Thankfully Secretary Ken Salazar seems to have finally gotten the message that the American people will not tolerate slaughter of wild horses. However his proposal to remove the few remaining wild horses (less than 30,000) from our public lands in favor of 4,000,000 cattle, show that he has not over come his apparent denial of his deep conflict of interest, rooted in his family's ranching history. See "Kenny's" proposal in the NY Times article on 10/8/09 Titled; 7 Preserves Envisioned to Manage Wild Horses
Pls. note; most of the numbers quoted by Secretary Salazar are incorrect. For instance the Law to protect wild horses was enacted in 1971 and there was no tally of their numbers until 1974. However Salazar states there were 25,000 in 1971 contrary to the first Joint Report to Congress (BLM and Forest Service)which pulished the first count finished in 1974 at 64,000 wild horses.
Salazar's Wild Horse proposal is the Special Interest's dream at the tax payers expense. The people’s proposal is to return the 19 Million acres of public lands stolen from the horses, use the cost effective immuno-contraceptive PZP on the few remaining wild horses, and stop breeding millions of cattle on public lands.
World wide, cattle contribute to the production of 18% of global warming per the UN. Cattle belch Methane (20 to 50 times worse than C02 as a green house gas) almost continuously as their food ferments in their stomachs.
The BLM has even mis-used the science of top down grazing in favor of cattle, though the horses are the true top down grazers and therefore increase bio-diversity. They are also native specie (gone for only 10 to 13,000 years out of 50 million)and have the legal right to roam our public lands.
Cattle are not top down grazers as they have no upper front teeth and hence pull the flora out with their tongues, often by the roots. They are a non-native specie which evolved in Asia.
Secretary Salazar as Senator has already earned the title of Slaughter Czar. He was one of only 4 Democratic Senators to earn a zero HSUS animal score multiple years, and during the 110th Congress.
Let’s face it, even our National Health Care Costs for cancer, heart disease, and many obesity related diseases, could be decreased very simply by dealing with this special interest’s hold on our government. BEEF, it’s what’s killing our nations people and wild life.