OriginalOscar
Active member
Hunting birds Sunday saw over 100 horses. This herd is near Dugway about 90 minutes southwest of Salt Lake. 
More Horses than Chukars
- Thread starter OriginalOscar
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Serious issue that needs dealing with...ASAP. This is one of the worst problems facing our public lands and native wildlife......as a side question any luck on chukars...see or get any?
OriginalOscar
Active member
Probably one of those issues which will need to come to a head soon. One county in Utah threatened to roundup herds last year and hold for the BLM to come get.
Some birds. Need to work on my shooting. Thanks for the directional pointer. I'll trek that direction next trip.
TimeOnTarget
Well-known member
Wow, I didn't realize this was an issue.
Rancho Loco
Well-known member
Good luck dealing with it. Only thing crazier than feral cat people are feral horse people.
noharleyyet
Well-known member
First world problems Troy.
Keeptrying
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Really? Take a look at it. Very, very serious issue. Due to the closure of horse slaughter facilities people have been dumping horses on public lands. Massive numbers of animals. The BLM does their best, but are hamstrung by SJW and a well intentioned but unfunded law.
Horrible situation. My personal belief is that a season needs to be opened on them. Tags, rules, dates. Horse meat is considered food around the world, and should be here.
Keeptrying
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Truth.
Both the Wilderness and the other side of the interstate used to hold birds. Find some guzzlers and you'll be into birds. If you are up for the drive western Box Elder had a good number of birds.
Zach
Well-known member
So, you're in favor of eradication of all non-native species?
TheJason
Well-known member
That's an interesting question, given the OPs quarry is a non-native bid from the Himalayas. I really doubt there is a black and white answer to this question, and one must look holistically at the impacts the species has on its environment. I can easily argue a chukar has negligible impact on either 1) its habitat and 2) any native species that inhabit the same area. The same cannot be said for a wild/feral horse.
Keeptrying
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When did I say that? Things like chukars, pheasants,etc. do not have the affect wild horses do and we all know it. When did I say eradicate wild horses? Let’s just bring them down to reasonable levels and at least to managment goals. I don’t support whiping out wild horses, but I do believe their numbers have to be significantly reduced and it’s something that has to happen at some point not just needs to. This is the argument of the horse advocates. No one is saying get rid of them all, let’s just bring them to sustainable levels where they aren’t damaging habitat and water sources for everything else, especially native wildlife. The damage wild horses do is getting to be pretty bad for a feral species we could control if not for wacko horse people. A species like chuckar that does nothing but make use of another out of control non-native (cheat grass) species is no where near a comparison to wild horses on the landscape.
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icebreaker12
Active member
I suggest you do some research on pheasants and their impacts on native grouse.
I haven’t looked into it, but in a place like Utah pheasants and grouse are nowhere near each other for the most part so they haven’t had a negative impact as far as my surroundings. Maybe because there’s only about 10 wild pheasants left in Utah as well. I haven’t looked beyond Utah on t he affects pheasants May have elsewhere. Wild horses however affect deer, pronghorn, elk, and the landscape in general all around my state and the west.
Keeptrying
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Really? Pheasants vs. grouse is where you are at in this debate? That's not even reasonable.
tim629
Active member
living on the east coast the feral horse thing is a mind boggling dilemma and I"m sure it's only worse if you live WITH them:
east coast it would be very cut/dry: if there is a horse running around in the woods it would be captured and owner would be found or sent to a "rescue" as a horse is a domesticated animal
you guys in the west are sortof screwed as no one wants to step up to the plate and lay down an honest management plan. you are stuck with them being in that gray area of "feral" where the game department can't say "hey it's a wild critter living in the ecosystem that must be managed" (a hunt of some nature) but they are too scared of the crazies to offer BLM their help, BLM is trying to keep the game department, hunters, and crazies happy but spending a LOT of OUR money to do it... and to what result?
now I will say I have seen horse people say "we need to do something, a hunt is probably the most humane and cost effective means to population control" but to get more horse people on board with that theory and THEN get someone to just tell the city slicker horse lovers to shove it... too many barriers but hopefully someone will step up to the plate take the heat and lead the way
east coast it would be very cut/dry: if there is a horse running around in the woods it would be captured and owner would be found or sent to a "rescue" as a horse is a domesticated animal
you guys in the west are sortof screwed as no one wants to step up to the plate and lay down an honest management plan. you are stuck with them being in that gray area of "feral" where the game department can't say "hey it's a wild critter living in the ecosystem that must be managed" (a hunt of some nature) but they are too scared of the crazies to offer BLM their help, BLM is trying to keep the game department, hunters, and crazies happy but spending a LOT of OUR money to do it... and to what result?
now I will say I have seen horse people say "we need to do something, a hunt is probably the most humane and cost effective means to population control" but to get more horse people on board with that theory and THEN get someone to just tell the city slicker horse lovers to shove it... too many barriers but hopefully someone will step up to the plate take the heat and lead the way
Bigjay73
Well-known member
You think the horses are bad, you should see the number of wild burros we had in AZ. All protected under the same stupid law.
Zach
Well-known member
The "native species" comment is what led me that direction.
Maybe eradication was to strong a word, but when you didn't specify the control level, it leads to my assumption of what I see most often as eradication. So, who defines reasonable levels? USFW? Private Bio's? State Legislature?
