Dan, you have used your few words to paint a picture, of your opinion. Your "inbred scavengers" or "beautiful wild and free horses" are swooped on by "a mechanical monster ... to terrorize and traumatize" to be "disposed" of then to "ship them off to indefinite confinement equivalent to ... a concentration camp." Let's not leave out "animal cruelty" and "destroy our symbol of western freedom." Sadly, you don't mean ranchers.
You say "50 (cattle) to 1 (wild horse) on the range;" BLM says 15,009 AUM (Animal Units per Month) that's sheep and cattle, seldom all year long as the time(s) varies. The ranchers have voluntarily decreased their cattle due to the drought; the wild horses didn't get the memo. They are there all year long, not regulated by a monthly allotment.
A number of horses died on the road from traffic accidents, though thankfully no human fatalities.
In the last year, 404 have been gathered of the 185 that were estimated with an expected increase of 15 percent annually. (At 10 gallons per day per wild horse (404) they would consume 1,474,600 gallons of water yearly).
The gathered horses are adopted out or put on grass rangeland with at least 10 acres per horse with government healthcare, what you describe as a "human version of a concentration camp."
Suggestion: You (and please feel free to invite wild horse advocates to participate) can adopt wild horses, buy a section, fence out livestock, purchase water rights, and feed them as required. Don't forget the veterinarians - you don't want any animal cruelty complaints.
The 2014 wild horse estimate for Nevada was 25,035; in the Humboldt HA (Pershing County) it was estimated to be 185. Can they be effectively managed? Should we look to Europe, where they came from, as a guide?
David Skelton
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