No, of course not, the advocates support it.
In the current edition of Horse Tales, page 7, the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses said the original Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act has been weakened by amendments that benefit private interests.
No disputing that.
But the proposed revamp, a thinly veiled attempt to substitute the Montana Solution for helicopter roundups, serves its interests!
Instead of tossing out “Appropriate Management Level,” an undefined term introduced in 1978 that favors the public-lands ranchers, the bill ratifies it.
Were you expecting something better from the advocates?
AMLs are small relative to the available resources because most of the food and water have been assigned to privately owned livestock.
The bureaucrats, and now the advocates, refer to the arrangement as a thriving natural ecological balance.
In the original statute, areas designated for wild horses were to be managed principally but not exclusively for them. There was no provision for livestock.
This should be the goal of any new legislation, to be achieved by confining the ranchers to their base properties in a year-round off season.
There’s nothing natural about livestock grazing on public lands. They’re not, and never were part of the North American ecosystem.
As for HR 9154, the advocates are extremely proud of the bill, according to the writer, and now they need the support of other members of Congress to protect these innocent animals (with a restricted-use pesticide).
RELATED: Whose Fingerprints on HR 9154?
Western Horse Watchers Association 