Wildlife vs “Wild” Horses

By Becky Lisle

Reminiscent of a spaghetti western, the tale of mustangs in the West is all too often told with the horses as underdogs engaged in an epic battle with domestic stock grazing public lands. Pitting wild—or feral, depending upon whom you ask--horses against “greedy cattle barons” certainly garners sympathy and donations for horse

advocacy groups, who are known in conservationist circles as the “horse mafia.” However, the typical spin conveniently omits an elemental piece of the rangeland ecosystem puzzle: native wildlife.

...Despite the determination of mustang advocacy groups to classify the horses as “wild and native” to further their cause, science supports Williams’ terminology. Pre-historic horses did exist on the North American continent, before dying out completely and being absent for thousands of years until a much further evolved equine was introduced by Spanish explorers in the 1500s. Williams stated: “The argument that equids are “native” to this continent because their progenitors were present during the Pleistocene —a mantra from the wild-horse lobby—makes as much sense as claiming that elephants are native because woolly mammoths were here during the same period.”

Further, researchers have found that descendants of the Spanish Andalusians only numbered in the hundreds and have long-since been removed. Director of bird conservation for Audubon Arizona, Tice Supplee, refers to the mustang lobby’s Spanish-bloodline propaganda as “revisionist history promoted by horse lovers to give mustangs historic status.” Williams once interviewed retired 30-year BLM biologist, Erick Campbell, who offered his own definition of the pure-mustang-blood platform: “pure, unadulterated BS.”

What remains on the range today is what Williams refers to as “mongrels—a genetic morass of breeds issuing mostly from recently escaped or discarded livestock.” Campbell stated, “We managed everything from workhorses to Shetland ponies. Your daughter’s horse gets old or she stops liking it. So you turn it loose. Prior to World War II ranchers were basically managing these herds for sale to the Army. And to keep the quality up the Army would give the ranchers studs to release.”

One researcher compared blood samples from 975 free-roaming horses in the Great Basin with samples from 16 domestic horse breeds, and found no discernable differences, concluding that indeed the “wild” horses of the Great Basin originated from Iberian, American saddle horse, and draft-horse breeds--hence the scientific designation of the horses as feral and the consequent stance of prominent wildlife and conservation groups toward them.

Semantics aside, the impact of the horses on native wildlife is undeniable...

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