Toxic Weeds to Horses & Livestock

http://pearlsnapsponderings.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/weedy-wednesday-toxic-weeds-to-horses/

Watch the video from Horse.com identifying common poisonous weeds. Click on above link.

TIME YOUR HORSE'S VACCINATIONS

Timing your horse's vaccinations: Read article here: http://www.equisearch.com/horses_care/time-your-horses-vaccinations-for-safer-results/?utm_source=eqs&utm_medium=nl&utm_campaign=eqs

What is the HSUS up to now?

I encourage you to read the article at this link about the BLM and HSUS.

http://tntmagissues.tackntogs.com/tnt/11_TNT_08/tnt27_0811.pdf

View from

the Range

By Jesse R. Bussard

August 2011 ■ www.tackntogs.com 27

Jesse R. Bussard is a Pennsylvania cowgirl with a degree

from Pennsylvania State University in animal science.

Currently she is pursuing graduate studies in plant and soil

science at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. She

is an active advocate for agriculture through social media

and her personal blog, Pearl Snaps’ Ponderings (http://pearlsnapsponderings.

wordpress.com/).

Too good to be true?

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the

largest and richest animal rights organization in the

world, recently released a report to the U.S. Bureau of Land

Management (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program calling

for a revision of its standard operating procedures to make

mustang gathers more humane and provide more transparent

coverage of roundups.

Though most times proposals like this

sound all well and good to the general bystander,

more times than not animal rights

groups have an ulterior motive. What does

HSUS have hiding up its sleeve with this

one?

Currently the BLM manages an approximate

38,500 wild horses and burros on federal

rangelands covering 10 Western states.

BLM is responsible for not only management

of the range where the mustang herds

reside but also maintaining a sustainable

population of wild horses and burros. Currently

these populations of wild horses and

burros are at unsustainable levels on many

ranges and therefore require some form of population control.

If not controlled, populations could reach levels that

would not be able to be maintained on the current amounts

of rangeland available, leading to starvation, disease, and

increased environmental degradation from overgrazing of

rangelands.

In the report, HSUS calls for installation of real-time cameras

on helicopters, traps, corrals, and holding facilities to

allow BLM offi cials and others to be able to better directly

observe gatherings and also act as an evaluation tool to improving

existing operating procedures. These video cameras

would also increase transparency to the public by providing

remote live-streaming video available online. In addition

to improved transparency, HSUS would also like to see the

BLM establish basic minimum standards for conducting

gather operations.

I can agree with HSUS on its first two requests of BLM.

Both are reasonable suggestions and issues that BLM cur-

rently does need to address. Where I become skeptical is on

the third recommendation. HSUS strongly recommends that

BLM work in partnership with them to conduct their Capture,

Treat, and Release programs to inoculate the appropriate ratios

of mares in wild horse and burro herds at the most effective

time of the year, thereby optimizing to the greatest extent

possible the benefi ts of using the contraceptive

vaccine Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) as a method

of population control.

Here’s where things get real interesting (wait

for it)…the patent holder of the PZP vaccine is

none other than HSUS.

This all leads me to wonder if the true motive

and intent behind HSUS’s report to BLM is

none other than that of profit. One dose of PZP

can run as high as $500. To vaccinate just 20,000

horses would require a whopping $10 million of

taxpayer dollars. Is this really a wise use of our

money? Surely there are other alternatives for

population control that the BLM might consider

such as alternative contraceptives, predator

management, spaying, and/or gelding.

The last thing our government needs to be doing is funding

the lobbying efforts of an animal righs group.

Currently, the BLM is also reviewing another report of the

agency’s wild horse and burro program conducted by the National

Academy of Sciences/National Research Council (NAS/

NRC). NAS/NRC is a non-profit group that advises government

agencies on scientific issues. I would hope that BLM will take

all commentary and options into consideration and not jump

on the HSUS bandwagon just yet.

Sometime the offer really can be too good to be true.