An estimated 17,432 feral horses, known to local Australians as “brumbies,” are loose in Kosciuszko National Park, a 2,600-square-mile national park, in southeastern New South Wales. To achieve a reduction of these numbers to 3,000 by June 2027, aerial culling has now been introduced into the management repertoire. This allows for the horses to be shot from helicopters. Around 14,000 feral horses roaming the plains of Australia are due to be culled by shooting them from helicopters.

These horses are descendants of horses brought into Australia by European settlers, first arriving in 1788. Escaped and abandoned horses were first reported in the Alpine regions of Australia in the 1830’.

These horses, numbering up to 400,000 across the whole country, are now considered an invasive species. They pose a threat to local ecological systems due to their grazing and trampling of the ground and the native plant species, particularly in the Australian Alps.

Should we, the hopeless romantics that want to keep the West western and see the wild horses be wild horses, be worried? The BLM already has a tactical air fleet of helicopters. Will they be fitted with 7.62-mm miniguns? The gun referred to as Puff the Magic Dragon in Vietnam? I think it is not an absurd theory. The groundwork and mentality exist and are already in place.

Contractors, hired by Grand Teton National Park, used helicopters to kill 50 invasive mountain goats in a campaign to protect the park’s herd of native bighorn sheep. These goats migrated from Idaho into the Tetons and were considered a risk to the native bighorn sheep.

To reduce elk numbers to their target levels, Rep. John Winter (R-Thermopolis) suggested commissioning a helicopter crew to remove overpopulated herds that are eating grass, busting fences and generally giving Wyoming ranchers headaches. 

Rep. John Eklund (R-Cheyenne), a committee co-chair, questioned whether elk killed from within inflated herds need to be processed: “Can they just be gunned,” he asked, “and let the coyotes take care of the carcasses?” 

As of yet, here in the United States, wild horses are not being gunned down from the air, though they are being culled by guns after being rounded up.

Gov. Mark Gordon, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other federal sources helped round up more than 6,500 horses on the Wind River Reservation this year. The efforts have been met with concerns and questions.

The roundups are controversial but are practiced by wildlife management agencies throughout the West, and we can just state the truth and say, BLM! Horses were removed because of concerns about their impact on the grassland ecosystem and the availability of grazeable forage. This needed forage is used not just for wildlife, but also for domestic cattle.

Some reservation residents expressed concern about the methods used to remove the horses. They were troubled by the harm the roundup caused to some horses. They also had concerns about how dangerous the gathering was with low-flying helicopters and deniable gunshots being heard.

Rep. Winter wanted to know where the horses went after they were rounded up on the reservation. “It’s my understanding that the Canadian facilities have been closed, so are you sending them to Mexico?” he asked. Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game director Lawson answered that the majority of the horses are shipped to Mexico.

Currently, there are no operational horse slaughter plants in the U.S., but horses are still being shipped across our borders to Mexican plants. Thousands of horses are auctioned each year, including healthy pleasure horses and mules. It is assumed that the majority of horses sold at auctions are purchased by “killer buyers,” who represent or sell the horses to slaughterhouses.

Most horses purchased by killer buyers go directly to the slaughter plant, but not all. Intermediaries purchase horses to take home, fatten them up and then send them to slaughter later. Horses may travel from one auction to another before ending up at a slaughter plant across the border.

Our wild horses are legends of the American West. A mythic symbol of freedom, romance, limitless possibilities and the plight of the vanishing West. There are intractable complexities with the wild horses of the American West, but they cannot be forgotten or banished.

Native American plains tribes embraced the horse as a brother in spirit and a link to the supernatural realm. They integrated the horse into all aspects of life including their spiritual ceremonies.

Because of the romantic freedom the wild horse represents, the media and government agencies are now referring to them as feral horses, which in reality they are. A feral horse is a free-roaming horse derived from domesticated stock. As such, a feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. A domestic animal becomes feral, simply by fending for itself when left in the wild.

Now, to diminish the icon of the West more, a different terminology is coming into light. Feral horses and burros in North America are now considered invasive species.

An invasive species is an introduced, nonnative parasite, plant or animal that begins to spread or expand its range from the site of its original introduction and that has the potential to cause harm to the environment.

Technically this too is correct, but with the dumbing down of America, the conclusion of all situations is better achieved if you pepper it with degrading titles and explanations. This is the way we will lose free-roaming horses.

Being a beef eater I should not say this, but I am not one to hinder my freedom of speech, nor do I fear putting words onto paper. This same terminology can also be used to describe the beef that roams the high wide open for a few months. The same range they share with the wild and invasive species we humans, the other more dominant invasive species, call a Wild Horse. - dbA

You can find more of the unfiltered insight and the Art of Dan Abernathy at www.contributechaos.com.