Lynn Watts
Mrs. Brown
Watts 1
English 9 CP
9 May 2016
Stop the Mustang Roundups
“They use a stun gun. Supposedly to kill them instantly. And this black stallion took six shots and still did not go down…he got loose on the kill floor and they had to get a rifle …”
(Stillman 299). The preceding quotation describes a terrible event. A wild horse is being brutally slaughtered after being rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the name of American taxpayers and on their dime. The BLM has decided that there are too many mustangs for the available grazing land and that the horses need to be rounded up for their own survival. However, there would be plenty of grazing land if it were not for the money -lust of greedy cattle ranchers who want the land for their cattle and sheep. Supporters of the horses argue that, even if food and water are in short supply, horses should be allowed to die a natural death in the wilds. Farmers and ranchers counter-argue that if cattle and sheep are grazed on cheap public lands, the cost of beef and lamb can be kept low for consumers. Unfortunately, many of the wild horses end up at slaughter houses in Canada and Mexico just as with the stallion in the quotation from Stillman. It is the hope of mustang supporters that the cruel practices of the BLM can be halted. Wild horses are the symbol of freedom in the American
West and should not be rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management because the process is costly, many horses are injured or die, and there will soon be no horses left in the wild due to aggressive land management by the BLM and cattle ranchers.
THESIS WITH NO COUNTER
BP1 The mustang roundup process is costly for American taxpayers and is not cost effective.
For example, the BLM roundups are year-round and so expensive thatthey are “costing taxpayers $40 million per year. The costs are for the holding pens and the roundup

removal process using helicopters and select cattle ranchers…” (“American Wild Horse
Preservation Campaign” 2).Vast quantities of cash are needed to pay for helicopters and
Watts 2 holding pens. The cattle ranchers who round up the horses make millions of dollars from the government during the roundups.In addition,the United States of America is in the throes of a recession and is in terrible debt so ”No one can argue that in the current economic situation it makes any sense to spend millions of taxpayer dollars chasing wild horses around…” (Smith1).
Wild horses have lived without human interference for hundreds of years; they do not need humans to round them up at great cost to taxpayers. Schools and other publicly-funded organizations are suffering from lack of cash and money used for the horses could go to them.
Locking thousands of horses up in holding pens at a cost of millions is wrong when there are more important projects to fund.
BP2 Many wild mustangs are injured or die because of the roundups. For example, as the horsesand foals are driven by helicopters toward the pens “Activists maintain that a colt was run sohard and long during the roundup that the hoof walls on its two hind feet came off, leaving exposed bones and nerves. The colt was euthanized …” (Griffith 1). It is shocking to realize that the BLM would run baby horses to the point of death. No animal deserves this cruelty for the sake of greed. In addition, some of the foals are left to die in the desert as witnessed by observers who saw “…newborn foals run to exhaustion, found hog tied and abandoned on the range, horses and burros bleeding from the nostrils, broken legs …” (“Unprecedented” 6). This shows that foals, horses and donkeys were injured from the roundup so severely that they bled. Also, foals were left hog tied to die alone because the ranchers could not be bothered to bring them to the pens. The roundups cause horrible deaths and injuries to the wild horses and donkeys.
BP3 The roundups of mustangs are often brutal. For example, some of the ranchers find pleasure in the chase because they were seen chasing “…an older mare collapsing after being

Watts 3 stampeded for miles in a helicopter chase … steam blowing from her nostrils…” (“BLM Called
Upon to Halt Wild Horse Roundups” 2). This was clearly intentionally cruel. Video images of this mare show a helicopter hovering over her after she was so weak she could no longer run. In addition, some of the horses are driven so brutally that “Last month at least 34 wild horses died or were euthanized during and after a forced roundup” (Cohen 3).If so many horses die, then the roundups must run the horses too hard so that they get winded. Some of the horses must get broken legs and have to be euthanized. There is no way to round up wild horses that is not cruel; the animals should be left alone in the wild where they may die natural deaths.
BP4 Horses often die on the way to and in BLM holding facilities. For example, horses are crammed in trailers and in one incident “…a mare fell down in a trailer after being driven for miles on the range by a helicopter… and died a short time later” (Griffith 1). The horse was severely weakened and could no longer stand. It is possible that the other horses trampled her after she fell down. In addition, once the horses arrive at the holding pens they may not be able to eat the man-made food so that “Of [the] six horses that died at the Fallon facility, five involved mares [which were] thought to have experienced difficulty making the transition to hay feed”
(Griffith 2). Horses in the wild do not eat alfalfa or timothy hay and their stomachs may have rejected the new hay. A horse’s stomach, although large, is quite delicate and the horses may colic and die after eating strange food. Horses are better off in the wild where they are safe from trailer and feed accidents.
BP5 The cattle ranchers are using underhand strategies to gain public lands for cattle grazing.
For example, ranchers are using lobbyists to meet government officials because they “… have exploited public lands for generations [and] are angry that wild horses share the range…” (Smith
1).They want the land for their cattle to graze. Ranchers are charged only pennies per cow to use public lands so they make huge profits off the back of taxpayers. In addition, the ranchers graze

Watts 4 more cattle than the land can comfortably manage and “…range damage is caused by privately- owned livestock, which outnumber horses more than 100 to one” (“Unprecedented” 9). This shows that the ranchers may not tell the complete truth about how many cattle they will allow to graze. If the BLM checked more carefully, they would see that the ranchers are being disingenuous . The cattle ranchers use unfair strategies to ensure they make enormous profits for themselves and their company stocks.
BP6 The BLM does not follow the recommendations of scientists when planning mustang herd management. For example, scientists would allow for thousands of horses to be allowed to graze any given zone, but “In Montana this will leave a non-viable herd of only 120 horses”
(“Unprecedented” 2). Scientists agree that 120 horses are so few that the grazing land would be mostly untouched. Many more horses than 120 could graze in Montana’s plains. In addition, it is understood that animal populations rely on older herd members for survival, so “When they take out the old horses they remove the ones that know the way to water, the good grass, the way around the canyon-they’re taking all the knowledge of the herd” (“Unprecedented” 2). Herds without knowledgeable family members will starve or suffer thirst and die if they cannot find water and food. Older horses will know where the best grazing lands are and the younger horses will learn the old ways and trails from them. Furthermore, some herds are losing genes which allow for survival such as “the little Spanish herd [which will be left] below the bare minimum for genetic viability” (“Unprecedented” 2). The herds are greatly reduced in number and the foals born are so in- bred they cannot survive. Most stallions are removed from the range and genetic viability is lost forever. If mustang herds are not managed scientifically, they will not be able to survive even one harsh winter or continue to breed healthily.
BP7 Perhaps the strongest argument for the mustang roundups is that if nothing is done about horse populations, they may grow out of control and destroy natural habitats. For example, The BLM

Watts 5 states that a balance must be maintained in nature, but “Without natural controls such as predators or effective fertility control, populations [of horses] can double every four to five years” (“Working Toward
Sustainable Management” 8). Because mountain lions, wolves, and other predators have disappeared, horses have no natural enemies except man. This means they may breed indiscriminately and some action needs to be taken. In addition, Jackie King, an Orange County conservator, notes that “Wild horses are destroying the natural eco-system for numerous flora and fauna in California and Nevada” (King, Personal Interview). The likeliest horses to be caught in roundups are the older mares who have the knowledge of water holes and where the best feed is located. She believes that these older mares return to the same spots and destroy plants leaving no new growth. This argument has some validity, but it causes the BLM to be in breach of the 1971 law which allows the horses free range on public lands. COUNTER-CLAIM MUST BE BP5, 6, or 7.
BP8 The wild mustang is a symbol of the American West and should be protected. For example, it is hard to imagine the American wilderness without “The horses [which] have lived here for over 200 years” (“Unprecedented” 2). Most movies of the American West depict horses intheir natural environment. The United States of America was able to grow and progress because of transportation provided by the horse. In addition, the horse provided vital communication and was used by “Wells
Fargo [to] …transport money, business documents, and urgent messages across the West” (Stillman
205). Many of these horses, and those used by the Pony Express, were released into the wild after they were no longer useful. Their descendants are the horses now roaming the range. Furthermore, over history the horse came to symbolize freedom and power because “At the end of the nineteenth century, there were two million wild horses ranging across seventeen states” (Stillman 296). This shows that the average citizen is accustomed to horses and sees them as a symbol of a free life. Even though horses are no longer required for transportation, they still represent the American way of life and should be seen across every western state today. It is necessary to protect wild mustangs from cruel, systematic destruction by the BLM and greedy cattle ranchers.

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The American mustang is a majestic creature which used to inhabit much of the American
West. The horse has seen cruelty in the name of cheap MacDonald’s burgers. It has seen brutality at the hands of men who want land for cattle and sheep only. It has been harassed, trampled, stampeded, broken, trailered, underfed, brutalized and killed for the sake of stockholders in corporations such as
Monsanto. Wild horse numbers have seen a huge decline, contrasting what the BLM states about population growth, and it is possible that in a few years the plains will be empty of horses. All of this has happened because of the unnecessary wild horse roundups conducted by the BLM and cattle ranchers. Humans think little of the plight of Americanmustangs, but hopefully this“great silent witness” (Stillman 304) will cause the president to right these roundup wrongs. Perhaps he should watch the damningvideo entitled “Hey, Mr. President” (Hamilton).

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Works Cited
“American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign.”
Yubanet.
19 Feb. 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2016.
“BLM Called Upon to Halt Wild Horse Roundups.” Wild Horse Preservation . 12 Feb. 2015.
Web. 24 Feb. 2016.
Cohen, Andrew. “Fatal Mustang Roundup Triggers Policy Review.”
Politics Daily . 30 Aug.
2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2016.
Griffith, Martin. “BLM Criticized Over Mustang Deaths in NV Roundup.”
Madeleine Pickens
Wild Horse Sanctuary . 23 Jan. 2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2016.
Hamilton, Kay. “Hey, Mr. President.” YouTube. 2010. Web. 4 Jan. 2014.
King, Jackie. Personal Interview. 4 Jan. 2016.
Smith, John L. “No Horse on American Menus.”
Mesquite Local News.
23 Feb. 2011. Web.
24 Feb. 2016.
Stillman, Deanne. Mustang.The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West.
New York: First
Mariner Books, 2009. Print.
“Unprecedented BLM Mustang Roundup Hearing.”
Metta Horsemanship . 1 Sep. 2009. Web.
24 Feb. 2016.
“Working Toward Sustainable Management of America’s Wild Horses and Burros.”
Bureau of
Land Management, Department of the Interior . 2010. Web. 4 Jan. 2016.