The Definition of Insanity

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over, and over and expecting a different result. By this definition, the Bureau of Land Management, BLM, is crazy as hell. Which comes as no surprise to anyone.

Currently there are over 53,000 wild horses in holding. This is an enormous amount of horses who have lost their homes and families. The cost to tax payers for these cruel and ongoing roundups, along with the cost of housing all these horses is in the millions. And yet, BLM plans to roundup up 10,000 more! The “Path Forward” which was crafted by Return to Freedom, The Humane Society, ASPCA, and the Cattleman’s Assoc. calls for the roundups to continue for the next 10 years in order to meet that 10,000 number. At the rate they are going however, 10,000 is going to happen sooner, rather than later.

Why, why all this insanity? This is a question with several answers. Let’s start with the livestock industry. For close to 100 years now, ranchers have been allowed to get a grazing permit to place their cows or sheep on public land. I suppose at first this seemed like an OK idea. People were trying to move west, and not everyone had the money to buy land. Even though it was ridiculously cheap at the time. The problem is, this antiquated practice is still happening today. Ranchers pay a paltry sum to have their animals on our public land, when in fact the use of public land, buy who knew, the actual public, has increased. About 1% of all beef consumed comes from cows grazed on public land. If this antiquated practice stopped right now, it would have zero affect on the beef market. In the mean time, camping, hiking, and other forms of recreation brings billions of dollars to local economies. This article from The Wildlife News spells it all out perfectly. This article from The Center for Biological Diversity goes more in depth on the ecological costs, as well as the economic costs of grazing on public lands.

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