Q+A Wild Horses in the US
I’ve been posting about the wild horse crisis happening in the American West and I’ve had quite a few people ask questions about what’s going on.
There are a few existential and philosophical questions that will always pop up as we discuss the role and place of horses in the Wild West. “Weren’t horses brought over by the Spaniards?” is an oft asked question. In theory, horses existed in this continent before the European invasion, but were made extinct by climate changes. I’m not going to engage in that argument, rather I’ll bring to light what’s actually happening and why it needs to stop.
Number one thing that we as humans might want to take a step back. Most of us were raised with the notion that the (Mother) Earth is here for us to exploit. All the “resources” are here for our use. As a Native American, and actually as someone who studied Christianity, I believe we are here to be stewards fo the land and the animals, to protect, to borrow only what we need and to give back at every opportunity. Generally this is the concept of sustainability. If you cut down a tree, plant one to replace it. And before you cut it down ask it if it wants to be cut down. Bear with me. I realize this is an incredibly foreign concept to us.
Q: What is happening with the wild horses?
A: We (the USA) are rounding up wild horses with helicopters and putting them into pens, loading them on trailers to go to auction/kill-pens where they will be bough and shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter for human consumption.
Q: Aren’t the horses rescued by people who want to train them and ride them?
A: There are people who “rescue” these wild horses and take a cash payout to take care of the horses, only to bring the horses back to the kill pens. They’ll rescue more horses from the roundups and continue this cycle.
Q: What about wild horse sanctuaries?
A: There are actual sanctuaries who rescue and re-wild the horses. These sanctuaries are harassed, targeted and sabotaged by the cattle industry.
Q: Who pays for the roundups?
A: YOU! Your tax dollars are paying for this!
Q: Aren’t these horses on public land?
A: These horses are mostly on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land where cattle grazing is allowed. The horses “get in the way” of cattle herders.
Q: Why are we rounding up wild horses if it’s inhumane?
A: The cow industry is a powerful lobby that controls what happens on BLM alongside mining (typically foreign and large multi-national corporations) and logging operations (clearcutting not sustainable logging).
Q: What can I do?
A: There are several things you can do to help stop this egregious act of cruelty.
1. Call your politicians, 2. check out AWCH, 3. donate to Sky Dog, 4. follow photographers like Scott Wilson and 5. stop eating cows.
If you don’t believe in the power of the cattle lobby, look into the Oprah case with the Taxes Cattlemen’s Association. Look into the controversy of “Meatless Mondays” (I can tell you from first hand experience as a daughter of the cattle ranching mega-industry that this is taboo). We have this fantasy of the Wild West and cowboys herding cows up and down from Texas to Montana. This is a fantasy. These animals are suffering at many points in their lives. Your “grass fed beef” still winds up in a slaughter house. I beg of you to look into it.
I know when I say “stop eating cows” it triggers the hell out of people. Take out your journal and write about why that triggers you. And then write about the life of that cow you are eating. I leave you with that.
In the meantime, go ahead and buy the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Shoot me an email, DM on social or reach out to me if you have questions or concerns.
namaste
-Tonya