Court blocks Wyoming wild horse roundup,
cites ‘ecological balance’ questions

If this is destroying private property to a great extent, why stop it? I've heard of these roundups for decades. Just another nosy, a tad richer, judge if you ask me.

Wild horses destroy the 'ecological balance', were never here until the Spanish brought them.

"Circuit Judge Timothy Tymkovich.." You're not from around here, are you, sonny?

Do-gooder liberals just want the show of "doing good". They have no concept of consequences because they're long gone from the scene by the time the just results of their actions come to fruition. I remember prior to the '80s, BLM rounded up feral horses and usually sold them to dog food manufacturers until the "animal rights" activists began tooting their horns. After many years of ginned-up public outrage, BLM began making "adoptions" possible for private owners with the caveat they would keep the horses and not sell or give them away. I have intimate knowledge about the fate of approximately five of those horses. Our 40-acre homestead is part of a 6,000-acre mid-80's development on land that was once a cattle ranch. Our 58 parcels are either 40 or 160 acres; with the 40's in the valleys and the 160's along the ridge tops. Each parcel came with a developed well, and two possible home-sites already perked for septic systems. They would only have 6 or so parcels developed and available for sell at any one time; as parcels sold they had the funds to develop others. Near the beginning of the project sales were slow until a millionaire heiress showed interest in buying 1,800 acres worth of undeveloped parcels. She was Liz Luster, the Max Factor heir whose son later was found in Mexico by Dog the Bounty Hunter because he wanted on rape charges. Liz wanted the land to found a "retirement home" for old private horses to finally "enjoy their freedom". She ended up gathering over 20 horses that split themselves into three herds of six or seven horses each. They were turned loose to fend for themselves. They were already part of the "ranch life" when we bought in 1993. The first controversy about the horses arose a few years later regarding Liz's unfenced parcels; her horses were wandering off and causing damage on other owner's properties. It all blew up when an owner came to his place for a weekend with his family and found a dying horse in front of his house. He humanely shot the horse and contacted Liz's caretaker to remove the carcass. The caretaker took it upon herself to contact all the owners and accuse the man of being a "horse murderer". He eventually had to threaten to file a lawsuit against Liz and her caretaker for defamation of character. It was a huge controversy, but it did separate the wheat from the chaff as owners self-identified their political persuasion whether they defended the man or the concept of free-range horses. By the time we moved here in 1999, the herds had all lost a member or two. One herd of five were on her land at the far end of our road a few miles away. Many of the horses had BLM brands. From spring until fall they would migrate down to our homestead every evening because we had green grass and a year-round creek. At first it was neat to have five horses munching on our front lawn as we sat on the deck, until the poop showed up everywhere from the lawn to my creek walk for the whole quarter-mile stretch of road running through our parcel. Every spring until fall I had to do "poop patrol", going around on my mower and dumping the stuff in the cart. It got old fast. I did it for 25 years as we watch these poor animals slowly decline without medical care. One horse had a terrible ulcer on his right-rear leg for at least five years until one summer it was just gone...we guess it eventually fell off. We could see how painful it was for him to walk, he was always far behind his fellows and there was nothing we could do but watch. About five years ago one of them died in our lower meadow; we knew by the flock of buzzards suddenly roosting in one spot. In a very short time the only things left were bones. There is one poor horse left...the one who had the ulcer. We have a new neighbor, a horse owner, and she has taken it upon herself to feed the last horse. Every few days she drives by in the evening with a bale of hay. I appreciate her efforts because the lone horse doesn't need to come down to our valley, even if he could make it. At last a poop-free summer for me after twenty-five years! This experience is the perfect real-life example of the differences between liberalism and conservatism. Liberals pick an issue and promote policies that sound wonderful and make them feel good, but are devoid of any consideration of consequences. When bad consequences are the result of their actions, they ignore them and blame those who "just don't understand!" going on to another cause. The liberals skate away while conservatives have to pick up the poop they leave behind.

Horses were introduced into America by the Spanish conquistadors. In France they eat them, don’t they?

Coming up in the next week or so is the annual Chincoteague Pony Penning. We have heard there may be protests and safety issues. These are wild ponies that live on Assateague Island.

In Homer Simpson voice the following can be said: A) "Judges, is there anything they don't know?" B) "Where would the world be without Judges?" /s

A tangential note regarding horse slaughter: the US closed the last domestic horse slaughter houses in 2007 because of all the screeching and crying about the practice and because "horses are cute, they're pets, they're family members". Well, well. Horses are still bought and transported for slaughter. They're just sent to Mexico (and Canada) where they're slaughtered and the meat sold to Europe and the Far East. They don't have 'animal rights' in Mexico and the horses don't get a quick, painless, deadly bolt to the head before slaughter, just knives. Let your imagination run wild as to how horses slaughtered in Mexico actually die - slowly and painfully while being vivisected.

Let's see - cattle are not native to America but we go out of our way to protect them, oh, I mean, protect the ranchers to include reimbursement (with tax dollars) for the dead cattle, sheep, other non-native farm animal if attacked and killed by wolves, bears, etc. A lot of things disturb the ecological balance, including humans. I'm not against BLM protecting public lands but BLM has a long history of not wanting to work with groups that can help relocate/adopt out these horses. As for the Liz story below, smear everyone wanting to help the horses by her poor, ignorant example - not right.

Per #8, I've read that they're usually stabbed in the withers, repeatedly, until they collapse. And the ride across the border isn't pleasant, either - packed into the backs of stake trucks like sardines, sometimes dead before they even get there. One of the dumbest laws ever enacted.

Applying the witch-hunt impeachment model to the outdoor activity realm. If you suspect there's a problem, you prove it. Don't try to make us prove there's no problem.

It can’t be easy going thru life as stupid as Judge Timmy T.