With Virtually NO Protection From the Canadian Government, The Wild Horses Of Alberta Face Slaughter Unless Your Voice Is Heard! Canada needs to hear a unanimous “World Wide” voice stating: NO MORE!
The days of freedom for this breathtakingly majestic Wild Stallion are numbered unless a unanimous WorldWide Voice is heard by Alberta’s provencial government. Big Business wants to conduct an annual “Wild Horse Round UP” of the Wild Horses of ClearWater Forest Reserve. Cattle Ranchers, Oil Companies, Lumber Companies, and Horse Slaughter Companies are behind this cruel and torturous event… seeking to kill these horses for Human Consumption.
The inhumane “Wild Horse Round UP” of the ClearWater Forest Reserve is only weeks away!
These beauties live in the ClearWater Forest Reserve. Big Money wants to send them to “slaughter”.
“Wild horses” or “feral horses”? The debate rages on in Alberta, Canada. The provincial government believes that the wild horses west of Sundre, Alberta are the descendents of domestic horses used in logging and guiding/outfitting operations in the early 1900’s. The Wild Horse Society of Alberta (WHOAS) believes that they are of Spanish descent. WHOAS is so sure of this that they have sent away DNA samples to the University of Texas, Equine Genetics Lab for testing.
The free-roaming horses in the Clearwater Forest Reserve are most definitely living in the state of nature and are not tamed or domesticated. They exhibit the classic social structure of wild horses with each band having a stallion and a group of mares and this season’s foals. The stallions run their own progeny out of the herd before they reach breeding age. The fillies are picked up by another mature stallion and added to his band or by a young stallion just starting to build a band. The young stallions join together to form bachelor bands until they are mature enough to start their own band.
You need only catch a glimpse of some of these wild horses to know that the suggestion they have descended from horses used for logging is ridiculous. Horse loggers use draft horses, which usually weigh around 1800 to 2000 lbs. The preferred working animals are geldings, which obviously can’t reproduce. (Robby McHenry, http://www.northernhorse.com/wildhorses/index.php, Sept. 3, 2007)
The Wild Horses of Canada live in bands. Foals nap among the protective adults of the herd. Notice the tremendous luxurious mane on the black stallion in the far right hand corner of the photo. Wary of man, these horses are often terrorized by being roped, corralled, chased by quads and even shot.
Whether the horses are wild or feral, they have the right to live and be free. Not captured and sold to slaughter. Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (ASRD) believes that allowing permit holders to chase wild horses across icy or snow-covered terrain in November and rope them is more humane than snaring. They are probably right, but wild horses, jarred to a stop by being strangled by a rope while in full flight, will often fight the rope, sometimes breaking a leg or its neck in their struggle. No doubt corrals are more humane…it is what happens to the horse after capture that isn’t. According to ASRD it is “difficult to know for certain where they all go. Most are used by the permit holders for resale.” Alberta Sustainable Resource Development also sees no reason to limit the number of permits issued or establish a quota. The only guideline is a ratio of no more than one mare caught for every three stallions.
Corrals of Death in the ClearWater Forest Reserve.
The Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (ASRD) has listened to Big Business and ignored the Wild Horse Society of Alberta (WHOAS) and thousands of taxpayers. Corrals are constructed in the ClearWater Forest Reserve and then the “Wildies” are driven into the corrals - slaughter for Human Consumption is their most likely fate.
This is a chute leading into a “catchpen” corral constructed in the ClearWater Forest Reserve. Young, old, mare, stallions… the “Wildies” are driven into the chutes and captured…
The “Wildies” (Wild Horses) of Alberta have almost no legal protection. About two years ago WHOAS requested a moratorium on the capture season of wild horses for a minimum of one year. They wanted to study the herds as they felt the foal mortality rate was unusually high. WHOAS recommendations were ignored. The taxpayers that sent in letters of support and were ignored. Instead Alberta Sustainable Resource Development listened to a few horse capturers and “big business” representatives that were present. In fact, ASRD extended the capture season an extra month and included November just for the running down and roping of Alberta’s wild horses.
Over the past few years Alberta’s wild horses have been roped, corralled, chased by quads and even shot. Cattle ranchers consider them a pest and would like them cleared out so there is more grazing for the cattle that run free on grazing leases during the summer months. Logging companies also view them as a nuisance in the forest reserves as do the oil companies.
In those same years, many Alberta residents and tourists have loved seeing the horses running free and not harming our environment. They have enjoyed watching the beauty and grace exhibited by healthy wild horses.
Wild horses are part of Alberta’s heritage and should be protected by provincial legislation. In order to accomplish this goal, support is needed. Support by the media, support by the public, both in Canada and worldwide. Documentaries showing the horses in their natural environment need to be made and broadcast. Letters and emails need to be written to the government and to the companies that feel the government land belongs to them, more than it belongs to the horses, or the other wildlife trying to exist in what was once a natural forest.
Wild horses are part of Alberta’s heritage, and should be protected by provencial legislation. Resident’s and tourists alike love to see the horses running free in their natural environment.
There needs to be more media involvement. The plight of the wild horses of Alberta has to be drawn to the public attention with documentaries and news stories. Video footage and pictures of the wild horses in their natural environment speak louder than words about the beauty of these animals.
Phone call campaigns need to be made. More people are needed to put pressure on the forestry and oil companies as well as the provincial government that these horses need to be protected from man’s greed.
People are needed to assist with all aspects of the campaign to save the Alberta wild horses. They need to make the documentaries and get them aired. They need to make phone calls. They need to send emails and letters. They need to help.
Alberta has had wild horses for more than two centuries. Alberta should always have wild horses.
Curious foals peek from behind their mothers in the center of the photo. Sleek and fat, the adults are prime targets for the upcoming “Wild Horse Round UP”… Foals are routinely injured, killed or abandoned and their mothers, and herd mates are routinely shipped immediately to slaughter… for Human Consumption.
You can help the beautiful “Wildies” of Canada! Whether you are a resident of Canada or not, the “Wildies” have no other voice than yours, so please take a few minutes of your time and write to the following people and tell them to protect the “Wildies” of the Clearwater Forest Reserve.
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Send your letters of support for the wild horses to:
Honorable Ted Morton, Minister
Sustainable Resource Development
420, Legislature Building
10800 – 97 Ave.
Edmonton, AB Canada T5K 2B6
Phone: (780) 415-4815
Fax: (780) 415-4818
Email: foothills.rockyview@assembly .ab.ca
Premier Ed Stelmack
307, Legislature Building
10800 – 97 Ave.
Edmonton, AB Canada T5K 2B6
Phone: 780-427-2251
Fax: 780-427-1349
Email: see website and fill out form
http://premier.alberta.ca/contact/
Sources:
Wild Horses of Alberta Society (WHOAS)
http://www.northernhorse.com/wildhorses/index.php
September 3, 2007
Alberta Sustainable Resource Development
http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/lands/managingpublicland/feralhorses.aspx
September 3, 2007
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