Why indeed. Partly, it's what it's always been - public lands ranchers seem to forget that they are on PUBLIC LAND and begrudge the horses any of what is theirs by law.
These days though, there's more to it. Even the ranchers are starting to feel a cold wind up their backs, and well they should. Big Energy is coming to take this land. There's money in them thar hills, and Big Energy is planning to make the most of it.
They'll dig more open pit mines and pollute more atmosphere and ground water; they will build more pipelines like Ruby to carry more BP gas. All of these things take WATER - millions of gallons of WATER, and there's even more money to be made in water rights.
Secretary Salazar has said he wants to "industrialize" the West. And they are planning to do just that - until they pump dry the aquifers that took thousands of years to fill. After that, they will leave, looking for new conquests.
Not only will the horses be gone, so will everything else.
These days though, there's more to it. Even the ranchers are starting to feel a cold wind up their backs, and well they should. Big Energy is coming to take this land. There's money in them thar hills, and Big Energy is planning to make the most of it.
They'll dig more open pit mines and pollute more atmosphere and ground water; they will build more pipelines like Ruby to carry more BP gas. All of these things take WATER - millions of gallons of WATER, and there's even more money to be made in water rights.
Secretary Salazar has said he wants to "industrialize" the West. And they are planning to do just that - until they pump dry the aquifers that took thousands of years to fill. After that, they will leave, looking for new conquests.
Not only will the horses be gone, so will everything else.
Amplify’d from www.examiner.com
Maureen Harmonay
Why the war on America's wild horses?
Photo: Pam Nickoles Photography, www.NickolesPhotography.com
It seems that hardly a day goes by without the BLM announcing that it intends to round up most of the members of yet another wild herd and put them behind bars forever. After weeks and months of this, we have to ask: why the rush to sweep America's free-roaming mustangs from their designated homelands?
The BLM's language belies their true intent. They no longer talk about "gathers," but are now bluntly describing their missions with a word that reveals how they really view what they're doing to wild horses: "removals." As if these horses are a form of vermin that must be eradicated because they pose a threat, or don't belong.
BLM has gotten pretty good at smooth-talking the rationales behind the forced removals of the wild horses, never admitting that cattle interests, or mineral interests, or gas interests, or industrial interests are the true forces behind the dizzying efforts to create vast wild horse-free zones where herds have roamed for decades, if not for centuries. Instead, they talk about the lack of suitable habitat, water sources, and forage, making it seem that they are doing the wild horses a favor by wrenching them from their families and from the only homes they have ever known.
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