Wild Horses

Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones sang a song released in 1971 called Wild Horses. Well, wild horses are very much in the news these days. Wild-horse advocates are calling for a stop to one of the largest roundups of wild mustangs in Oregon history. It is estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that there are up to 1,500 wild horses roaming freely on about 625 square miles of the Beatys Butte herd management area east of Lakeview in southern Oregon.

Helicopters are typically used in the efforts to round wild horses up and the goal is to reduce the population to approximately 100 animals. A federal investigation in October found that a nearly 1,800 wild horses had been sold by a Colorado livestock hauler to buyers who took them to slaughterhouses in Mexico. At issue is the fact that herds of Mustangs literally denude BLM land by grazing relentlessly. That of course imposes on cattle grazing lands used by ranchers. I talked with Executive Dir. of the Idaho Cattle Association, Wyatt Prescott: "Right now the government management system of those horses is completely infeasible. What is happening is that livestock producers are paying the piper because we have things called rangeland health standards and everything impacts that standard including wildlife, especially wild horses.