It’s hard to miss the horses on the way to the mountains.
They’ve established free-roaming populations throughout the foothills and grasslands of Alberta’s eastern slopes, with herds of wild horses almost guaranteed to be seen off Highway 1 west of Calgary year-round.
But the abundance of what the Alberta government calls “feral horses” has reached “unacceptable” levels, according to the province’s horse management strategy.
Framing is important. “Wild” anything is precious and rare. Human civilization has swallowed most earth systems for it’s own purposes, leaving very little wild left anywhere.
I suggest we leave the horses alone and consider our footprint as the one needing a fix.
They are not wild. They are an invasive species that we brought here.
North America had horses before Europeans brought them over. They were native, but went extinct.
As with other wild populations, the animals’ health, ecological sustainability and whether they are reservoirs of infectious disease would be the paramount concern.
Not sure that the current provincial government has the credibility in evidence-based decision making to be able to sustain any interventions.
Alberta just likes killing things: horses, wolves, bears. All in the spirit of conservation. Kill wolves to save the caribou - if you can shoot them from a helicopter, even better…no leave large tracts of forest in tact, you’ll save the caribou. Stop with survey lines and unnecessary roads into caribou territory, which makes it easier for wolves to stalk the caribou.
I mean you always have the option of letting the population get out of control and then have a bunch of animals starving.
Marlaina couldn’t tell the truth if her life depended on it.
If she can verify the number of wild horses with actual facts - and the numbers are enough to lead to starvation - then a cull should happen.
But she’s lying as usual.
The advocacy group does its own aerial survey of the Sundre zone’s horse population. Glover, who has been a pilot for half a century, says the group counted 1,005 horses this year — just over the province’s population threshold but significantly lower than the government’s findings.
Last year, the provincial survey counted 855 horses in the Sundre zone.
Glover said that increase of more than 50 per cent is “physically and biologically impossible.”
At the very least the government needs to look into why their numbers are inaccurate first
I love eating horse meat. meat is so lean and tasty. glad it’s legal to buy in Canada.
Just let them drink from the tailings “ponds” at Fort Mac.
