Wild mustangs run with a spirit that makes them legendary, they are wild and free, never to be tamed, this alone is amazing. But the problem is that these horses numbers are starting to shrink, and they are taking the other animals that live on the range with them. Everyone wants to know a solution to this problem, but no one has an answer, questions are floating around; how can we help them? Do we help them by rounding them up in to trailers and taming these wonderful animals and sending them off to adoption centers? Or do we help by not do anything and let the animal that has always been it own, decide its own future, making their mark on history? Everyone is arguing about this topic, no one knows wether we do something for these animals, or do we leave them to live their lives, with out humans like they always have. 

There are people who think these round ups are needed and those who do not. The supporters believe that we need to round up these horses due to the fact that Mustangs are eating down the cattle's grazing land. As the cattle industry becomes more prominent ranchers are starting to see the wild horses less as a free animal, and more as a pest eating away there land (depauw.edu).  There are about 225 million acres of public grazing land out west, and about 18,000 ranchers who have permits to have their cattle, and other livestock on this land.  On average each rancher has between 800-1,200 heads of cattle. Although 225 acres of grazing land may be a lot, 225 MILLION acres still is not enough to keep all the livestock and wild horses alive. If we want to keep having cows, and other livestock on the range including the wild mustangs we need these round ups. To keep the mustangs from eating down to much of the grazing land and to make sure the horses not just leave enough food for the livestock but also for themselves.
       

Another way to see it is; that we need to stop these round ups, because of the fact that there is not enough food on the range for the horses, and livestock. Wild mustangs have been on the range for hundreds of years, they ran wild and free, until they started to get crowded in, first many towns and cities surround them, and eventually other herds of animals start moving in, that the ranchers and farmers were forcing on the range. Even if we kept removing these horses, there would still be a ton of livestock living on the range, taking away the wild horses may not even leave an affect…
     

“If the BLM removes 200 horses in July, as Juan Palma has offered to do, there would be an average of 11.7 times as many cattle and sheep as wild horses (alternet.org).”

Just because the mustangs live on the range and always have does not mean they are the problem, we are. We have put our  cattle and our sheep and our cities all around the horses blocking them in, forcing them to eat away at the range.
       

The more horses on the range, the more of them that die of starvation, or of trigger happy ranchers shooting them. After last months round up of about 400 horses John Ruhs said;

“We have identified more horses that are in danger of starving, than ever before these   animals are in the same very poor condition  as the horses we gathered last week”  www.takepart.com .

Due to the fact that most of the cows and sheep on the range are needed to provide resources to us, we need to keep the same about of animals or even more on the range as our population grows. Starving to death is not the only problem though, angry ranchers who think the horses are threatening their horses food supply will shoot the mustangs if they go on the ranchers land. In just one month, authorities found 37 dead mustangs thought to have been shot by trigger happy ranchers who had no other motive to shot the animals. So basically the horses are being more negatively affected on the range than off, where they can be adopted, and brought to a new home.
     

Like always theres a negative side to this as well, during the round ups horses are often getting seriously injured. They can be seen running for there lives scared to death, being chased by a helicopter. While running horses have broken legs, and become lame to the point of needing to be put down, running into each other, getting cut up by the other horses hooves,  and even getting hit by the helicopter. In videos helicopters can be seen, flying low to the ground nearly hitting and occasionally running straight in to these horses. Lisa myers says;
“It is an enthralling scene, but also one that infuriates many Americans. Thundering   choppers overhead are driving the wild horses, many that appear terrified, toward a trap.  For most, these are their final moments living wild and free. A steel gate slams behind   them.  There is panic.  Minutes later, families are split up, with males, females and their young eventually sent to separate holding facilities” (wildhorseeducation.org).

As soon as the chopper has driven all the horses in to the pens, the gate closes, and thats the last of their freedom. Once in the pen chaos breaks out, these amazing creatures have never seen a man before, have never been behind bars, have never experienced the pain of being separated from their family, and have never been so scared in their lives. Horses can be seen, ramming them selves into the gates trying to break free, and in the process some break their legs or even hurt other horses. The people in charge of the round ups often use whips to force the horses into a trailer, then parade them off to adoption centers where they sit for about 5 years, with only an occasional adoption, until eventually they are sent off on meat trucks for 80 cents per pound, or to glue factories. Once that chopper is overhead for most of those horses there fate is sealed to a terrible life.
         

Right now their are 322,870,381 people in the United States alone, even as I type that number it is growing. That means we need a lot of food, a large number of that food is beef;
“Americans eat nearly 50 billion burgers a year, which translates to three burgers a week  for every single person in the United States.  That is a lot of beef”  (huffingtonpost).

Just to make one quarter pound hamburg, a cow needs about 74.5 square feet of grazing land. Now if you multiplied 50 billon by 74.5, that number is impossible to come up with, no calculator in the world can do that. That number what ever it may be is the number of square feet we need to feed Americas growing population. These cows that are on the range, need way more than 225 million acres to do that, and with the mustangs on the range it is making it worse. If we continue these round ups, we can continue to feeding Americas people for a very long time.
           

It is true that we need to provide enough meat to feed everyone in the United states, but what if everyone went vegetarian for a little while. It is said that beef is not the meat of the future, because our planet can not afford to feed all the people in america that much meat. It takes about 7kg of grain to get 1 kg of beef;
“we should stop eating meat to leave more grain for people to eat  and….yes, that’s   right, we all have to become vegetarians because the planet and basic human morality   requires it. (Tim War stall)”

Therefore, wild mustangs are not affecting our food supply at all they are only affecting their population. These horses populations are slowly going down and eventually we will hit rock bottom, and the symbol of freedom that we all know and love, as these wild mustangs will be totally gone. The idea of a wild horse will be extinct, we need to stop these round ups or mustangs will be the new addition to the extinction list.
           

The two perspectives on this topic may eventually change, but as of now people are debating on either to continue these round ups or to stop them. Most peoples opinions on this topic differ, depending on how much they want the horses to be on the range and how much they care about all the other elements. Only time will be able to answer these questions, maybe the round ups will continue till the horses are gone, or maybe they will stop all together, or maybe even the round ups continue and the horses stay at the same rate. There are a million different possibilities with a million different out comes. There is one thing though that everyone can agree on, these horses need our help, and we all need to come to a decision on how to do that. There is just one more question that needs to be answered where do you think your choice would fall?

An authors note about Wild Mustang round ups and the discipleship practice of creation keeping

Dear Readers,

I believe that the wild mustangs, are beautiful, amazing, and free creatures. I love animals of all shapes and sizes, except for maybe snakes. In my opinion God gave us these magnificent creatures as a way of teaching us something or many things. One thing that I know God wanted us to find out about through these Mustang is the discipleship practice of creation keeping.

  As it says in Psalm 24:1-2 “The earth is the Lords and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. For he founded it one the seas, and established it upon the waters.” When God first created these animals he said it is good, and it was. Till we started to mess it up, if we help these mustangs thats is a ways that we can start to mend the world. If we are going to keep Gods creation, like he wants us to, we can not be hitting horses with helicopters.

One thing I know for sure, is that we are not helping these animals by sending them off on meat trucks. I do not know how this problem will end, I do not know if the wild west be filled with mustangs, or will it be filled with people. But I do know that in some way shape or form we need to help these horses. Do you think theres a way we can do that with out over filling adoption centers, and sending horses away on meat trucks? I really hope and believe there is.
There are many adoption services for these creatures that you could contribute to please, take my advice and help keep these living legends alive.

May you consider this as well,
Sincerely
Ryann M. G.

Works Cited
Downer, Craig. "Wild Horse Roundups: Why Are They Conducted?" PBS.   PBS, 22 Dec. 2010. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

Eckhoff, Vickery. "Ranchers Want Our Public Lands for Their Livestock, and   Want the Govt. to Stick It to Wild Horses and Taxpayers." American   Wild Horse Preservation Campaign. American Wild Horse     Preservation, 13 June 2014. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

Good, Kate. "What Cattle Production Has to Do With the Disappearance   of Thousands of Wild Horses." One Green Planet. One Green Planet,   27 May 2014. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

Hill, Taylor. "Nevada's Wild Horses Are Being Euthanized Thanks to the    Drought." TakePart. Take Part, 12 Sept. 2015. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

Mortensen, Camilia. "FSEEE: Forest Service Employees for Environmental   Ethics." FSEEE. NP, Fall 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

Myers, Lisa. "Cruel or Necessary? The True Cost of Wild Horse round Ups."   Nbc News. Michael Austin, 14 May 2013. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

NA. "Defund and Stop the Wild Horse & Burro Roundups." Change.org.   Protect Mustangs, 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

NA. "The Reality of Roundups." American Wild Horse Preservation    Campaign. Wild Horse Preservation, 14 Sept. 2012. Web. 26 Jan.   2016.

Stone, Will. "Wild Horses Run Free As Adoption Centers Fill Up." NPR. NPR, 19  Aug. 2013. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

Young, Jolyn. "Cattoor Wild Horse Roundups." Wild Horse Roundups -. NP,   n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.