Paraphrasing Max Planck: A new idea does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents die off and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

Refer to this news release by the Animal Welfare Institute.  Same amount as last year, $11 million “to pursue safe and reversible fertility control options.”

Permitted grazing, and the number of wild horses and burros displaced thereby, are not mentioned in the announcement.

It’s getting harder and harder to distinguish the advocates from the ranchers.

RELATED: So Long, PZP Amendment?

The measure, part of the HR 3684 infrastructure bill, bans the transport of equines across state lines or to Canada or Mexico for slaughter for human consumption, according to a news release issued this morning by Animal Wellness Action.

The amendment carried with others by a voice vote, which may mean there’s no record of who voted for and against.  The announcement did not indicate if the animals could be transported for pet food and other products.

RELATED: Amendment Tries to End Horse Transport for Slaughter.

The resolution would urge the federal government—ooops, administration—to, among other things, establish management of these animals informed by independent science and the American public, and to restore a thriving ecological balance to California wild horse and burro areas and territories.

Although ‘independent science’ is suspect, the addition of ‘thriving ecological balance’ could be a big red flag.

If it means wild horses and burros living in balance with wildlife, as specified in the original statute, then fine.

If it reflects contemporary usage, where most of the resources on public lands have been diverted to privately owned livestock, then the measure is toast.

RELATED: AJR-5 Amended Again.

The 50,000 wild horses in off-range holding could be returned to the range by ending permitted grazing on just a few dozen HMAs.

That’s about one fifth of the HMAs and WHTs combined.

If the pattern holds in other wild horse areas, the total number of horses cheated out of a spot on their home range by privately owned livestock is well north of 200,000.

As bad as that is, the advocates want to get rid of even more with their ruinous darting programs.  Why are you still giving them money?

RELATED: Example of Downstream Focus, Confusing Cause and Effect.

Both groups want the same thing: Wild horses off the range.

The advocates want to get rid of them with contraceptives, while the ranchers want them dispatched with helicopters, but those differences can be worked out later.

Collaboration could lead to a groundbreaking plan for eradicating most of America’s wild horses.

Oh wait.

RELATED: Wild Horse Management Needs to Change?

Would you publish an op-ed about millions of domestic livestock that ruin public lands with high-density grazing and title it ‘Too Many Wild Horses?’

You would if you’re The Washington Post.

An article about overpopulation by The Horse suggests that the current surplus of about 70,000 wild horses and burros (on public lands) could be eliminated if just four to five percent of horse-owning households adopted one animal.

The story did not indicate how many more households would be needed to liquidate the animals in off-range holding.

What’s wrong with this idea?

First, there are few if any excess animals on America’s public lands.  That’s bad news to those in the PZP supply chain.  They thrive on the overpopulation narrative.

Second, adoptions don’t stop removals, they prolong them.  The AIP, and the adverse consequences associated therewith, are effects of roundups, not causes of them.

Third, the ‘surplus’ would return, the roundups would resume and the corrals would be overflowing, not because the animals reproduce, but because of the way our public lands are managed.

AMLs, the numbers that determine when an area is overpopulated, are small because the bureaucrats have decided that most of the resources on lands set aside for horses and burros shall be assigned to privately owned cattle and sheep.

The True AMLs, numbers that represent the horses and burros allowed by plan plus the horses and burros displaced by livestock, are much higher, as anyone reading these pages knows.

The animals in off-range holding could be returned to the range by ending public-lands ranching on just a few dozen HMAs.

Those corrals and pastures could be emptied four to five times over if livestock grazing was ended on all HMAs.  It’s that bad.

Eventually the herds will exceed the True AMLs and corrective actions will be needed.

But those discussions are off the table until the HMAs are managed principally for wild horses and burros, which is what the True AMLs represent.

If you want to help America’s wild horses and burros, look upstream in the management process, understand why they’re being removed from the range and address those causes for a lasting solution.

Here’s what the advocates are proposing:

• Get rid of the horses with PZP, not helicopters
• Make sure the ranchers receive most of the resources
• Drive birth rates to zero and let the herds die off

Not exactly what Velma had in mind 50 years ago.

RELATED: Feasibility of Decimating Wild Horse Herds with Contraceptives.

A 27-minute audio segment by KNPR Radio of Las Vegas features the director of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, an organization that’s second only to the federal government in terms of eradicating wild horses.

You see, the number of wild horses in off-range holding could be sharply reduced, along with those shipped to slaughter, if we prevent their birth.

Resources set aside for the horses can be shifted to, well, you know, other users of public lands.

As for the Virginia Range, approximately 1,400 mares have been darted and, with the help of predators, zero population growth has almost been achieved.

Like the Salt River, these people are not just standing around while the herd dies off.

They are actively involved in its demise.

All because some bureaucrat said there should be no more than 600 wild horses, ideally just 300, on the Virginia Range.

RELATED: FOA Files Suit to Stop AIP.

They’re opposed to helicopter roundups, as indicated in this June 18 news release by Animal Wellness Action, but won’t condemn the darting program.

True, the terms ‘humane management’ and ‘fertility control’ don’t appear in the announcement.

The problem is upstream in the management process, namely, the land-use plans that determine who gets what.

The rancher-friendly ‘Path Forward,’ which is mentioned in the announcement, will enforce resource allocations already on the books.

The darting program can only keep the scales tilted in favor of the ranchers.

RELATED: Rallying for Onaqui Wild Horses or Privately Owned Livestock?

You have the advocates getting rid of the horses so the ranchers can have the lion’s share of the resources while none of the allotments meet standards for rangeland health.

Can’t get any more screwed up than that.  Undeniable Truths #1 and #2.

RELATED: McCullough Advocates Celebrate WHB50 by Getting Rid of Horses.

“These vehicles hold great promise for minimizing wild horse herds,” said one of the ranchers who attended the conference with dozens of advocates.

“That prototype in New Mexico is already obsolete,” claimed another.

“One of the drawbacks of that contraption is that the horses have to come to it,’ noted one of the presenters, “but these things are mobile and can go on the offensive.”

The rover and drone include a vast array of sensors, on-board ballistics computers and satellite positioning systems that assure pinpoint accuracy.

Darts are fired by linear motors that don’t use compressed gas or other propellants.

“These platforms will really put a dent in those herds,” whispered one of the advocates, “something we’ve dreamed of for a long time.”

Although the technology won’t be commercialized for several years, land managers are anxiously watching its development while researchers put the finishing touches on GonaQuine, a long-lasting treatment that isn’t classified as a sterilant.

RELATED: ‘Ingenuity’ Shows Off Advanced Darting Technology.

If you feed wild horses or shoot them with darts, you might be brought up on charges.

But if the advocates do that, and/or the beneficiaries are livestock operators, all can be forgiven.

RELATED: Automatic Darting Machine to Ditch Microchips?

The damage occurred when the bureaucrats wrote the land-use plans.  The idea of managing principally but not exclusively was thrown overboard and supplanted with federal regulations that nullify the original statute.

Everything happening now, including the removal of ‘excess’ animals, fertility control programs, sex-ratio skewing and sterilization research is the fulfillment of those plans.

Over 2,200 wild horses have been bumped out by privately owned livestock, as noted yesterday, and you want to get rid of more?  Whose side are you on?

Actually, the HMA is one of the milder cases of resource mismanagement, with only 73% of the forage assigned to cattle and sheep.

If you want to see just how bad it can get, look at the numbers for Little Colorado HMA in Wyoming.

With 45,000 AUMs per year assigned to privately owned livestock, 3,750 wild horses have been displaced from that area.

These two HMAs account for more than 10% of the horses in off-range holding.

Put the darting rifles away and instead of doing something to these icons, do something for them.

RELATED: PZP Darting is Not the Answer.

In the typical wild horse area, ‘sharing their home’ means 80 to 95 percent of the forage has been assigned to privately owned livestock.

It’s not a minor problem.

The number of horses displaced from public lands by permitted grazing is so large that every one of them in off-range holding could be returned by ending the practice in just a few dozen HMAs.

Those who would get rid of them with contraceptives are ranching collaborators.

From Haaland’s Bold Vision for America’s Wild Horses on March 6 to Haaland to Continue Wild Horse Plans of Previous Administration on May 25.

Seems like the pendulum only swings one way in the wild horse world.

Estimates only, accuracy not guaranteed.

RELATED: Undeniable Truths of the Wild Horse World.

You’ll have to visit areas set aside for wild horses to see that.

But there will probably be exhibits from other ranching advocacy groups.

RELATED: WSHE Still Set for June 11-13.