This is a wonderful read. A lot of information about wild horses and their history and what is being done now with them. The idea of wild horses out in the open land, running free is an image I think most Americans is sort of heartwarming. Unlike the buffalo that were shot to near extinction and now only sort of roam in fields in small numbers, wild horses is a picture we would all like to envision. This books embraces that but then also introduces the reader with the reality that wild unmanaged horses overbreed and will overrun grazing & wells/water areas. On federal lands they do roundups to try to keep the numbers down, but since they cannot kill the horses they are pinned up on large ranches at huge expenses. There are like 50k horses like this. They try to sell or basically give away what they can but schemes come up where buyers are getting the horses and selling to processing plants--food heading to Europe. Book really points out that current ways & laws not working and no real leadership to change it. Both sides--ranchers want fewer horses and several groups want no harm to horses and also to stop roundups. At end of book, author finds a couple areas where mountain lions returning, they are keeping the horse population in check, so long as horses forced go to into mountains for food & water. Interesting but problem that many people also dislike the mountain lions. A very good read and really makes you think.
There are WL for it, I think around 4 or 5 but at this point keeping it. Might be one to loan out at some point to friends to read.
No comments:
Post a Comment