Another appraisal of sorely lacking NAS report on wild horse and burro program in US
After reviewing the NAS report on the wild horse and burro program by a selected committee of 14, I must say that I am profoundly disappointed by the pusillanimity that has been shown. The committee ignored the major issue: the gross unfairness that our public officials (aka public servants) have shown toward both the wild horses and burros (meaning those living in natural freedom) and the many millions of general public who support their right to live there. This is a Quality of LIfe issue, and it is a major interest of the General Public. Most of the original 1971 acreages on BLM and USFS lands have been zeroed out during the 40+ years of the programs existence and of those areas where the wild horses and burros are permitted to continue, to add salt to the wound, they are allocated less than one fifth of the grazing resource, the majority of which goes to the ranchers for their livestock. Also the herds are being assigned appropriate management levels, or targeted populations, that are non-viable, and, because of the repeated large-scale roundups, these herds are being thwarted in their proven ability to establish natural, harmonious, i.e. ecologically well adapted relations with the habitats where they live. The committee seemed to ignore the solution to all this continued torture and disruption of the wild equids and their ecosystems. This is Reserve Design, which, as a professional wildlife ecologist, I have detailed in my book The Wild Horse Conspiracy. Each member of the committee had a copy of my book and additionally received my oral and written comments concerning the above and many other points. I just pray that some relief will come for the horses and burros who still remain in the wild, where they are being terribly persecuted by the very authorities who are charged with defending them. Also I pray that those horses and burros who are being so miserably confined in short and long term facilities, shall be returned to the many zeroed out or under-populated areas on BLM and USFS lands. These sum to many millions of acres, as I detail in my book.