Salazar's Manifest Destiny

In a recent documentary about the problems involved with the reintroduction of the nearly extinct Mexican wolf, a rancher was quoted as saying “we don’t want them”.  No science.  No statistics.  No reason or clear argument.  Just “we don’t want them”.

 

That statement is the crux of the whole problem facing animals in the west today and the basis for Ken Salazar’s opinions as to how to manage the dwindling herds of wild horses. The ranching community still believes in the notion of manifest destiny: the right to claim the west for human endeavors.

 

And this is no small notion.  For Salazar, a product of five generations of ranching, the belief that the west belongs to ranchers and by extension cattle, is deep and pervasive.   For over one hundred fifty years the livestock industry, by sweat and blood, has clawed its way across the continent in search of the ever needed forage for hungry cattle and sheep. This neo-exploration was and still is backed by the government through subsidies and ridiculously low grazing fees.

 

And even though the prairies and rangelands had once supported millions of grazing wildlife including buffalo and mustangs, by the beginning of the twentieth century the once lush rangeland west of the Mississippi had been reduced to stubble, with native grasses obliterated and alarming damage done to waterways. 

 

Anything and anyone that threatened this quest for manifest destiny or was seen as competitors for forage, was soon eliminated.  Native Americans were pushed off of ancestral lands and whole species were slaughtered in the name of protecting livestock and grazing.  Wolves, coyotes, eagles, bears, ground squirrels and wild horses all found themselves in the cross-hairs of powerful weapons with the full support of our nation’s leaders. 

 

The American government wanted the west.  The ranchers gave it to them.  And in no small way this has made cattle and all the issues surrounding them, politically untouchable.

 

So it is no surprise that with the appointment of a fifth generation rancher to head the Department of the Interior, the president, who espouses change - but is granting a $26 million dollar increase in budget for Salazar to remove horses - has opened the door to an increase in the agonies that accompany manifest destiny.  Wolves, coyotes, ground squirrels and wild horses are fighting for their very lives. 

 

Wild horses, which have a clear fossil and DNA linage to our continent, are being pushed off of lands set aside for them by congress in unprecedented numbers in the dubious name of saving them from starvation or protecting eco-systems.  Yet observers at roundups continue to see healthy horses being captured, thriving rangeland and most notably, no decrease in the number of cattle allowed to graze the same supposedly sensitive areas.

 

This rush to sweep the wild horses off the rangeland has the full support of Salazar.  And why not?  When he looks at the mustang, he sees them through a hundred and fifty year lens of ranching.  Wild horses are competitors for forage, inhabit areas wanted for mining, the powerfully backed Ruby Pipeline and California Heliostat projects, and do not generate hunting fees.  So Salazar wants them removed.  But not only removed, he wants them transplanted back east……somewhere, on pseudo-sanctuaries, at a cost of $96 million dollars, where he believes people will actually pay to watch once wild horses eat grass all day.

 

His plan, therefore, to move them to areas in the east, is not surprising, nor is his revisionist view of wild horse history.  It is the final chapter in the long saga of claiming the west.  Soon the horses, like the buffalo and the wolf and so many other beings, will be mere shadows of the species they once were.  And our president, and his appointees, can go down in history as those who stole the magnificence of the west from our children.

Comments

[Beverly CLancy]

Ken Salazar should be sooooo ashamed!!! Will be a cold day before I vote for him again!

[Michael Haines]

This is sad, sad, sad. Will we EVER go beyond our species' imperialistic attitude towards the rest of nature? Hasn't enough damage been done? Apparently not for the US Government. Michael Haines

[Becki Burt]

I understand that Salazar's brain is obviously fine-tuned to the 'world' he knows... but could it ever be possible for him to take two steps back and look at both the smaller and larger picture? Removal/relocation and the affects it will have on the environmental balance of both areas, obvious costs, the entire crushing of such an incredible animals free spirit... it makes me want to cry just thinking about it... everything on this planet belonged to every living creature before it belonged to us, instead of respecting that, he continues on the path of triumph so many have decided to travel, taking everything that stands before them just to make sure their needs are met. It seems he's lost the respect for the foundations of this planet, of this nation even for crying out loud. It is a sad prospect he portrays, the picture he paints when he makes his decision- someday everything caged like a zoo... future food eating on the left, 'free' animals on the right.- Just another person leading this world to swallow itself up one sip at a time.

[Jeff Hoffman]

When I worked with Earth First! in the mid '80s, removing cattle from public lands, and ultimately from the West, was one of our campaigns. The cattle industry has done more harm to the western U.S. than any other. But because of constant propaganda by Hollywood and mainstream media, cowboys are worshiped instead of scorned. I don't agree about horses being native -- they became extinct thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans and the ones that lived here were tiny -- but the horses in the West are clearly not the animals doing the environmental harm, the cattle and sheep are.

[Norma Campbell, Campbell, Ca]

Barbara: You Salazar's Manifest Destiny was puished in our local paper, San Jose Mercury News 4-26-10. Although I had read it before on this site I was so glad to see it in print for all to read.

Perhaps this will help bring the public to realization what is happening to our Wild Horses and many other creatures. The public could stop it by writing,calling their politicians, I do and I pray they will someday before it is to late, listen.

[thomas_schneck]

Take a look at Job 39:5-9 written 3000+ years ago. Does this speak to us?

"Who let the wild donkey go free?
Who untied his ropes?
I gave him the wasteland as his home,
the salt flats as his habitat.
He laughs at the commotion in the town;
he does not hear a driver's shout.
He ranges the hills for his pasture
and searches for any green thing."

[Clémence Baillon]

Dear Mrs Clarke,
I have just seen a documentary about your work on French TV.
What you do is absolutely great !
You are an amazing person !
I hope I'll be able to come and visit you one day !
I'd love to help !
Take care
Warmest
Clem

[Anna White]

Hi Norma:

thanks for the Job Proverb; most enligtening

Take a look at Job 39:5-9 written 3000+ years ago. Does this speak to us?

"Who let the wild donkey go free?
Who untied his ropes?
I gave him the wasteland as his home,
the salt flats as his habitat.
He laughs at the commotion in the town;
he does not hear a driver's shout.
He ranges the hills for his pasture
and searches for any green thing."

[Suzanne Moore]

Barbara is right - the horses ARE native to North America. The horses the Spaniards reintroduced were the identical species that became extinct - or at least nearly so - about 8,000 years before. Both are Equus caballus, as are our domestic horses.

I don't think you will find a reputable geneticist that would deem the horses anything but a reintroduced native species - the DNA proves it. The E caballus that were living here at the time of their extinction were not much smaller than our modern horses. Remember, all horses were smaller than the modern horses which have been selectively bred by humans to be larger. If you look at the wild horses today, you'll see that they are considerably smaller than the domestic horses the BLM wranglers ride.

In the wild, it is much more economical to be smaller and hardier. Their systems thrive on much less forage. The modern pony breeds and well as Morgans retain this ability which is why they have such a tendency to become obese and develop metabolic problems on modern horse rations and even the "souped-up" high fructose grass we have now.

[A Facebook User]

http://thepersianhorse.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/ Join us for a Christmas gift for
everyone and every animal

fire-ken-salazar-before-he-kills-everything-please-sign-petition/