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http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15278266

 

 

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Ken Salazar's "candy shop"

 

By Janet Carabello

Posted: 06/12/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT



Adding further to Dan Haley's editorial on Ken Salazar: The energy interests are not the only ones receiving handouts from the "candy shop" that our public lands have become under the Department of Interior (DOI), currently headed by Ken Salazar.

 

Mr. Salazar, himself a rancher, has perpetuated the handouts of millions of acres to the recipients of "welfare ranching", i.e. government subsidized grazing rights.

 

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which reports ultimately to Mr. Salazar, issues grazing rights at the current cost of $1.35 per month per "animal unit," that is, one cow and calf (really two mouths eating grass). A rancher leasing private land to graze would probably pay upwards of $16.00 per month for the same livestock count.

 

Who are these taxpayer-subsidized ranchers? Not really small town poor folks qualifying for "welfare" rights like food stamps, etc. Most of the livestock on public lands is owned by major corporations and huge multi-million dollar cattle barons. That's a real sweet handout to them.

 

The story gets worse from the taxpayers' point of view and those with interest in historical values and humane treatment of animals. The BLM keeps issuing grazing rights and expanding public lands use to livestock ranchers at the expense of one of our national treasures: wild horses and burros.

 

Using the excuse that they are overgrazing and degrading our public lands, wild horse herds are being systemically removed by the BLM or "zeroed out" to use their own terminology. This is done with brutal helicopter "gathers" that force what were once free roaming spirited animals, many with genetic ties back hundreds of years to the Spanish imports, into holding pens to be "processed" for theoretical adoptions. Right now there are over 36,000 of these wild horses and burros being held in holding pens and fed daily at taxpayers' expense.

 

Now here is the crazy part: Having taken away millions of western public land acres from the horses, Ken Salazar is proposing to purchase more land out east and then transport these captive horses to live out there!

 

He has approached Congress with a budget request that includes $45 million to make this purchase. (Total budget of $75 million for the BLM wild horse program plus $45 million to buy the land.) Although this is tragic and inhumane, it is also resulting in enormous and unnecessary waste of the American taxpayers' money. Here are credible estimates:

 

*Current cost of the entire "welfare ranching" public lands grazing program: at least $500 million annually.

 

*Current cost of wild horse roundups and feeding 36,000 +captive animals: at least $100,000 daily or $36.5 million annually

 

*Proposed cost of purchasing new lands back east to house the animals: $45 million

 

These are only monetary costs. For those who care further, there is the "management to extinction" cost of what is happening to our American mustangs, i.e., the wild horses and burros.

 

The BLM itself admits that there are now probably more mustangs in captivity then there are left in the wild. But the roundups are still going on and BLM pledges to keep reducing the herd numbers, while continuing to hand out more livestock grazing permits. (George Knapp's CBS documentary "Stampede to Extinction" is only one of the many public testaments telling the story visually.)

 

So what will be the next "candy shop" handout under Ken Salazar's watch? Some suspect and fear that he will just handout our entire stock of American mustangs to slaughter interests, for some far away dinner table or fertilizer or dog food.

 

After all, even the BLM says the whole disaster is presently "unsustainable." Whether it is oil or livestock interests, Mr. Salazar should not be conducting or condoning the "candy shop "handouts.

The candy; i.e., "our public lands," and all its resources, belongs to the U.S. taxpayer!

 

Janet Carabello lives in Fort Collins. For more information, go to The Cloud Foundation, (thecloudfoundation.org) and the Animal Welfare Institute (www.awionline.org). EDITOR'S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
 
 

Movements toward bringing slaughter back

 

This is the same drivel but in a new package. It's unbelievable they are still using the abandoned horse tactic when there is nothing stopping anyone from sending their horse to slaughter. Of course, no mention of cutting back on producing horses or that many of the states that have introduced legislation have pulled it.

June 12, 2010 by Julie Harker  

Bit by bit, there are movements toward bringing horse slaughter back in the U.S.   Karen Freeze, with the Horseman's Council of Illinois, tells Brownfield  there are more and more signs, in state governments and elsewhere, that there's a recognition about the importance of the slaughter market for horses.

 

Go to this link for a 3 minute audio bite - AUDIO: Karen Freeze (3 min. MP3)
 
 
 
Dissecting Disinformation 
 

Wallis Statements (note, there were two different versions of this) | 1) Because of the closure of the US slaughter plants in the US in 2007 by state action in Illinois and Texas, the entire horse industry from top to bottom has been deeply affected. What was a 1.2 Billion dollar industry supporting 460,000 full-time direct jobs, and another 1.6 million indirect jobs has been cut in half. There has been a loss of a minimum of 500,000 direct and indirect jobs, and horses that were worth $1,000 are now worthless, horses once worth $2,500 are lucky to bring $750, horses that would have sold for $85,000 to $100,000 are now being liquidated for $10,000 each. These hard, cold facts all have a very human face in livelihoods lost, in families no longer able to raise their children in a horseback culture, in diminished tax bases for communities.

 

2) The horse industry was a 1.2 Billion dollar industry that employed 460,000 people working full-time with horses every day, and another 1.6 Million who worked in indirect occupations. Since 2007 when the horse slaughter facilities in the U.S. were closed, that industry has been downsized and is being liquidated to the point that it will be cut in half, a 50% downsizing, within very short order.

 

"At a time when many Wyoming towns and communities are experiencing 12-15% unemployment," says Wyoming state legislator and leader of the United Organizations of the Horse, Sue Wallis, "our Unified Equine Programs will be creating new jobs and the promise of prosperity for those who make all or part of their living with horses."

 

 

At a time when unemployment is estimated at 2 million, Wallis has chosen to prey on the emotions of those unemployed. What is so humorous with this ridiculous scare tactic is that she has proven that she doesn't know where to place the decimal points or has just simply made up the numbers hoping nobody will notice.

 

The horse slaughter plants employed a total of 200 workers between the 3 plants. It is estimated that 85% of those workers were illegals. We know this is true at Cavel and we have heard the percentage was higher at the two plants in Texas. Let's be conservative and use 80%. That means that when the 3 plants shut down, 40 American jobs were lost. If you use 85%, 30 American jobs were lost. How does either number translate into 230,000 lost jobs (� of 460,000)? She is stating that closing the slaughter plants resulted in 11.5% of the entire population that is unemployed!

 

She continues by stating that � of 1.6M indirect jobs were lost. That would represent 800,000 jobs or 40% of the entire population that is unemployed.

 

Of course, she gave herself an out for her faulty math by combining � of the jobs for a total of 500,000. I have tried numerous formulas but cannot get 230,000 + 800,000 to equal 500,000. Even with the 500,000, she is stating that of the 2M unemployed, 25% of those jobs were are result of the plants closing. I can't begin to imagine who she thinks will buy this drivel. I would think even someone in grade school could see right through her false, over-the-top, inflated numbers.  

 

When the plants shut down, the only jobs that were lost were those at the plant. The infrastructure supporting the plants is still in place - kill buyers, auctions, haulers, feedlots, etc.

 

She also continues to ignore the unemployment and economy. The value of everything we own has decreased. Apparently, she thinks the value of horses are impervious to the economy - especially if the kill plants remained open. Perhaps if she understood supply and demand and worked on reducing the number of horses produced every year, the prices would increase. She refuses to address the cause and instead, invents scare tactics and emotional arguments that have no merit to support her rabid slaughter stance.

 

I truly don't understand why Wallis and her lemmings continue to publish drivel that is so easily disputed. 
 
 
 
 
 
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