The story about feral horses in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and a decision to thin the herd starts off with a misnomer by headlining the article with, “Wild horses relocated” (The Billings Gazette, Aug. 16, 2019). These horses are feral horses, spelled f-e-r-a-l. Feral. These horses are not wild, they are feral horses. The only wild horses are in Mongolia. They breed true to color. If there is a wild horse in the United States, it is in a zoo.
There is no shortage of feral horses in the U.S. You, as a taxpayer are paying for feed and pens for hundreds of feral horses in Nevada. No one wants them, so there they roam, inside a fence.
Feral horses descended from failed homesteaders who left old dobbin behind when the homesteader headed for greener pastures. Native Americans’ horses added to the mix and now bleeding hearts have made a sacred symbol of wormy horses and call them wild, not feral.
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Lewis and Clark ate horse meat on their epic journey. Why not us? We slaughter and eat everything from frogs to veal calves. Why not all those surplus feral horses? It would empty the range and pens of unwanted feral horses. I am aware of the Wild Horse and Burro Act. Another misnomer.
We alter the sex of feral dogs and cats and a good horseman with a sharp knife could eliminate the over-breeding problem from intact stallions in about 20 minutes. The senseless over-breeding of feral horses needs to change.
Maggi Buttrell
Laurel
