Written by: Samuel K. Sloan (FarPoint Media Exec. News Dir.)

In one of the more idiotic abuses of our tax dollars to come out of Washington is the news that euthanasia is being considered as a method to “deal” with the growing wild horse population in the United States.

A combination of euthanizing the horses and ending roundups are two of the government’s more drastic policies being considered at this time by both the House and the Senate. Those in favor of the proposal state it is the only humane way to adequately cut down the wild hoofers who are beginning to outnumber their range and holding areas.

Hey, here’s first a question and then a thought: Why are the ranges for the wild horses creepingly getting smaller and smaller? How about OVERPOPULATION of the Human Species. I don’t see any legislation on tap to allow euthanasia to curb the out-of-control growth of that overeating, ever expanding herd of 2-leggers we call humanity.

Yes, there is an overpopulation of wild horses on public lands and yes, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is ill-suited and can no longer afford to care for the number of mustangs that have been rounded up…but bumping them off? Please! Why is it the only solution humans can ever come up with to solve big problems is either to ignore it completely until it becomes the green-eyed monster, or go and kill something off?

How about opening up current public lands not assessible to the horses for their release? Yellowstone and other great national parks could handle several large herds and the process of natural selection in that or other wild, protected environments of the type would certainly take care of over population, just as it does with Bison, antelope and deer in those areas.

Also, it is a recognized fact that horse adoption is down. But why is that? This and other questions like these need to be addressed and looked into before we just wholesale start pumping deadly chemicals into a live species.

I appreciate the problem that this entails for the ecology and the health of existing herds as a whole, but diving into this kind of solution before exhausting all options short of that is way premature. For one, I agree with the statement made by Bonnie Matton, president of the Wild Horse Preservation League, in which she said “more should be done to market wild horses as a tourist lure, with some of the money raised going to support the animals.” This is a viable option that the BLM hasn’t even seriously considered, as is sterilization of selected groups of horses. This has worked for feral cats in several major cities across the country allowing the existing cats to run free and do their job of keeping down the city’s rodent problems without the unwanted increase in the wild cat population. It could work just as well within the wild equine herds.

One area the BLM is pursuing is asking farmers and ranchers to provide pasture and care for 500 to 2,500 horses taken from the wild that are considered unadoptable. A nobel idea, but very limited in solving the real problem.

I am of the opinion that the care and well-being of these animals, while allowing them to continue on U.S. protected lands, should be the task of privately-funded, ecologically-sound companies and organizations that have both the environment and the horses’ best interest at heart. The projected cost of keeping herds untouched by the death-needle is expected to run around $77 million. While this may seem a lot of money to a government-run agency sitting on the hind-quarter of the Congressional-teat, private organizations have always proven to be better at raising funds and dispensing operations efficiently for this sort of thing than those tied up to a huge government bureaucracy with all its red tape and hand-tied rules.

That’s my opinion. Tell me what you think.