AR-News: (US WY) Wild-horse advocates say BLM should get rid of cattle before horses

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

Casper Star Tribune
By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press writerA band of wild mares and colts graze in the desert 
hills above Reno, Nev., on June 13. Officials say overpopulation of wild horses 
is harming range conditions and their overall well-being during the West's 
five-year drought.

PALOMINO VALLEY, Nev. -- Wild-horse advocates who reject the government's 
claim that 32,000 horses are overrunning parts of the West say some of the 
millions of cattle grazing public rangeland should be removed before any more 
mustangs are rounded up.

With more than half the wild horses located in Nevada, opponents of the 
roundups have been staging weekly demonstrations the past two months at the state 
capitol in Carson City.
They also have picketed in front of the Bureau of Land Management office in 
Reno to protest the BLM's efforts to cut wild horse populations nearly in half 
across the West.

"If the BLM truly feels our public lands are being so greatly damaged by 
grazing animals, why aren't privately owned livestock on our public lands being 
reduced in number as well?" asked Bonnie Matton of the horse advocacy group, We 
the People for Wild Horses and Burros.

BLM officials and ranching industry leaders say they have been reduced. The 
number of cattle grazing on public lands has dropped dramatically over the 
years, they say, to about half the number that were on the range when Congress 
passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act in 1971.

They say an overpopulation of wild horses is harming the range and 
threatening the overall well-being of the horse herds at a time when much of the West 
remains in the grip of a five-year drought.
full story:
http://www.casperstartribune.net/art
icles/2004/06/19/news/wyoming/a50803f6b7b3deb087256eb700824010.txt 


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