California has a wild horse problem

[dead0man]

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The article also mentioned that the Humane Society is suggesting mass birth control instead of horseacide....horsecaust?
Wait...horsecaust is a word?  No it's not, why is there no squiggly red line that's always there because I can't spell for sh**t? 

[ingemann]

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The article also mentioned that the Humane Society is suggesting mass birth control instead of horseacide....horsecaust?
Wait...horsecaust is a word?  No it's not, why is there no squiggly red line that's always there because I can't spell for sh**t? 

Why?

I would think it would be cheaper just to cull them down to a healthy level?

In fact couldn't California make money on either selling hunting licences or sell the meat?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

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The article also mentioned that the Humane Society is suggesting mass birth control instead of horseacide....horsecaust?
Wait...horsecaust is a word?  No it's not, why is there no squiggly red line that's always there because I can't spell for sh**t?  

Why?

I would think it would be cheaper just to cull them down to a healthy level?

In fact couldn't California make money on either selling hunting licences or sell the meat?

they're largely in holding capacities, would probably be pretty boring to hunt.

my solution would be similar to the Humane Society's idea. Sterilise the captive horses and release them back to mate (futilely) with the wild population, which would control the population. Or stick less cattle on federal land, but eh, cows gotta cow.

[Bismarck]

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The article also mentioned that the Humane Society is suggesting mass birth control instead of horseacide....horsecaust?
Wait...horsecaust is a word?  No it's not, why is there no squiggly red line that's always there because I can't spell for sh**t?  

Why?

I would think it would be cheaper just to cull them down to a healthy level?

In fact couldn't California make money on either selling hunting licences or sell the meat?

they're largely in holding capacities, would probably be pretty boring to hunt.

my solution would be similar to the Humane Society's idea. Sterilise the captive horses and release them back to mate (futilely) with the wild population, which would control the population. Or stick less cattle on federal land, but eh, cows gotta cow.

Eh capturing and sterilizing them would probably be pretty difficult and expensive compared to just shooting them. They could donate the meat to somewhere that needs it.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

... they're already captured. That's why it is so expensive.

[Kingpoleon]

Why do we keep wild horses captive? We've destroyed their natural habitats, and apparently now it seems like a great idea to hunt them. Wild horses would be far genetically healthier than purebred horses with increasingly less genetic diversity.

[Joe Republic]

... they're already captured. That's why it is so expensive.

Do you think Tesco might be interested?

[ingemann]

... they're already captured. That's why it is so expensive.

In that case you could just butcher them and sell them as organic, free range meat.

[angus]

The article also mentioned that the Humane Society is suggesting mass birth control instead of horseacide....horsecaust?

Let's go with equicide.  -cide comes from the latin word caedere, or "kill" as in homicide, infanticide, etc.  Horse is english from old high german, so it doesn't work with -cide.  (Mixing languages is bad form.)  Horsecaust?!  Caustic is from a greek word for burn, as in "holocaust" which means a great fire holo=light + caust=burn, as in "caustic humor."  Horsecaust just amounts to a peurile, cacophonic portmanteau, both etymologically and phonically offensive.  Equus is latin for "horse" and pairs well, both linguistically and euphonically, with -cide.  

What's interesting about Horses is that the modern genus evolved in North America, according to the fossil record, then raced across the land bridging the Bering Straits during one of the Pleistocene Ice Ages, populated Eurasia, then died out here, probably due to overhunting by early man tens of thousands of years ago.  They were then re-introduced by the Spaniards some 500 years ago.  Coming home, as it were.  Man kills off horses in North America, then man brings it back.  Now, man wants to kill it off again. 

Ah, I've never ridden a horse and, to be honest, they make me a little nervous.  They're smelly and large.  I say let them run free in the wild.  If they overpopulate the problem will take care of itself.  Overpopulation is wonderful that way.  If any species breeds faster than its food source will allow, mass starvation occurs.  Overpopulation problem solved.  Everybody wins.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

  Overpopulation problem solved.  Everybody wins.

Except for the ecosystem and other native species that suffer the side effects.  Besides, solving overpopulation by starvation is not a particularly good option.  If we want to "solve" horse overpopulation by natural means, we'd need to reintroduce the grey wolf to California to increase predation. Clearly the few cougars in the area aren't doing it, but I doubt my solution will get many takers.

[angus]

I'm pretty sure that there's already a Simpson's episode about this.  Remember the Congolese mountain gorilla and the Chinese needle snake?

[Adam Griffin]

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue

[Kevin]

JW what caused this massive overpopulation of horses out West to begin with?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

JW what caused this massive overpopulation of horses out West to begin with?

It's a case of horses and cattle competing for the same pasturage, so the BLM has for some time now culled the wild horse (and burro) population. But the reason why the BLM has so many horses in captivity is twofold. Horse adoptions are down and sending them to slaughterhouses was banned because horses are noble animals. Personally, I'm in favor of getting all the horses off the public lands.

[Bismarck]

Why do we keep wild horses captive? We've destroyed their natural habitats, and apparently now it seems like a great idea to hunt them. Wild horses would be far genetically healthier than purebred horses with increasingly less genetic diversity.

Well wild horses in this case are not a natural species. The wild horse went extinct in the Americas thousands of years ago. These are just the descendants of domestic escapees.

[Figueira]

Why do we keep wild horses captive? We've destroyed their natural habitats, and apparently now it seems like a great idea to hunt them. Wild horses would be far genetically healthier than purebred horses with increasingly less genetic diversity.

Well wild horses in this case are not a natural species. The wild horse went extinct in the Americas thousands of years ago. These are just the descendants of domestic escapees.

This. And modern horses are an entirely different species to those that lived in North America before. You might as well introduce zebras.

[Associate Justice PiT]

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The article also mentioned that the Humane Society is suggesting mass birth control instead of horseacide....horsecaust?
Wait...horsecaust is a word?  No it's not, why is there no squiggly red line that's always there because I can't spell for sh**t? 

Why?

I would think it would be cheaper just to cull them down to a healthy level?

In fact couldn't California make money on either selling hunting licences or sell the meat?

     Consumption of horse meat is illegal in California, so that might make it hard. I guess they could sell it out-of-state.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Consumption of horse meat is illegal in California, so that might make it hard. I guess they could sell it out-of-state.

I'm too lazy to research the recent history of the issue, but I remember around 5 years ago this issue was playing out. There were no commercial horse slaughterhouses in the US and then eventually one tried to set itself up in the Southwest. Meat in interstate commerce has to be inspected, and Congress refused to appropriate money for horse meat inspections, but then there was a lawsuit and the trial court judge said under the law Congress had to fund horse meat inspections. I remember Ron Paul's 2012 presidential platform included an express change in federal law to ban commercial horse slaughter instead of just a rider.  But I honestly have no idea if the FDA or APHIS or whatever actually inspected the horse meat slaughterhouse. Assuming the feds are required to inspect horse meat, I still don't see a domestic market for horse meat.

California should try and gift some of these horses to various Plains Indian Tribes.

[angus]

How is horse?  I've always heard the phrase "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse" which makes me think that horsemeat must be unappetizing.  This is surprising, since horses are vegetarian ungulates.  Vegetarians usually taste good.  I've eaten a few carnivores, but mostly herbivores.  With the exception of cartilaginous and bony fish, and a few reptiles, carnivores don't taste very good, whereas vegetarians are very tasty.  (I've always thought that if I were ever in a situation such as the one presented in the movie "Alive" I'd want to learn who among the crowd were vegetarians before people start dying off, in case we were reduced to eating humans and had to decide whom to eat first.)  Vegetarian ungulates are especially tasty, in my experience.  I've eaten many animals, but I've never tried horse.  Have any of you eaten horsemeat?  Is it as bad as the cowboys say it is?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

California should try and gift some of these horses to various Plains Indian Tribes.

So they go and ride them on their buffalo hunts?

[Mr. Reactionary]

California should try and gift some of these horses to various Plains Indian Tribes.

So they go and ride them on their buffalo hunts?

Or race them at their casinos.

[dead0man]

Or put them on boats to cross the Narrow Sea and take over Westeros.