How Many
Horses is Too Many?
C.Mason Mas8@pdx.edu
Over the Thanksgiving holidays my
mother took me to a new house she has been in the process of building
near Yakima, Washington. On the way there, she pointed out about a
dozen wild horses. Myself being someone who has always loved horses,
I became very excited. However, my mom told me that there are too
many wild horses in that area. As I looked at her in confusion she
pointed out that much of the land was bare and had no grass. She said
if something isn't done about the issue a lot of these wild horses
would die.
As I was looking into the issue, I found that what she
said was very true.
On Highway 97 within the Yakima Reservation there
are 15,000 horses trying to survive on this 41,000 acres of land
where there is little grass for them to graze. This is ten times more
than the amount that experts believe the land is able to sustain.
This issue puts the horses at
risk for starvation, and puts the the land's fragile vegetation in
jeopardy, as well as encourages the spread of weeds. According to
some of the resources I researched, the growing horse population is
not a newly found issue, but it has been getting much worse. The
Yakima Tribal Council Chairman Harry Smiskin stated that solutions
are still being discussed. Recently, tribal members were getting
ready to capture some of the horses, and then sell them for saddle,
and pack animals, or for slaughter. Slaughter seems to be one of the
most likely options, according to one of my sources. What do you
believe the answer to this problem is?
Resources:
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2013798888_horses30m.html
Picture Credit:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/photo/files/library/yakama_horses_web.jpg
http://www.ynwildlife.org/images/WildHorses329.JPG
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