duckminifarm.com Blog

I respect some animals rights groups because some of them have really brought the welfare of animals to the public’s attention. I DON’T like it when they humanize animals in an attempt to pull people’s heartstrings or manipulate them. Sometimes the results of this are downright funny when you really look at them.

I just read this [excerpt below] from a Yahoo News article about wild horses.

[Elliot Katz, president of California-based In Defense of Animals, said Obama should grant the Nevada horses a holiday reprieve until the legality of long-term holding facilities is determined.

"While the president is enjoying the holidays ... (we) ask him to think of the horse families who are about to be torn apart forever in the BLM roundup," Katz said. "With the stroke of a pen, he can stop the terror that is about to befall the majestic wild horses of the Calico Mountains in Nevada."]

Wild horse families “torn apart forever?” Give me a break! What do they think happens to young stud colts: they’re usually driven from the herd when they mature. If they stayed, then they’d be breeding their mothers, aunts and sisters, so it works better that way. Female horses may still be in the same herd, but Mama is going to run Sister off a little when the new foal is born. Horse “families” aren’t human “families.”

Then there’s the matter of the “terror”. Certainly being put into a pen is probably terrifying for these feral horses. But so is a violent thunderstorm or a predator. BLM roundups aren’t the only “terror” in these animals’ lives. I once saw a disturbing video where a herd stud killed a defective newborn foal. These animals aren’t gentle “Bambis.”

The BLM probably DOES need to have a better plan. Apparently they don’t have a good plan for these horses. Also, too many people adopt these horses without knowing what they’re getting into. I often see them offered for sale, many times having been too much for their idealistic [young] owners to handle.