Agency to Sterilize Mustangs for First Time to Slow Growth

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Agency to Sterilize Mustangs for First Time to Slow Growth

By SCOTT SONNER, ASSOCIATED PRESS RENO, Nev. — Jun 26, 2016, 11:35 AM ET

A federal agency is on a path to sterilize wild horses on U.S. rangeland to slow the growth of herds — a new approach condemned by mustang advocates across the West.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management also continues to resist calls from ranchers and western Republicans to euthanize or sell for slaughter the animals overflowing holding pens so as to clear the way for more roundups.

Bureau of Land Management Deputy Director Steve Ellis delivered those messages at an emotional congressional hearing this week. He offered a glimpse of the challenges facing the agency that has been struggling for decades with what it describes as a $1 billion problem.

Highlights of the hearing included Nevada's state veterinarian calling for the round-up and surgical sterilization of virtually every mustang in overpopulated herds, a protester who briefly interrupted with shouts denouncing "welfare ranchers" turning public lands into "feedlots," and an Arkansas congressman whose puppy is about to get neutered.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/agency-sterilize-mustangs-time-slow-growth-40141653

[msongs]

1. they are an invasive species causing habitat destruction but they are an approved animal, being

cute and all. and they have a lobby unlike, say, gila lizards

[Binkie The Clown]

2. ...

Insert obligatory obvious joke about mud puddles and Ford Mustangs.

(The punch line is left as an exercise for the reader.)

[pscot]

3. How is that we understand carrying capacity wrt horses

but when it comes to humans, nada.

[The2ndWheel]

4. We get it

We just can't agree on who's right, who gets to make the rules, or what to do about it.

The option of sterilizing or shooting horses exists. Humans don't really have that option in regards to ourselves. Maybe if the horses got to make the rules for us, it would be more objective.

[NickB79]

5. Just shoot the damn things and be done with it

Somehow shooting invasive wild horses that are destroying fragile habitat is off-limits, but we shoot (and often eat) millions of these invasive damn things every year even though they're widely viewed to be smarter than any mustang:



Oh wait, it's not cute enough to care about.