http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/05/09/4839933/government-cant-find-room-for.html#disqus_thread

Opine away, OB.

Zoos need meat for the large cats right?

Raise taxes

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Zoos need meat for the large cats right?

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So do the British, for their burgers.....

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So do the British, for their burgers.....

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They finally cut that out...too many cases of the trots.

Basically the feral hog of the West, just in a critter that tugs at emotional strings more. Tough to get them adopted out, so folks aren't willing to put their money where their mouth is.

Texas runs into the same issue in the Trans Pecos with burros.

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Zoos need meat for the large cats right?

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Folks on government assistance need to eat as well.

When we have land, we will probably adopt one or two.

Need to genetically resurrect their natural predator from the last time native horses and camels roamed the Americas: The Dire wolf and the Smilodon.

Need to genetically resurrect their natural predator from the last time native horses and camels roamed the Americas: The Dire wolf and the Smilodon.

I still can't believe we have a federal law that protects feral animals.

Better than dealing with Wyld Stallyns.

If the feds would selectively cull/actually try to improve the herd, they'd have a lot more luck getting them adopted.

No one wants wild, scrawny, club-footed horses when there are tame, purebred, larger horses available for the same price elsewhere.

I have no problem with the government culling/reducing the herd as needed. There are way too many out there.

We have an all put war on introduced species when it comes to plants, why not animals?

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Better than dealing with Wyld Stallyns.

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Bill and Ted reference?

Mouth, Don't forget to add American Lion, American Cheetah, Short-faced Bear and a few more awesome Pleistocene predators to that list. Really incredible mega-mammal diversity. My favorite period of prehistoric fauna and only ten thousand years ago.
Just think, people were living at the Gault site in Bell county fifteen thousand years ago. They ate (& probably occasionally eaten by) these animals & were only armed with pointy sticks.

Some herds of feral horses are better quality than others. The herds I saw in Wyoming were often draft horse up front, shetland in the back. Every family that could no longer afford to feed their daughter's shetland pony would just release it into the desert. The horses there looked awful. The Kiger mustang herd in eastern Oregon is much better. These horses look like smaller versions of horses you'd see in any ranch remuda. They have been very isolated and have developed into a fairly decent version of feral horse. People come from all over the world to adopt the Kiger mustang. They just don't get adopted fast enough. The local vet makes a fortune off of taking care of a thousand or more feral horses at the BLM feral horse corrals outside of town.

Horses are a really unique subject. Native pre ice age but feral now even though this is where they originated A symbol of our frontier past even if they came with the Spanish. Down from a high of around 2 million to now only 35k, and we still can't find room for them.

It's a lot cheaper to feed a four wheeler or hire 50lb cowboys

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We have an all put war on introduced species when it comes to plants, why not animals?

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There are "good" introduced species and "bad" introduced species. Too lazy to start typing a lust of each,

Brown trout and ringneck pheasant good, most others bad.

By the way, may have mentioned this before, but last year I hiked Mt Rogers, which is the high point here in VA (around 5700 ft or so), and they have wild horses in the park. Was a really unique experience. They are more feral than wild, but still cool.

http://www.southernstates.com/articles/the-wild-ponies-of-mount-rogers-virginia.aspx

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They are more feral than wild, but still cool.

http://www.southernstates.com/articles/the-wild-ponies-of-mount-rogers-virginia.aspx

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Curious to hear what your definitions of feral and wild are.

Synonymous no?

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Curious to hear what your definitions of feral and wild are.

Synonymous no?

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Yeah I probably should have put "semi" in front of feral. They are feral in that they are from domesticated stock and live relatively wild, but they get some help in the winter with salt blocks, and they get yearly check up and treatment if needed too.
I had one charge me a bit when he was a bit backed up to a fence behind him and I got a bit close, but i walked basically through a herd who was resting and they couldn't have cared less. The park has fences around a good portion of it to keep them in, though it is as a large park - when you are hiking you will come to points where you have to go through the fence and close the gate behind you so they don't get out.