ridecamp@endurance.net: [endurance] A comment on those BLM 'so called?'Adoptions

[endurance] A comment on those BLM 'so called?'Adoptions

laurie d lange (lauriedelaine@juno.com)
Sun, 11 Aug 1996 10:35:25 PST

I just had a few comments to the gentleman who says that the Bureau of
Land management has caused the bottom to fall out of the Domestic horse
market?It costs $125.00 for john Q. Public to adopt an feral horse at a
holding facility or an satellite adoption site. Before they are ever put
up for adoption the colts are gelded :cost i don't know for sure how
much that cost but i'm sure its not cheap. They are inoculated with
booster and wormed by a veterinary service cost :probably around $20 to
$40 dollars each and i think the vets are out of southern ca where the
cost of living is a little higher. Hay and salt licks$ I know this one
as i am an native californian, when i left last september it was going
for a good $9 a bale in the Valley. Lastly there is the cost of the
freeze Branding : $25 to $75(i read about it in horse Illustrated) and
minimal staff that Blm has and oh, i almost forgot, the round-up costs
by helicopter pressure into run in traps, or bait or water trapping
efforts. The cost of all this, I'm sure matches if not outweighs the
$125.00 Adoption fee. So It seems to me that the Domestic horse market
is hardly impacted at all by BLM. I cant see any profit, can you? And
yes, I have my very own Living Legend!
I don't mean to be a flame or anything its just these horses help found
the very western civilization we enjoy today, they rounded up the cattle
on the vast ranges, they served in and died along side our very own
ancestors in the civil war, they served the us postal service in the
pony express that I believe(correct me if i'm mistaken)blazed part of
the very trail that we today call The Trevis.
These horses, at the very least deserve our respect and preservation,,
they have the blood of the beautiful, strong, graceful, noble Arabians,
the spanish -barbs, the sturdy quarter-horse, the baskur-curly, The
Gentle Giants, the Draft Breeds, and more!
Laurie Delaine Lange
Minot Air force Base
North Dakota
USA