They Shoot Horses Don't They? Newsweek, October 15 edition

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The October 15 edition of Newsweek magazine has an article, by Tony Dokoupil, headed, "They Shoot Horses Don't They? Wild mustangs carried pioneers, cowboys and soldiers. Today, they're being sold for slaughter. An American dilemma." The article is accompanied by a sad photo of a herd of mustangs being chased by a helicopter. It opens by describing a new annual competition in Texas that "gives 100 trainers 100 days to break in 100 wild horses, plucked from free-roaming herds in the American West."Dokoupil explains:"More than a slice of Americana, the competition is part of a more serious problem: keeping Western range lands from being overgrazed by a horse population that, if left unchecked, doubles every four years, encroaching on ranch lands and overtaxing their natural habitat. By showing off these animals, the government (the Bureau

of Land Management organized the event) hopes to increase public interest in owning them. If the Feds fail, they have to thin the herds in more-controversial ways, including captivity in federal corrals and sale 'without limitation'—which can mean slaughter, though the BLM tries to screen out 'killer buyers' by, among other things, forcing them to sign a pledge of safekeeping."He describes the competition as "part of a dramatic attempt to manage and solve an intractable long-term problem: how to find a place for the mustang, a symbol of freedom and the frontier way of life, in a world of diminished grazing land, competing land interests and changing cultural sensibilities."We learn that the mustangs numbered 2 million in 1900 and that "Today, the official count of wild mustangs stands at 28,000—a seemingly manageable size that balances the land-use interests of weekenders, private homeowners, cattle ranchers and horse lovers." We also learn about an

additional 30,000 horses who, "rounded up but unsold, are in federal corrals at a cost of $20 million to $50 million a year." We read: "Overall, there are more than 100,000 unwanted horses each year, including mustangs, according to the Unwanted Horse Coalition, a Washington-based nonprofit."Dokoupil continues: "This has led to a search for new solutions—or rather a return to old ones: slaughter. Organizations such as the American Association of Equine Practitioners and the American Association of Veterinary Medicine have come out in favor of selling unwanted horses into slaughter on the ground that it's the humane choice for animals that would otherwise be neglected or abandoned."Dokoupil comments;"With the killing floors in sight, it's no wonder that horse advocates and Extreme Mustang Makeover organizers are putting such faith in the power of their competition to rebrand the mustang, find enough adoptive parents to relieve pressure on the

holding facilities and reinvigorate the horse market." You will find the whole piece on line at http://www.newsweek.com/id/42536What is missing from the article is any questioning of the premise that a mere 28,000 is the perfect number of wild horses on land that once supported 2 million -- and that the cattle-grazers have a right to the land. Given the United Nations report on the devastating effect of the livestock industry on the environment, and given the devastating effect of high meat consumption on US health, and also the effect of the round-ups on the mustangs -- the classic symbol of the American West, that premise should be questioned.Readers thriving on plant based diets can easily question the need for evicting the mustangs to make way for the cattle ranchers. Newsweek takes letters at lettersI always worry when I make comments on a story, that letters to the editor will look like form letters of a sort. So please be

careful not to use any phrases from me or from any other alerts in your letters. Editors are looking for original responses from their readers.Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. The article is also a reminder to support the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, which would ban not only the slaughter of horses in the US, but the transport of US horses out of the US for slaughter elsewhere. When shipping horses to slaughter is no longer an option, the government will be forced to find humane ways to control their population, or to allow them more land to roam on which preference is not automatically given to cattle ranchers.At https://community.hsus.org/campaign/FED_2007_horseslaughter_notcosponsor you can watch undercover footage of US horses transported to slaughter, and then take action. Yours and the

animals',Karen Dawn(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)To discontinue DawnWatch alerts go to http://www.DawnWatch.com/nothanks.php-------You are d to DawnWatch using the following address: dogs_goodDate: Tue Oct 16 14:23:10 2007

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