So conversation that leads anyone to believe that the wild horse is
anythin g other than "reintroduced native wildlife" is folly. Or worse yet
malevolent.
As I write this the 33,000 wild mustangs residing in government holding
pens and facilities around the country amount to more than half of all the
remaining wild mustangs in existence. And those remaining in the wild
are living below viable levels. Which simply put means below the number
that must be available for breeding to keep the horse from not being
forced into incest for the species to attempt to survive.
All because of those cattle and sheep. Illegal cattle and sheep. To allow
all this to happen someone had to knowingly break the 1971 law.
I was astounded. And embarrassed that I didn't know any of this before.
And sad.
Made sadder when I learned that the Government Accountability Office
was recommending death for the 33,000 wild mustangs in government
custody because it was costing too much to feed and care for them.
That Oxford English Dictionary definition of domestication scratched
and clawed its way back into my consciousness. To civilize. OED's
assumption of course was that humans would be doing the civilizing.
Maybe humans were the ones needing it.
For more information visit
www.thesoulofahorse.com . Copyright 2009
Joe Camp.
Joe Camp, author of the best selling book The Soul of a Horse: Life Lessons
from the Herd and creator of the canine superstar Benji, has done the research
and is spending the emotion on our wild mustangs in his next book. His Christ-
mas gift from his wife Kathleen was a pregnant , unhandled mustang adopted
from the BLM facility in Reno on December 20, 2008. Her name is Noelle. On
March 3, 2009, she had her baby. A boy. His birth opens Camp’s next book and
he is the title: Malachi: The Soul of a Ho11r se Returns. Malachi means messenger
in Hebrew, which Camp says this new life on the planet will be. The messenger
of change to come for the mustangs. This article is an excerpt from the book.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66