“The livestock industry is the last wildlife-genocide program in the United States,” says Bruce Apple, the director of an Oregon-based environmental organization appropriately called Rest the West. “All-out war is declared on a diversity of species every day to benefit a single industry.” 

This ‘single industry’, the Beef Industry, is one example of how our dollars have an impact to not just the wild horses, but our health and the environment. Think differently about your purchases. Every penny you and I spend makes a political statement.  Take time to look ‘behind the name’. Understand what your purchase means to others.

Is this a difficult concept to wrap your mind around? Yes. However, once you take time to understand everything that happens behind the products we purchase and realize the power of every dollar you spend, then you can begin to govern like no government ever will!

Behind the Burger:

Our sensational appetite for Whoppers, Big Macs and Wendy’s burgers is chomping at the hills of our nation’s wild horses; people eat approximately 200 billion burgers a year! The United States has a population of a little over 307 million; “Modern plants can process 800,000 pounds of hamburger meat a day, from many thousands of different cattle”. Last year the U.S. Population Ate 26.4 Billion Pounds of Beef Cattle! And according to ‘Freakonomics, The Hidden Side of Everything’, “Our Future Looks Fat; Study Predicts Nearly Half the U.S. Population Will be Obese by 2030″.

About 45 million beef cattle roam some 870 million acres, more than two thirds of the land mass in our seventeen westernmost states. There are about 33,700 wild horses and 4,700 burros roaming on BLM ranges in 10 Western states.  The Bureau of Land Management says, if these horses were left on their own, the population would explode. Let’s see, 45 million beef cattle and 33,700 wild horses…and why is the BLM focusing on the wild horse population? Chomp! Chomp! Oh, by the way, there is a huge difference in the way cattle and horses graze.  I’m not saying to stop eating beef…just slow down! Try eating only ‘organic’ and eat less.

The changes needed today will go beyond much of what we have loved and coveted. We have a couple of choices when it comes to the changes we need. We can choose to leave a bright and shiny world; full of everything healthy and beautiful; or, continue chomping away at the heals of our world, leaving a sick and fearful world. This is difficult journey; making time to study before you make a purchase. The upside: You can participate in governing this planet with every penny you spend.

Look closely at the CHANGE that is ahead for all of us; the heart and soul of what life is about, not just what it looks and smells like; new doors to how we connect are opening. Welcome. ‘What happens to the least of us, happens to all of us’.  Me, I’m just a ‘whimsical kid’ that keeps dreaming. Penny Politics works! Try it on and see how it feels!

Happy Wild Horse Trails!

"A Mother's Love" (Elyse Gardner 2009)

Perhaps I have too tender a heart; my eyes burn and my heart aches so much that I have to take a few minutes to let the overwhelming tragedy befalling our nations wild horses reseed before I can continue.

“This week’s “gather” of some 2,500 wild horses from Nevada’s Calico Mountains marked the Bureau of Land Management’s latest bungle to “balance natural resources.”

“If you could look closely into the eyes of the horses – corralled in a subzero chill and bathed in sweat that freezes to their hide – you see terror. With eyes bulging, they blow steam from their noses that hangs in the frigid air. These are traumatized animals who do not quickly settle, as BLM misleadingly tells the public.”  – Kinship Circle

Some say the wild horse is no longer automatically considered deserving of extensive protection; some environmentalists and scientists have come to see the mustangs as bullies, invaders who disturb the habitats of endangered tortoises and desert birds. In a 2006 article in Audubon magazine, wild horses lost their poetry and were reduced to “feral equids.”

The Bureau of Land Management’s quest to ‘balance our natural resources’ (these beautiful horses) is bringing horrific consequences to them. After reading the story first in the Kinship Circle, then in the New York Times and their similar story ‘On Mustang Range, a Battle on Thinning the Herd’ I’ve been possessed by wild horses. I’ve called President Obama, Vice President Biden, the Department of Interior and the Bureau of Land Management, as well as sending letters, conveying my deep concern for what’s happening to one of our most precious national treasures – wild horses. The message I left urged them to establish a committee of environmentalist, animal scientist, animal welfare advocates, ranchers and anyone else who desires to see a better solution to the Bureau of Land Management’s current approach to ‘managing our resources’!

Wild horses comprise a minute fraction of grazing animals on public lands, where they are outnumbered by cattle at least 200 to 1. The 1971 Act states that, in a given area, a certain amount of vegetation may be eaten as forage. Only when that amount is exceeded are there too many animals. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has overwhelmingly favored cattle in setting “appropriate” wild horse population levels, resulting in indiscriminate removal of horses and burros from public lands. From over 2 million in 1900, our wild horse population has dwindled to less than 25,000. For more information, please check the numbers.

“The battle for our wild horses will be won in the court of public opinion: the government needs to face a sustained public outcry over its wild horse management practices. Did you know that Congress counts each letter received as the opinion of ten people” – The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC)

Please take ACTION. The AWHPC has a list of suggestions to help keep up the noise and spread the word.

Wild Horses

“My face up against the glass. I’m looking out. Is this my life I’m wondering. It happened so fast. How do I turn this thing around. Is this the bed I chose to make. Its greener pastures I’m thinking about. Wide open spaces far away. All I want is the wind in my hair to face the fear but, not feel scared. Wild horses I wanna be like you. Throwing caution to the wind. I’ll run free too. Wish I could recklessly love, like I’m longing to. I want to run with the wild horses, run with the wild horses!

I see the girl I wanna be. Riding bare back, care free along the shore If only that someone was me. Jumping head first head long without a thought. To act and damn the consequence. How I wish it could be that easy. But fear surrounds me like a fence. I wanna break free. All I want is the wind in my hair. To face the fear but, not feel scared.

Wild horses I wanna be like you. Throwing caution to the wind, I’ll run free too. Wish I could recklessly love, like I’m longing to. I wanna run with the wild horses, run with the wild horses!

I wanna run too. Breathlessly abandoning my self before you. I wanna open up my heart tell him how I feel. Wild horses I wanna be like you
Throwing caution to the wind. I’ll run free too. Wish I could recklessly love, like I’m longing to. I wanna run with the wild horses, run with the wild horses!

I wanna run with the wild horses.”

- Natasha Bedingfield Lyrics