This is a letter that I submitted and was printed in the Las Vegas Review Journal last year. Needless to say it wasn't popular with the wild horse crowd.
To The Editor:
Many Americans are somewhat aware of the nationwide issue related to feral pigs or hogs as they are sometimes called. These animals are shown nightly on various cable outlets as a renegade, invasive species that cause billions of dollars of property damage, and threaten native wildlife species. They have been shown to carry and spread disease to humans, livestock, and wildlife. Because they are smart, adaptable, prolific breeders they are nearly impossible to eradicate once established in an area. Millions of these animals exist on public and private lands throughout the Unites States with as many as 39 states reporting feral populations.
These animals, like many other invasive species, are the result of accidental and sometimes intentional release during the last 500 years by humans that brought them to the New World. Too many well intentioned people today are not aware that these animals did not exist or had been extinct in North America until the early 1500?s and that their existence here today is now, and will continue to be an ecological threat.
As is the case with most of the ?introduced? species, the ecosystem of North America lacks the ability to naturally control population numbers. Few predators are equipped by nature to kill and eat animals that are artificially introduced into their environment. Man remains the only effective control to these invaders, and so far the battle is not going well for man, or the environment.
Many of the infected states are already acknowledging that this battle cannot be won; they already have admitted that feral pigs and other invasive species may be controlled at some level, but ultimately are here to stay.
Why these feral pigs and other invasive species are seen and treated differently than feral horses by the general public and especially the wild horse advocates is a stunning example of hypocrisy. ?Wild horses, the symbol of the West? are no different than feral pigs, and are without any scientific doubt whatsoever, an invasive species.
During the past few decades America has spent billions of dollars eradicating invasive species. We have torn down dams, poisoned rivers and lakes, and burned millions of acres of land, all in an effort to restore and strengthen native species and habitat. But the horse, somehow immune to science, has federal protection?
At a time when Governments must decide between paying Teachers, or Firefighters, or Doctors, or Police, this invasive squatter continues to receive its paycheck. The latest complaints of cruelty obscure the fact that that this fugitive livestock should not be allowed to exist on public land at all. The capture and control methods described in the roundup reports are simply standard practices throughout the livestock industry.
Of course, by now we should be used to this type of intellectual dishonesty. The great state of Nevada even celebrated its collective ignorance by proudly displaying this make believe, mythological ?Wild Horse? on the state quarter. I guess that we should ignore the fact that it would take a time machine, and 10,000 years to find a real wild horse in Nevada.
Wild horses are nothing more than escaped livestock. They should be treated as such by removing their Federal Protection.
CB08
