They’re spreading the Montana Solution across the fruited plain, hoping you won’t notice the absence of foals and the destruction it portends.
By getting rid of the horses, they ratify and reinforce the mismanagement of areas designated for their welfare.
Here’s what they’re trying to protect:
1. Former HMAs now managed almost exclusively for livestock.
- AMLs are zero
- Livestock receive most of the resources, with a small amount reserved for wildlife
2. HMAs managed primarily for livestock.
- AMLs correspond to 20% or less of authorized forage
- Livestock receive four to six times more forage than the horses
3. Off-range corrals flooded with animals displaced by permitted grazing.
- True AMLs often exceed current populations by wide margins
- Carrying capacities have not been exceeded
4. Loss of wildness.
- Increased presence of humans in their environment
- Alteration of natural behaviors
- Low birth rates and rising death rates
- Herds don’t bounce back
5. Fulfillment of ranching agenda.
- Non-native species become the primary consumers of resources
- Ranchers don’t pay for the field work, but they reap the benefits
- Funding comes from donors who think they’re helping the horses
- Some support may come from groups aligned with the ranchers
On the bright side, problems of genetic diversity and inbreeding go away, because there is no breeding at all.
All of this is coordinated by a group that refused to sign the letter to Haaland seeking the removal of livestock from HMAs.
If you still don’t think they’re frauds, get your cap, make the pilgrimage to Billings and join their army of certified volunteers.
RELATED: Advocates Protect Ranchers, Not Horses and Burros?
Western Horse Watchers Association 