I’ve never had a hard time putting a rifle together before. But this time I did. The person came in with a rifle that needed to be set up and ammunition selected. The gun was a common build .25-06 for shooting big game at 100 yards. Culling, not hunting. So why did I have a hard time with this?
Because the big game in this case wasn’t game… it was wild horses.
I’ve heard all the reasons for culling the horses… but I still don’t like it. And I know I don’t even like horses… but there is something about wild horses that I’d rather they not be killed randomly. Slaughtering them and leaving them to rot. Yes, I’m aware of the potential hypocrisy here, I’ve killed many coyotes and prairie dogs to just leave them where they fall. But horses are not predators or varmints. Horses are intelligent, social, and some how a symbol of American Freedom. It just smacks of wrongness.
I set the gun up and selected the best ammo for the job… But I didn’t like it.
Wait…what? An ogre whose heart isn’t completely black? Is there such a thing?
Maybe that explains why he’s a MAD ogre?
Tough call there George.
I understand conservation and how thinning the population actually helps it in the long run.
I still have issues with trophy hunting deer.
I am a meat hunter.
Yes, the thrill of the hunt is there… but the goal is filling my freezer and feeding my family.
I have refused to take friends hunting because they were going out to just kill… or bring back a rack.
I respect the Game, and dont go out hunting for the thrill of the kill.
Pests, I have NO issues lighting up pests.
Same as having no trouble lighting up some animal that is damaging the garden… yet again survival and food related.
One day I will go on a whistle pig hunt.
I dont think I could cull horses.
As a youth we had horses, and I used to just go talk to them… as well as ride them.
Culling for the good of the herd… I couldnt do it… but others will have no troubles.
I honestly think you made the right call.
Jim
Anthropomorphism there. The “don’t eat pets” mindset.
The meat gets wasted because the PEtArds used this as an excuse to get the feds to ban slaughtering them for human consumption in the US, despite the fact that damned near all of the meat was imported into Europe.
So now the meat gets left to rot when the herd needs culling … and there ain’t enough wolves or coyotes allowed to run loose to do the culling, so guess who has too?
I’m not sure I could bring myself to do that. There’s just something ‘majestic’ about wild horses.
Maybe I’d feel differently if I owned a spread that was somehow being damaged by a herd of wild horses (or burros) – but it’s not a job I’d feel good about doing (though I wouldn’t farm it out).
Interesting case, George. Was this a government employee, or a rancher with permission to cull horses on his range?
Yup… I didn’t quite catch if she was State or Fed… I was too busy biting my tongue.
HK, you are absolutely right. They have screwed up. They do not know what Wildlife Management is.
Eek…yeah I can see the hesitancy there. I’m in the aviation field, and we have to do a serious amount of culling due to the sheer danger of birdstrikes…but I can balance that knowing how dangerous one bird hitting a plane full of 150 people can be.
The idea of dropping wild horses certainly doesn’t feel right…like shooting someone’s dog.
I’m in the horses are over rated crowd. But just leaving them to rot strikes me as wasteful. “Thars some good eting thar.” Horses have utility either as food or work animals. It might be a good idea to breed the wild ones back into the domestic breeds for hybrid vigor. While mechanical equipment has replaced animals on the farm stuff happens. There is still a steady demand for American bred mules, and the military is just one user of them.
Meanwhile letting the horsey rot is depriving some deserving puppy of a tasty snack at the least.
I’ve been down on horses since one knocked this really cute teenage girl down in a passage way then stepped on her head and crushed her skull. That horse got shot and nobody cryed.
The government has screwed up this whole horse thing. They aren’t wild horses, but domestic horses gone wild.
The government needs to get out of this. All they have done is make matters worse. The enviros and animal activists are the real blame of course.
Horses are an invasive species in America. They do not have a niche developed through millions of years of evolving in the ecosystem.
Do you have any issues with culling feral hogs? The feral hog is uglier, but just as intelligent as the horse. The feral hog and the wild mustang are both environmental interlopers. We view the hog as little better than 300 pound rats, but the wild mustang is a magnificent beast, a symbol of power, speed, and freedom. I have no problem shooting hogs by the dozen, but I too would be loathe to shoot a horse under any circumstances. However, that is an emotion based position, thus irrational.
The government has a long history of fucking up ecosystems by “managing” them. Read the history of government management of Yellowstone Park. It is a horror story of serial profound failure. The way we have dealt with the wild horse issue is a continuation of our history.
Actually horses were originally a North American species. They went extinct in North America around the end of the Pleistocene, ~12,000 years ago. Horses originally evolved on this continent.
The entire North American ecosystem is wonky. South American too. First there was the Great American Interchange when the Panama isthmus became passable a few million years ago, and more recently the migration of humans and Eurasian animals over the land bridge (Beringia) between Russia and Alaska around the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago.
Horses have more of a “right” to be in North America than most of the stuff we think of as native species, if you believe any species has a right to anything. Plenty of stuff we think of as native came from Asia in relatively recent times, or from South America ~3 mya. Hardly a drop in the bucket considering mammals have been evolving in recognizable forms since the Mesozoic.
I’m down with re-introducing Mammoths to North America … there is an outside chance they can reconstitute them from existing DNA samples.
I’d finally have a good reason to buy an elephant gun.
That’s called “Looking at the Bright Side”.
Yeah, Mammoths were native here in North America here. The Green Party types should love it.