horses is intertwined with state, national and world politics, public ignorance and apathy and a characteristic, often attributed to Americans, of nearly always looking for a quick fix, band-aid type treatment of the symptoms and ignoring the actual cause of the problem, until it's too late. 
The political climate in America now appears to be in the throes of what may be a significant degree of upheaval over the issue of government corruption that caters to the greed of so called special interests.  And, as this political climate continues to change, certain updates and revisions may be appropriate to some material on this page. 
In the interest of honestrly identifying and labelling editorial opinion, as separated from attempts at objective reporting of actually observed facts, it should be noted that in much of the material in this page, this reporter is presenting far more of a highly subjective and personal opinions than appear probably anywhere else on this web site.  That is because this reporter has gone on record charging that virtually all of the now existing, so called wild horse protection/preservation groups are influenced by their own special interests, very often to a degree that puts them at about the same level as the government bureacracy which they purport to oppose.

What Needs to be Done
 
1. Legislation needs to be passed, classifying wild horses in the same officially designated category of natural wildlife that presently includes such other animals as bears, bighorn sheep and eagles, thus granting them equal protection, as may become appropriate, as a "threatened" or "endangered" species.
 
2. For many specific aspects of stopping government mismanagement of wild horses and infliction of cruelties and abuses upon these animals, lawsuits and related legal actions against various administrative agencies and individuals in the federal government and its private contractors may be the only effective recourse.  Unfortunately, these actions often may be very costly, sometimes involving prohibitive legal fees just to try to determine the actual feasibility for success, of any such legal efforts.   And, the non specific and/or highly discretionary and interpretive nature of so much of the present wild horse management and "protection" legislation may adversely effect attempts at successful prosecution of many such legal cases.  Hopefully, however, there will be news media publicity attendant to such legal actions, which may serve to at least slightly increase public awareness of these problems.
 
3. All grazing of privately owned livestock on public lands needs to be stopped and eliminated, permanently.  Federal legislation which established this condition, in the first place, may have seemed like a good idea back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  But it most certainly has absolutely no place in the 21st century, here in America.  The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, allowing the Department of the Interior to withdraw public lands to be allocated as grazing districts very simply should be repealed.  The practice of so-called "Welfare Ranching" is totally counter to modern day public interest in America.  Why should public tax dollars continue to be used to subsidize a particular commercial enterprise that allegedly is known to cause continuing and increased destruction of public property and public health?
 
4. New federal legislation needs to be created and passed into law, to replace the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971, so as to withdraw the present discretionary powers of the Secretaries of the Departments of Interior and Agriculture and very specifically outline the geographical areas to be preserved for all time as natural habitats for free roaming wild horses, burros and other wildlife.  Such legislation should clearly identify and classify wild horses as belonging to a native North American species of wildlife, having full entitlement to federal protections accorded to endangered or threatened species, if and when such protective designation may be appropriate.
 
5. New federal legislation needs to be created to place the management of wildlife habitats under a separate administrative department, created for the sole purpose of establishing and preserving ecologically balanced and naturally evolving areas for ALL wildlife, including wild horses, where their presence is appropriate to such balance and evolution.  The director of such an agency should be on the same level as the presidental cabinet secretaries (such as the Secretaries of Defense, Agriculture, Interior, etc.), but whose appointment will be made either, by act of congress or by popular election, not be subject to presidential veto and not be made on the same years as presidential elections.  Legislative and administrative details of how this might be accomplished, need to be discussed further by members of our own wildlife groups, before a more specific proposal may be posted here.  But, the idea is to take the presidential and special interest politics and conflicts out of this area to the greatest extent possible in our democratic form of government.
 
6. Federal law needs to be passed that totally would outlaw and prohibit horse slaughter in the United StatesPassage of the still pending House Resolution 503 would be a good start to solving this part of the problem.   Federal legislation which established this condition, in the first place, may have seemed like a good idea back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  But it most certainly has absolutely no place in the 21st century, here in America.  The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, allowing the Department of the Interior to withdraw public lands to be allocated as grazing districts very simply should be repealed.  The practice of so-called "Welfare Ranching" is totally counter to modern day public interest in America.
 
7. Private and public educators need to get together with politicians and the public to generate an awareness of a need for there to be basic and comprehensive public education in the principles of ecology and nature preservation, before it is too lateMandatory courses in this should be taught to our nation's children, beginning in the very early elementary grades and extending through high school curriculums.  At the present time, there also is a need for more education in this for adults, especially for politicians and members of the news media, who think that a better environment can be achieved simply by creating better filters for water faucets and auto exchaust pipes.
 
8. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) should be directed to tear down all internal fencing on the public lands that are managed by that agency.  After that job is done, the BLM, itself, should be discarded (elimited).  This proposal is in lieu of fully prosecuting and holding BLM officials and employees fully accountable for all its years of misappropriations of public funds, destruction to public property and cruelty to animals.  The BLM always has USED the land (apparently most often in a highly discriminatory fashion for special interests), NOT PRESERVED the land for present and future generations of Americans, as is its stated mission.  And, it should be done away with entirely.  (This, incidentally, would result in a huge saving for American taxpayers.)

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