Issue Position: Save Our Wild Horses

Issue Position

We have a real dilemma in our state with the wild horses, these beautiful, free, majestic animals are being slaughtered senselessly by our government. Citing the risk to the public safety that these animals can create on the highways, our current governor has hired a third party company to kill the horses. These lovely and statuesque animals are ending up piled high in landfills or rounded up and sent overseas only to return home as Dog Food and cheap glue. Whether you believe that the horses are indigenous or a non-native import by the Spanish, they have become apart of the intricate and unique heritage of the land . We need to protect them, respect them not treat them as a disposable piece of the landscape that can be easily replaced or not even missed.

The Nevada State Agricultural Department made majority of former cattle ranchers, have made it their mission to keep the open land free of horses. They want the grazing grounds and the watering holes to be used solely by them and the cattle industry. They promote the reduction of the wild horse population as "safety" concern, their only concern is the monopolizing of the land for their benefit. If the department was "truly" concerned with public safety they would work with the Highway Department to get fences placed along the highways to keep the horses and other wildlife from wandering into traffic and causing casualties. Other states have built underpasses and over passes for their native animals to use to get from one side of the road to where the food and water is. Sadly, the money that was raised for this project was spent needlessly by the bureaucratic machine. The only action the State has taken was creating a handful of signs placed along the highway informing the public that if they hit a wild horse, they are at fault and liable to the state. Signs are not a solution, these signs are nothing more than a quick excuse for the state to take your money, instead of finding ways to preserve our living history and help our people.

These horses serve our environment as well , they are a natural weed abatement, they eat the weeds thus keeping the risk and cost of wildfires down. The horses also help the local flora by naturally fertilizing the seeds they eat as it passes through their system. Now the BLM claims that there is not enough room for all the wild horses, yet they have more than enough room for currently expanding cattle ranching industry that is utilizing the land . There seems to be a vast breakdown on what is really important to our state. Do we protect our wildlife and History or do we support the cattle industry?

There are Non-Profit Organizations who have made it their goal to help the Wild Horses of Nevada. We need to help support these organizations with the adoptions of these horses. We also need to protect our highways with fences and pathways for the horses and other wildlife to use. If Elected I will make it my personal mission to get these done from day one. I will work to return the land that the federal Government has stolen back to the rightful hands of the state of Nevada, so we can make the decisions here in the Great State of Nevada what is best for us not the greedy robbers on capital hill. I will work to place qualified officials in the Agriculture Department who are sympathetic to horses and ranchers alike. I will personally find the resources to get the fences placed along the highways and research what need to be done to create pathways for all wild life of this great state.

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