Wild Horses Debunked!

[Joane Pappas White <Lyoness@Castlenet.com>]

I asked Steph for permission before posting the following in response to
the Horse Rescue Story:

Hi Ridecampers,

Anybody figure out who actually sent us the Wild Horse Rescue story that
Drin responded to so well?  While I noticed several of our members on
the FW mailing list, the actual posters were not regulars.

It bothers me when Ridecamp is used for such uninformed politcal
propaganda.  If our own members and participants voiced an opinion and
we had a meaningful dialectic about oposing views and IF IT WAS
ENDURANCE RELATED, I would say great.  Instead we get this emotional
PAP!

So far all I have heard is that anyone who does not want to save every
wild horse is evil, immoral or uncaring. If we just changed the words to
communist, pinko, reds, we would be right back to the McCarthy Era. 
(Emotional Ploy to play on dislike of evil while tugging at heart
strings--Basic Communications 101:Propaganda Techniques). 

The infamous (and equally unidentified) "Permittees" are attacked
because they have a form of property right in
in land which is owned by our federal government. God forbid that they
might raise a some sheep or cows to feed this nation.  Interestingly
enough, the ranchers and farmers are also the ones that feed the deer,
elk, Big Horn Sheep, cougar, bear, antelope and everything else that
lives not only the federal lands but their private ranches/farms as
well.  But by all means, let us not ask the people who have been caring
for the land and the animals for generations what might be best. 
Instead let us just use another propaganda technique called "labeling"
to try and persuade the the well-meaning public that the Big Bad Old
Cattle Baron is getting rich off "Public" land and is plotting to kill
the wild horses to do so.  Again divide and conquer by getting us to
blame permittees while Tugging on heart strings--and this time purse
strings. I'm sure there is a pitch for money here.

The fact that our government has deemed that the multiple use of the
land is beneficial to all it citizens appears lost on the One Cause
crowd.  Save the Wild Horses.  Save all of them--the sick, the starving
and overpopuated.  Before I just attacked the "Forest Ranger" as a
demented horse killer, I would want to know why he was rounding up the
wild horses.  In Utah last year, a number of wild horses were gathered
and tested and a large number had EIA.  Have you ever seen a herd of
sick and starving wild horses?  Have you thought about the consequences
to them and the domestic horses if you try to keep all of them alive? 

Finally, the "Spanish Wild horses" are used to ask us to write our
Senators and Congressmen.  The best book on the subject, which is only a
couple of years old, 'Born Survivors on the Eve of Distruction', argued
that some possible Spanish bloodlines similar to the Sorraias had been
identified in Oregon, Utah, and Nevada. I don't recall Northen New
Mexico being listed at all.  But even if it was, the point of the book
was to try and encourage rounding up some of the individual horses which
best displayed the Spanish characteristics and putting them in their own
isolated breeding program to stop the corruption of the genetic pool
with further uncontrolled breeding. Another emotional tug at our heart
strings over the almost extinct Spanish Sorraia without facts to back up
the allegations. 

On this type of logic I am going to write my Congressmen and women? 
Yeah Right!

Joane Pappas White
Attorney at Law
Price, Utah
AERC # 18027
Ridecamper from the beginning