Finding a workable solution to the thorny issue of free-roaming horses in Placitas has proved a tough nut to crack, even for an organization that specializes in consensus building. Sandoval County leaders in September awarded New Mexico First – whose website says “We bring people together and find common ground” – a $23,500 contract to work with a task force of community members and government representatives to find mutually acceptable ways for dealing with the horses. Placitas residents have been sharply divided between those who support the horses’ right to roam free and others who claim they damage property and pose a safety risk to local traffic. Agencies such as the federal Bureau of Land Management and the state Livestock Board have taken a hands-off approach because no one claims ownership of the horses. But after the initial meeting in November with the roughly two-dozen-member task force, New Mexico First dropped its planned group information-gathering strategy, amended its county contract and canceled further group meetings. It will instead gather input through individual interviews with task force members. Organization president Heather Balas said in an interview that the organization was overwhelmed with a deluge of emails and calls critical of representation, meeting procedures and whether video-recording was allowed...more
The article says the Attorney General's office attended the November meeting. That leads to a logical, common sense, bipartisan, middle of the road solution to this problem: Gary King should move these horses to his property and then decide whether to turn them out, feed them or sell them. Come on Gary, put New Mexico First as the group's name says, and not your political agenda.
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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