Here we go again re: feral horses
 

And some still insist on calling them wild horses. The Canadian Wildhorse foundation wants to have Alberta's feral horses declared as a heritage animal.

http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjourn...0-a79859a9a590

Wonder if packs of wild dogs will eventually also be a heritage animal.

And I always will call them wild!! My preference and my opinion!!

Gonna be more letters in the local paper. :lol: Think Henderson must have a filing cabinet full of them, some from people who would be scared witless if they ever actually saw one. :D

Grizz

They already are, kind of. Look at the fights they put up to keep wolves of the endangered list in the US.

No love for the Norway rat? They've also managed to survive despite not being indigenous...... Where's the campaign for their special status? Perhaps I too can be designated as a heritage animal:thinking-006:

What's next, protect "wild hogs"? The feral horses are mostly inbred mutts though it has been reported that some fans of the herds add unwanted horses to their numbers to up the gene pool, whatever.
What I do not understand is why the hell is an act of parliament being sought to protect these ugly beasts of questionable heritage yet we are allowed to hunt deer, moose, elk, bears etc? Why is an invasive species more valuable than the true natural wildlife of Alberta? If these mangey hosses get protection it is only a matter of time before everything else is protected by the same template.
A truer heritage animal would be the bison. Driven almost to the point of extinction and nobody cares. Could it be that the fans of the feral horse watched too many cowboy and indian shows when they were growing up?

I can't wait to hear your take when parks eradicates the elk populations and gets their way with the buffalo reintroduction.

Then you are feeding into the ignorance of those who do not understand the difference.

Calling a spade a rose does not make it so.

Trust me pal I know a ton more on the horses in the west country than I'm sure you ever will so this is an argument I will not be getting into with you!!!! But thanks for your comment.

should be draw tags for feral horses I have had horse steak before its pretty good ..
Free range drug free meat

A couch riders favorite topic talking about wildies! How possibly can we take sheepguides actual experience seriously? Bring on the knowall do nothing couch riders good luck Darcy!

Deffinatly an idea but I'm thinking we as hunters don't really want the publicity that would follow even if it was a legal hunt!!

The powers that be just need to have a capture and herd reduction plan and stick with it. The horses have been out there for more years than any of us on here! They just need a strict management program to control numbers. But the open catch permits for a couple years than close them again. They don't set a population goal and stick with it and that is the biggest issue. It's the same issue we have with the wolves. Stop bending to the antis and control numbers to managable levels.
And guys that spend a weekend a year in these horse areas yelling kill them all! Shoot and eat them! Irradicate feral horses and all this other stuff are the biggest feeders to these anti groups!! These guys that think they are helping are a bigger hindrance than the protect the horse groups!!

Funniest part is these guys have no clue the number of tame horses raised on them mountain flats back in the days of the best hunting!! Back in the days when some of them mountain flats they hunt we're used as pasture and haying!
I could just imagine these guys eyes if they would have seen the cutoff creek area when Bill Winters had his place just SW of the staging area. His horse numbers far exceeded the numbers there now and the hunting was far better than it is now!!

Bingo.... You think its bad with the antis and hunting now?? Start blasting some ponys and see where that takes us.....

[QUOTE=Unregistered user;1984835]What's next, protect "wild hogs"? QUOTE]\

Probably.

The lip srervice paid to getting rid of hogs has been pretty obvious.
If they wanted them gone they could have allowed us to use some red light sets and night shooting for vermin control.

Nope.

We already have guided hunts for them so the government is probably already considering the worth of printing tags.

Everything has a dollar value in this province sometimes.

That is true Pesky!! The almighty dollar always seem to prevail no matter what it affects or hurts and it sticks out big time in our wildlife management!

:party0052:

Without getting into the argument as to who has the bigger penis, I suspect I know a ton more than you do about introduced species. And the damage they can do to our native species. And the unintended consequences of them being here.

They are feral animals and do not belong on our landscape.

And it's guys such as yourself and such comments that hurt the efforts to control the horse populations more than anything else there is.
And I'm sure you have read every book on the topic and researched the topic lots. I'm proud of you for that!! But how much true horse country do you travel in a year? How much true horse damage do you witness and document per year? If the damage they do and have done is so extreme why then does no one show it? Show the hundreds of acres they have decimated! Show where they are they cause of decreased wildlife populations! Show where they have pushed native species to dangerously low levels! Show where complete eradication is the true answer and not just a personal opinion!

nobody can dispute this IMO.

I wont pretend to know what the solution is to the problem but to say there isnt a problem and actually encourage protection of them is very obviously not the right move.

We are the only feral animals. The damage we do to the environment far outweighs anything the horses could possibly do. The cattle free ranging in the foothills does incredible amounts of damage but still we insist on focusing on the horses! Maybe it is nostalgia, maybe not but I enjoy the wild horses.

So the horses have been out west before white folk showed up and shortly after the spanish landed , why are they not "grand fathered " part of the landscape ?

x 1,000,000

You might want to talk to Luigi Morgantini or read his study on the damage horses do to Elk wintering habitat on the Ya Ha Tinda.

Straight from the couch!!!! :sHa_sarcasticlol:

not to many cowboy and Indian shows, but way to many black beauty and fllicka , and way to many light headed dreamers out there, that think they are horse whisperers.
but on the serious side I believe cattle ranchers and domestic sheep ranchers have done way more damage to the streams and water ways ,and disease like white muscle into the bighorn sheep. all rented cattle range should be fenced along both sides of any water way or water shed be it big or small, why don't people complain about our fish streams being decimated by cattle, instead of worrying about a couple hundred head of wild nags?????

You may want to look at how many horses winter at the Ya Ha over the last 10 years and how many wild horses actually enhabit the area from the Jap crossing up river to the park! You may want to compare that number to numbers when guys like Brewsters wintered horses there and when park horse numbers where way higher than they are now and they actually enhabited the whole area not just the area fenced now. Like I said read what you wish but real life experience out there shows other wise!

The same herd decline of elk in our foothills, provincial mountain areas and national parks is being noted at the same rates in areas with horse numbers and without horse numbers. So to blame one spot on horses and not another is about as bright as it comes!! Just keep reading your papers! I'm sure it will solve all the worlds problems!!

Anybody have pics of the decimation out there? Would really like to see them. Somebody must. With all the cameras and cell phones out there I expect we will see some pics today...:sHa_sarcasticlol: Ya... Kind of what I thought...:sHa_sarcasticlol: ( i really would like to see some pics of this.... I just find it funny in other threads when asked for pics that none are produced...)

Nobody disputes if they are feral!

Should they be in the foothills and mountains? Not for you nor I to decide!

Maybe we should clean our streams of trout species that are feral to them? I bet that would make a lot of people happy?

The problem isn't that the horses are there at all. The problem is that in many areas so much new habitat has been opened with logging and oilfield that the horses have flourished and numbers haven't been controlled.

And like I said you guys that keep saying they shouldn't be there and need to be removed are the biggest problem with trying to get it so numbers can be controlled you just not able to see that due to your personal agenda and thoughts on horses!

What do you think will get accomplished first,

1. People pushing for horse eradication. Saying they should be hunted. Saying they are useless. Saying they are ugly and should be removed by any means possible? Saying that because they are feral they have no place in our West Country?

Or

2. A set number of horses in the West Country doesn't hurt but numbers need to be controlled to these numbers through managed capture and such programs. This reduction in herd numbers not only will remove food competition but will also allow for healthier individuals and herds.


So for all you guys promoting eradication just keep at it. Because of you guys ill always be able to see "wild horses" in the West Country!! Your the horses best asset! Your just not smart enough to see it!,