Mustang Makeover

Nothing like a Mustang! They are wicked smart!

Why are mustangs being captured?

read this also.


www.equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/BLM.Team.Euth.FOIA_Cover.letter.pdf

This is from a paper I wrote about the politics/history of our Mustangs.

Horses have long been a source of imagination and wonder. They are a symbol of freedom in the United States and none more so than the Mustang. Sadly, these horses have been at the center of a much heated debate. This all started with one woman Velma B. Johnson or Wild Horse Annie. She has led the fight to protect the Mustangs and pass legislation. Her act did pass, however Mustangs are still in need of protection in some cases the government which was put in charge of protecting them. The genus Equus first appeared around five million years ago in North America, however they did go extinct. But before that some left North America and went across the land bridge into Asia and spread out from there. We are unsure why the horses went extinct but there are lots of theories, none of which are provable. They were re-introduced into North America in 1519 by Hernan Cortes when he arrived in Mexico. Some of the Mustangs who remain today were descendants of those original herds who were reintroduced into North America.
Fast forward to the 1950’s and one women spear headed the fight to save the Mustangs. There was a time before that that they were almost rounded up and killed back into extinction that was before Velma B. Johnson or Wild Horse Annie got involved to fight for the Mustangs. The ruthless treatment in both the round ups and after. "Although I had heard that airplanes were being used to capture mustangs, like so many of us do when something doesn't touch our lives directly, I pretended it didn't concern me. But one morning in the year 1950, my own apathetic attitude was jarred into acute awareness.” Most of the horses who were rounded up ended up in the slaughterhouse. The round ups included being chased by airplanes or vehicles until the horses collapsed with exhaustion. In 1950’s there were no laws to protect Mustangs and Velma set out to change that. The Wild Horse Annie act was the first of its kind and helped guarantee safety for our wild horses, on the grounds that they are “that congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the west.” They were to be protected from a wide variety of offenses in including capture, branding, death and harassment. They were declared an important piece of the ecosystem in public lands. They were declared to be under the jurisdiction of the Secretary, who was meant to protect and manage them, which took on a handful of managing concepts. One of which is “The Secretary shall order old, sick, or lame animals to be destroyed in the most humane way possible ”. It was also decided that the Secretary could humanely capture a number of animals, and adopt them out. All of which was supposed to remain humane, which is not always the case. This in turn also helped protect those very special genetics of the mustangs that are direct descendants of those very first Spanish horses were reentered North America in 1519.

The Wild Horse Annie act was of course a step in the right direction, but sadly “You can outlaw cruelty, but you can’t outlaw the culture that spawned that cruelty.” Humans tend to be inexplicably cruel to things they do not understand or want to understand. The round ups continue to be unnecessarily cruel. . There have been lots of cases of harassment to the wild horses. “During the eight years after World War II, a hundred thousand wild horses were seized in Nevada alone – for use as pet food.” In 1998 in Lovelock, Nevada the bodies of at least five hundred Mustangs were founds gunned down over a period of months and fed to wild coyotes. Luckily, the three men who committed this heinous crime were convicted of several felonies. Sadly, these tales are not entirely uncommon. The BLM charged with protecting the Mustang has been the heart of many such cases. The round ups are supposed to be humane but for the most part are not much different from before the law was passed. One of the main issues is that the land the horses are on is public land so you cannot control the vehicles or the aircraft that are chasing the horses. Also, what they do with the horses after rounding them up is questionable at best. They do have adoption programs but typically they not following through with the horses that are adopted and the price are not high enough to prevent anyone with a large backyard and no horse knowledge to adopt them. “At some corrals, the BLM is offering Mustang closeout sales – mare and foal pairs in two for one deal. At another, there has been a disaster: 178 horses – already weakened by the poor range conditions and a recent roundup – contracted salmonella and died or had to be put down.” Just one of many examples of some of the cruelty and issues with roundups and the holding situation.

The rounds up continue to be massive and the cattlemen are still pushing for the removal of the Mustangs, on the grounds that they eat too much of the grass and destroy the land. “So, in the mid-1800s, when stockmen released up to 40 million cattle on the plains, where horses had lived for centuries without destroying the grazing, at most two million mustangs held responsible for the suddenly depleted range.” These beliefs are unfounded however; horses have evolved to eat in a pattern that does not deplete the grass while cows do not. In August 2007 the round-ups got a lot worse after President Bush took office. “At the time of the election, there were about 25,000 wild horses and burros in Nevada. By, 2003 there were 17,900.” The horses continue to be a push/pull situation in the middle of a huge debate that is still going on today.
In conclusion, while the fight for the safety of the Mustangs is still waging. It is not an entirely hopeless cause. There is hope. Such activities at the Mustang Makeover are helping show the wonderful attitudes and usefulness of the Mustang. They make wonderful partners and friends. There is still a long road to the protecting the Mustang and laws do need to change. The Mustang has a fascinating tale of history and politics, ever sense they stepped foot back onto North America they have been the center of a fight

Oh my God. You should be proud to have wild horses not to kill them and make them gone. Looks like wild mustangs are close to vanishing. What a shame. I watched the movie Hidalgo. and I cried at the end when he buys of the herd that should be killed and let them in the wild again with his dear horse Hidalgo. I know it is based on true story. So sad that people are close to destroying everything beautiful in this world :-(