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THE Solution -(the only totally correct solution) simply stated, is to leave them alone to run and evolve freely on areas of natural lands that are sufficiently large to their needs, as wild horses.
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However, as the adage goes, "the devil is in the details". And, until such time as nature obliterates most of the present human overpopulation of the U.S. and the world, the above stated solution seems totally unrealistic. So, from all present indictions, this SOLUTIONS page will remain very much a flighted fantasy that remains choked and buried beneath a wordwide and national, bureaucratic entanglement of Corporate State, governmental and public ignorance, apathy and corruption - along with the human tendency for ignoring the actual, root cause(s) of a problem, until it's too late.
The political climate in America now appears to be in the throes of what may be a significant degree of upheaval over the issue of government corruption that caters to the greed of so called special interests. And, if this political climate ever, actually changes, certain updates and revisions may be appropriate to some material on this page. (Maybe, sometime after 2012 ??)
In the interest of honestrly identifying and labelling editorial opinion, as separated from attempts at objective reporting of actually observed facts, it should be noted that in much of the material in this page, this reporter is presenting far more of a highly subjective and personal opinions than appear probably anywhere else on this web site. That is because this reporter has gone on record charging that at least some of the now existing, so called wild horse protection/preservation groups are influenced by their own special interests, very often to a degree that puts them at about the same level as the government bureacracy which they purport to oppose.
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1. Legislation needs to be passed, classifying wild horses in the same officially designated category of natural wildlife that presently includes such other animals as bears, bighorn sheep and eagles, thus granting them equal protection, as may become appropriate, as a "threatened" or "endangered" species. |
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2. For many specific aspects of stopping government mismanagement of wild horses and infliction of cruelties and abuses upon these animals, lawsuits and related legal actions against various administrative agencies and individuals in the federal government and its private contractors may be the only effective recourse. Unfortunately, these actions often may be very costly, sometimes involving prohibitive legal fees just to try to determine the actual feasibility for success, of any such legal efforts. And, the non specific and/or highly discretionary and interpretive nature of so much of the present wild horse management and "protection" legislation may adversely effect attempts at successful prosecution of many such legal cases. Hopefully, however, there will be news media publicity attendant to such legal actions, which may serve to at least slightly increase public awareness of these problems. |
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3. All grazing
of privately owned livestock on public lands needs
to be stopped and eliminated, permanently. Federal
legislation which established this condition, in
the first place, may have seemed like a good idea
back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But
it most certainly has absolutely no place in the
21st century, here in America. The Taylor Grazing
Act of 1934, allowing the Department of the Interior
to withdraw public lands to be allocated as grazing
districts very simply should be repealed. The
practice of so-called "Welfare Ranching" is
totally counter to modern day public interest in
America. Why should public tax dollars continue to be used to subsidize a particular commercial enterprise that allegedly is known to cause continuing and increased destruction of public property and public health? |
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4. New
federal legislation needs to be created and passed
into law, to replace the Wild Free Roaming
Horse and Burro Act of 1971, so as to withdraw
the present discretionary powers of the Secretaries
of the Departments of Interior and Agriculture
and very specifically outline the geographical
areas to be preserved for all time as natural habitats
for free roaming wild horses, burros and other
wildlife. Such
legislation should clearly identify and classify wild
horses as belonging to a native North American species
of wildlife, having full entitlement to federal protections
accorded to endangered or threatened species, if and
when such protective designation may be appropriate. |
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5. New
federal legislation needs to be created to place
the management of wildlife habitats under a separate
administrative department, created for the sole purpose of establishing and preserving ecologically balanced and naturally evolving areas for ALL wildlife, including wild horses, where their presence is appropriate to such balance and evolution. The director of such an agency should be on the same level as the presidental cabinet
secretaries (such as the Secretaries of Defense, Agriculture, Interior, etc.), but whose appointment will be made
either, by act of congress or by popular election,
not be subject to presidential veto and not be
made on the same years as presidential elections. Legislative
and administrative details of how this might be
accomplished, need to be discussed further by members
of our own wildlife groups, before a more specific
proposal may be posted here. But, the idea
is to take the presidential and special interest
politics and conflicts out of this area to the
greatest extent possible in our democratic form
of government. |
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6. Federal law
needs to be passed that totally would outlaw and
prohibit horse slaughter in the United States. Such legislation should very clearly, federally classify any horses that are in any state of human captivity and/or control as being "human COMPANION animals" (on a par with the related recognition accorded to domesticated dogs), for purposes of compliance with and enforecement of regulations for humane treatment of animals; and such legislation should specifically eliminate any allowable, alternate classification of horses as "livestock". |
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7. Private and
public educators need to get together with politicians
and the public to generate an awareness of a need
for there to be basic and comprehensive public education
in the principles of ecology and nature preservation,
before it is too late. Mandatory
courses in this should be taught to our nation's
children, beginning in the very early elementary
grades and extending through high school curriculums. At
the present time, there also is a need for more
education in this for adults, especially for politicians
and members of the news media, who think that a better
environment can be achieved simply by creating better
filters for water faucets and auto exchaust pipes.
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8. The
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) should be directed to tear down all
internal fencing on the public lands that are managed
by that agency. After
that job is done, the BLM, itself, should be discarded (elimited). This proposal is in lieu of fully prosecuting
and holding BLM officials and employees fully accountable
for all its years of misappropriations of public
funds, destruction to public property and cruelty
to animals. The BLM always has USED the land (apparently most often in a highly discriminatory fashion for special interests), NOT PRESERVED the land for present and future generations of Americans, as is its stated mission. And, it should be done away with entirely. (This, incidentally, would result in a huge saving for American taxpayers.) |
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(HOW MANY OF THESE PROPOSALS DO YOU EXPECT'
WILL BECOME LEGISLATIVELY ENACTED DURING
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION?! )
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