Federal WILD HORSE AND BURRO STRATEGY PROGRAM

Bureau of Land Management

Washington D.C.

RE: Federal WILD HORSE AND BURRO STRATEGY PROGRAM

To Whom It May Concern:

I am sending you my comments on how my family and I along with thousands of others in this area feel about wild horses.  There are many thousands of these horses in our county and on our ranges.  We have grown up with these horses.

The main source of income and the economy of the rural towns of the western United States is derived from livestock, both cattle and sheep.  We are dependent on these ranges for our livelihood.  Whereas, these wild horses contribute nothing to these economies of these rural towns, but are a great expense to the taxpayers of America.

These wild horses multiply and increase very rapidly.  Their numbers get far above what the ranges can handle.  Therefore the excess must be gathered and removed so that the populations can be maintained at a level to have ecological balance on the range. If these numbers aren’t kept at the ranges carrying capacity they will beat and overgraze these ranges and starve to death.  Horses eat grass off so closely that they are very hard on the range.  The BLM does a good job to gather the excess number.  Without these gathers the land suffers, wildlife suffers, livestock will suffer, and ultimately the horses will suffer. 

The ranchers in our area and a majority of the west have developed and maintained the water sources these horses use to drink and survive.  The horses run on ranges where emergency drought conditions threaten the health of the herd.  Some of these ranges are burned with wildfires and these areas must be rested to let the range revegetate. Most of these horses live on ranges with very limited moisture.  Through overstocking and overgrazing these delicate dessert plants can be killed out and it takes decades for them to reestablish.   

We feel very strongly that there needs to be a greater increase in the use of fertility control to slow down population growth.  Castration and spaying of mares is by far the best method.  Emmimo contraceptives and other hormones also help.  We also are in favor of introducing biological sterile male mules to reduce the number of mares foaling on the range.

We think that any unadopted wild horses should sell without limitation.  The horse market is now very bad.  BLM needs to sell these horses for $50.00 or even $25.00 in order to get a bunch of them sold so that the government can get rid of some of them and cut down expenses.  We also favor selling them to other countries in North and South America and overseas.

We love and have grown up with horses, but there comes a time when horses get old, sick, or lame that it is better to slaughter them than to let them starve and suffer.  We strongly feel that we need some horse slaughter plants in this country.  When the ones we had where closed down it has just killed the horse market on all types of horses.  The wild horse and Burro Act of 1971 requires the BLM to humanly euthanize any unadoptable wild horses or burros. The Europeans and Asians like horse meat.  It is a very profitable market.  We need to take advantage of this because it will greatly increase the income of rural America and again make the horse market much more profitable.

WE AND EVERYONE THAT I HAVE EVER TALKED TO ARE VERY STRONGLY OPPOSED TO PUTTING THESE HORSES ON AREAS WHERE THEY CURRENTLY DON’T AND HAVE NOT EXISTED.  The Federal government owns over 75% of the land in Utah, more in Nevada, and almost as much in the other 10 Western States.  We do not want you acquiring any more land. 

I haven’t found anyone else in my area that even knew about this comment period or that you want to implement a new Wild horse plan.  I saw an article in a paper that was published 105 miles from here and it told about the 60 day comment period, but it failed to say when it began or when it ended and it didn’t say where to send it to.  I have had to make 20 phone calls to find this information.  YOU HAVE GOT TO DO A BETTER JOB INFORMING PEOPLE ABOUT THESE CHANGES AND MAKE SRUE THAT THE DATES ARE IN THE ARTICLE AND WHERE THEY ARE TO BE SENT.

Please give our comments your most serious consideration.  Thank you.

Respectfully

Gilbert T. Yardley & Family

P.O. Box 288

Beaver, Utah 84713

Phone: 435-438-2424

       435-310-0041