I haven’t hunted pronghorn antelope for years. Through the ‘90’s and up until 10 years ago, I hunted antelope in Harding County. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I went up there more to see Larry, my host rancher, than to hunt. Larry succumbed to cancer in January 2011, leaving me with no desire to hunt that land without Larry. I finally put that behind me and applied for a tag. My application was successful, and I contacted the family about hunting again. They graciously welcomed my return, and invited Betsy to come along. I’m looking forward to once again walking over that Sim Buttes prairie, and I’ll probably throw in my shotgun.

They tell me that the pronghorn numbers are not what they were the last time I hunted, and I’m anxious to see for myself. If they are down, I want to know why. I’m also anxious to see how the once abundant but now protected sage grouse are doing. Because of press deadlines, you’ll have to wait until next week to hear about it.

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I found the article, “They Don’t Shoot Horses, Do They?” in the October 2019 issue of Petersen’s Hunting magazine thought provoking if not troubling. The title, no doubt, is a takeoff on the 1969 Jane Fonda movie, “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” It appears that over populated wild horses are a major problem in some areas of the West. While much of the population explosion has been caused by natural reproduction, the turning loose of pets also contributes to the problem.

In California’s Modoc National Forest, The Devil’s Garden Plateau Wild Horse Territory was intended to support 400 horses. Today it holds 4,000 horses. In the Great Basin areas of Nevada, Oregon, California, and Utah, starving, emaciated horses “nibble at shadows of grass” among the skeletons of starved horses. Across the ten states in the West that have designated wild horse and burro herds, the equine population was 88,090 in 2018 according to BLM (Bureau of Land Management) surveys. The ALM or Appropriate Management Level for this land is 26,690 animals.

Everyone would like to believe that the adoption process takes care of the problem, but it just isn’t so. Politics wise, land management exceptions have been made for decades, and the horses are now paying the price. This “price” is mass starvation. There’s an obvious shortage of feed and water, but there’s no shortage of emotional advocates who monitor BLM efforts to manage or “thin” wild horse herds. A Congress under pressure has limited the use of euthanasia as well as selling wild horses to the slaughter trade.

In 2017, the BLM spent 60% of its $81 million budget on the care of horses and burros removed from the range. This comes to $48,000 for a single unadopted horse over its lifetime. Neither the BLM nor we tax payers can afford this.

The article suggests that hunting tags be sold for wild horses. It asks how much a European hunter would spend to come and hunt wild mustangs. They then admit that the idea is ludicrous when euthanasia is not a consideration. Personally, I don’t see hunting as a solution even though the wild horses I experienced in Alberta’s Canadian Rockies were truly wild and extremely wary. I’m told that the French relish horse meat, but I can’t imagine legions of French hunters solving our problem.

When I was a little guy accompanying my mother to the market, I threw a tantrum when she bought ground horse meat for 19 cents a pound rather than the ground beef at 29 cents. Hunger ended my boycott, and as I recall, the meatloaf had a metallic taste to it.

No, we Americans are not going to buy horsemeat at the supermarket for our own consumption, but in this pet crazy world of ours, I can see it as a dog food main ingredient if it isn’t already. I’m certain that the slaughter of horses will be as humane as the slaughter of cattle in our packing plants. Though I might sound heartless to some readers, it is a vastly superior solution to the suffering endured on the path to starvation.