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Crooks and Liars
News From the Front - May 28, 2008Director of Agriculture Tony Lesperance has claimed to the news media that only about 200 of the Virginia Range horses are actually what the public considers to be "wild" (the products of successive generations of wild born horses) and that the remainder are "turnouts" of domestic stock. This statement defies reality in so many aspects, however here is the most serious issue involving domestic turnouts. Nevada's wild horses grow up learning how to survive on the range. They understand seasons, climate, weather, etc., and the combination of instinctive and learned behaviors make them successful. The recent lack of horses observed in the highlands, a situation that concerned a number of horse watchers, was little more than a product of the unseasonably late storms and snows. Those of us who spend a great deal of time with the horses had a pretty good idea that they were hunkered down to protect their foals because bad weather was coming. (While the weather was bad for foals, we were grateful to see more snow and rain further "recharging" the already robust plant communities.) While the rain and range may be robust, the economy is not. We are seeing more instances of horses being simply turned loose on the range. Most of these horses do not have the necessary survival skills and therefore depend a great deal on luck in finding appropriate grasses and water. Here is an example of what someone can do to domestic horses by turning them out. Hope and Courage struggle to survive, Nevada Appeal, May 24, 2008 |
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There are actually three distinctive points of stupidity here.
The first point of stupidity is the claim by Director Lesperance that most of the Virginia Range horses are turnouts. This statement was just another link in the chain of lies, so Lesperance's real stupidity involves the premise that anyone with basic knowledge about the range would believe him. The second point of stupidity involves horse owners who have found themselves in financial trouble and who think they are doing their animals a favor by simply turning them loose onto some pretty inhospitable range. Most of these horses are going to suffer. A few will figure out how to survive on the range but it is a tough transition. The third point of stupidity falls back on the Nevada Department of Agriculture. According to the Nevada Appeal report, the Department of Agriculture representative stated that "Hope" and "Courage" (the horses in the Nevada Appeal story and pictured above) had to go to the estray sale in Fallon. If such a statement was made, it was incorrect.
NRS 569.080 Sale, placement or other disposition of unclaimed estray;
sale or placement of unclaimed feral livestock; issuance of brand
inspection clearance certificate upon sale; marking, branding or
identifying required before sale or placement.
1. If an estray is not claimed within 5 working days after the
last publication of the advertisement required by NRS 569.070, it must
be:
(a) Sold by the Department; or
(b) Held by the Department until the estray is given a placement
or other disposition through a cooperative agreement established
pursuant to NRS 569.031. (The purpose of the cooperative agreement described in subsection (b) is to ensure that someone will be legally responsible for any animals turned over to private parties and that brand certificates can be issued, relieving the state from further responsibility.) Seizing debilitated animals and holding them and rehabilitating them at taxpayer expense is a money loser. The animals' market value (if anything) is usually less than the taxpayer costs involved. Therefore the legislature provided another legal option where private parties could assume such a burden and at the same time provide more personalized care for the animals. The requirement for a cooperative agreement is supposed to prevent the Department from turning animals over to "hoarders," such as it did with Slick Gardner, and from creating yet another horse crisis, which happened when the Department failed to follow the law with respect to the horses it gave Gardner. As the state's economy sinks we are going to see more owners of horses and of other kinds of livestock kept as pets finding themselves in financial trouble. Clearly "Hope" and "Courage" aren't going to be the last abandoned horses in Nevada. If Director Lesperance could abandon his maniacal obsession with ridding the Virginia Range of horses and foster cooperation with - rather than alienate - the groups with which the state has cooperative agreements, these abandoned horses could be provided with better care and not be brought in at taxpayer's expense. Plus each one of these horses that is returned to the private sector will contribute on average over $1,000.00 a year to Nevada's local agricultural economy as adopters redirect portions of their disposable incomes to support the hay grower, feed store operator, farrier, veterinarian and other Nevadans dependent upon the "personal livestock industry" for their income. We don't hold out too much hope for such a positive outcome, however. Director Lesperance is pretty old and so far seems incapable of understanding what is really going on in our region and what impact his obsession may have on our tourism industry or our local agricultural economy.
Continue to Part Thirty Seven - Where Have All the Horses Gone?Return to Part Thirty FiveGo back to the BeginningView the Wild Horse Release VideoView the NRCS Range StudyRead the History of NDoA Screwups on the RangeSign the On-Line PetitionThe spirit of Thomas Paine lives
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