ebird snowy owl sightings for January, 2012

Snowy owl stands on Wisconsin brush, by Bely Medved

The northern half of the country has gone snowy owl crazy. An enormous generation of the spooky white birds has migrated as far south as Oklahoma looking for food to replace the temporary boom of lemmings they were raised on. To see if one is spotted near you, check out the eBird sightings because they’re showing up at airports and downtown waterfronts everywhere.

Owl watchers tend to live by a Mason-like code. They won’t tell you exactly where their owl. They fear a crowd will annoy the bird or some idiot might shoot it. But, they may tell you the general area if you talk to a serious birder in person. If you don’t know any, join eBird, the birding site run by Cornell and the National Audubon Society that lets citizen scientists track and map each species.

You sign on (for free) and look for snowy Owl–known formally as Bubo scandiacus and informally as Harry Potter’s Hedgwig–near you. Sort by this year only to see the recent sightings. You won’t get that precise of a location because of the code. The key thing to remember with a spectacular bird like a snowy owl is that you don’t have to be a good enough birder to spot the owl. You just have to be observant enough to spot the people watching the owl. And persistent enough to show up.

Unlike many North American owls, snowy owls hunt in the daytime. Many of the sightings have been mid-afternoon. ince the owls down here are desperate for food, they may be willing to hunt outside normal business hours and eat just about anything–mice, ducks, fish, roadkill. Still, dusk and dawn, the animal rushhour, is a great time to look. These birds prefer open meadows to forests, so that make it a bit easier, too.

Here are some of the highlights of snowy owl watching from around the country:

Boston: Boston birders can go on several organized owl watches, including one MassAudubon holds this weekend at Duxbury Beach. eBird also shows a one at Logan Airport and one in Sommerville

Chicago: Montrose Dunes of Lincoln Park, right on the waterfront.

Denver: The airport is the hotspot–as well as the area of Harvest Road and Barr Lake State Park north of there.

Milwaukee: In the morning people have been seeing a snowy owl on the downtown South Shore, especially the yacht club.

New York:  Jones Beach and Fire Island (especially Shinnecock County Park) are the closest to the city this month. But in November Gothamist reported one seen near the Verazzano Narrows Bridge.

Ohio : A dozen birds have been seen around the state, but one in the exurbs of Columbus starved to death, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

Oregon: Salishan Spit, about 30 miles northwest of Eugene, is the farthest south one appears on the West Coast this year.

Philadelphia: Snowy owls are hanging around between the runways at Northeast Philadelphia Airport–not the big international one.

Where to SEE HAWKS, OWLS & OTHER RAPTORS

Where to SEE EAGLES

SEE ANIMALS IN THE MIDWEST (IL, IA, IN, OH, MI, MN, WI)

Wild Burros / By Al_HikesAZ Alan English CPA

Rick Perry’s biggest hunting worry is the nasty name of his land, but horse lovers have a bigger problem with him. His wildlife officials have been shooting wild burros–again–to make way for bighorn sheep hunting on the Rio Grande. They stopped after public outrage in 2007, but a Freedom of Information Act request shows they’ve shot at least 47 this year, many with AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle.

AR-15, anti-burro weapon

The recent FOIA documents show two parks employees, Drew Hufstedler and Barrett Durst, somewhat methodically looking for and killing burros. But then  Jaime Sanchez, a Dallas County game warden, went out a few times mid-summer with an AR-15.  Not a particularly efficient shot or bureaucrat, on June 22 he only hit his target with six of nine shots from a .308 and may have only killed one burro–you can’t tell because from his paperwork. Then on the  Fourth of July Sanchez fired this semi-automatic version of an M-16 seven times to take down two burros. Some of his other paperwork is late–not that there’s any repercussion.

The big is to clear Big Bend Ranch State Park for big horn sheep, which hunters pay big money to shoot. A change.org online petition, already signed by nearly 100,000 people, asks Texas to knock it off. Not the adding sheep part–the shooting of the mules. Since there’s not real solid science that they even interfere.

Texas has been working with hunters to bring bighorn sheep to the park to shoot. The Texas Bighorn Society describes it as hard-working volunteers restoring a native species. Hunters argue burros aren’t native and compete with big horns and foul the water supply.

Mule lovers look at it as a bunch of yahoo hunters inserting sheep to have fun and make money. Van Atta says burros don’t interfere with bighorn, which, even if they were uproariously fun to shoot, might not really be native. The sheep and burros usually live at different elevations and if there’s a drought burros can dig water holes other animals use, she says.

Ram moving to Big Bend for hunters

The public first found out about shooting wild asses in 2007, when park workers told on state officials, which ended in a big investigation and a plan not to do it again, or at least be more discreet.

The testimony showed that State Parks rirector Dan Sholly and regional director Mike Hill just went out and shot at least 71 burros, at Big Bend State Park whenever they were in town for a meeting.

Meanwhile, complex manager Luis Armendariz tried to get the USDA to trap them, but they refused. Armendariz says the shooters referred to themselves as the “Yosemite mafia” and that one cryptically told him: “I have gotten rid of 15 of your problems.” Some burro carcasses were found shot in the belly–an unethical way of hunting that leaves the animal to linger in pain. Workers said the hunters seemed to use helicopters to shoot the mules.

“Shortly after that, Parks ordered them to take anything out of the gift shop that has anything to do with burros,” says Karen Van Atta.

To no one’s surprise, an internal affairs investigation found that it’s powerful wildlife officials had not committed animal cruelty or done nothing wrong. The findings say they didn’t use helicopters or shoot unethically–but the whole thing is by affadavit so I don’t see any way that they even confronted the men with the evidence. They just took their word on it. They don’t comment on using helicopters to shoot burros, so the report officially concludes they didn’t.

The shooters, all qualified marksmen, claimed they weren’t doing it for fun, just to make way for the trophy hunting of bighorn sheep. Shooters tried to claim that the burros were just abandoned pets of a recent parks manager, but Van Atta found evidence that predates the manager.

Horseback Magazine reported in February that state officials had resumed killing burros and also audad sheep. Wild Burro Protection League founder Marjoree Farabee went down to the park, which is on the Mexican border, and “discovered …that at least 46 more of these remarkable animals have also been wasted.”

Burros, as you may recall, were introduced by Spaniards 500 years ago. Americans have used and abused their remnant populations to haul mining supplies, amuse unethical hunters and make into dog food. But starting in the late 1950s, Americans got a little nauseated by the abuse and eventually passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.

The act offers burros flowery compliments, calling them “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West…an integral part of the natural system of the public lands.” It generously promises “wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death.” But then it limits protection, so it only applies on certain western lands. The Bureau of Land Management, which is pretty much rancher-owned and operated, can still capture and/or kill them. And apparently, so can the state of Texas under Rick Perry.

Where to SEE WILD HORSES and horse sanctuaries

Monarchs at Robert Moses Beach, Oct. 5, 2011

On a beach just outside New York City limits Barbara discovered hundreds of monarch butterflies one day in 2005. Since then she’s been hooked on the spectacle and returns every year at this time to look for the roost.

“I sat on the railing by the boardwalk and thousands of monarchs flew over my head, it was very surreal. After a couple of hours of watching them I followed them to the pine trees where they were roosting for the night, Never before and never since have I witnessed so many. In 2010 the monarchs returned by the hundreds and this year over the past 3 out of 5 days they are making a huge appearance.”

Barbara is now one of thousands of Americans who report their butterfly sightings on Journey North, an educational site that tracks all kinds of migrations. Most people don’t know that monarchs migrate or gather like birds on their journey across thousands of miles to California, Mexico and Florida. Lately citizen scientists are tagging them and mending wings with tape to help track their mysterious migration, which has been disrupted by a lack of their favorite food, milkweed.

1. Check Journey North to see where and when they visit your area. They’re flying south ahead of the freeze, which can kill them. Unlike, say, cranes who only live in a few spots, you can spot monarchs anywhere. You’ll have better luck along the routes and keeping up with the migration wave. Overnight roosts are now in Texas and Oklahoma and 5,000 spent the night on Assateague Island, VA (better known for wild horses).

2. Go out after a rain. “the best migration and roosting days are after a rainy day(s),” Barbara says.

3. Check all around an area where you’ve seen them. They like to eat milkweed, which grows by water, and they like to sleep in evergreens. “They don’t always roost in the same trees. These past three days the wind was out of the  east and they roosted in the pine trees near the dunes and ocean. When the wind is out of the west they appear to roost more in the pine trees near the main road.”

4. If you want to give something back to the monarchs, plant some milkweed for them to make up for habitat loss. If you can’t find seeds in your area, check out Milkweedseeds.com or LiveMonarch.com, where you can get a pack for $3.

Read about Brooklyn’s Best Butterfly Bush

Where to SEE WEIRD BIRDS (All the interesting birds: pelicans, puffins, prairie chickens, vultures, hummingbirds)

Kentucky’s Fish and Wildlife Commission decided to start hunting sandhill cranes, aiming to shoot 400 of them this fall. The KY legislature and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service still have to say okay, but it looks like a done deal. Nine of 10 states in the Central Flyway already hunt sandhill cranes. Three states hunt cranes the fly through the Rockies. But Kentucky would be the first to hunt the relatively small population of sandhill cranes that move between Canada and FL.

That’s especially worrying because this route overlaps with the route of migrating whooping cranes. Hunters are supposed to only shoot if they are sure it’s a sandhill (which is grey and pretty easy to distinguish from the bigger, white, endangered whooper). But with astonishing regularity they keep shooting the whoopers. (Four were killed this winter and recently a guy in Indiana got off with a $1 fine, court costs and 6 months probation.)

“I am very disappointed that Kentucky will be the first state on the Eastern flyway to open season on cranes,” says writer and naturalist Julie Zickefoose, who is working on a new book, The Bluebird Effect: My Life-changing Encounters With Wild Birds, due out next year, which includes a chapter on sandhills. She’s led a charge, joined by many bird groups and 10,000 Birds, which carries her blog, to fight bringing crane hunting to the eastern flyway. Tennessee recently put a two-year hold on hunting cranes and now some are taking aim at KY lawmakers.

The U.S. has several subspecies and big populations of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensi) that seldom mix. The mid-continental population (MCP) is by far the biggest, according to the Central Flyway, the group that oversees hunting of migratory birds in the middle of the country. By contrast the Rocky Mountain (RMP) is about 20,000 and the Eastern Population (EP) is about 30,000 to 40,000.

Eastern sandhill crane migration route / Management Plan for Eastern Population of Sandhill Cranes

The numbers are all fuzzy and controversial. Hunters like to stress their abundance; birders point out that the species was nearly wiped out and it’s still a rare treat to see them.

Hunting sandhill cranes is polarizing not just because they are a freakishly delightful spectacle. Hunting was called off in 1916, so nobody can claim it’s an old family tradition. And who would want to eat one?

Sandhill crane hunting started up again in 1961 and more states have picked it since. In 2009, hunters killed about 25,000 sandhill cranes. A 2010 FWS report on Sandhill Crane hunting and populations said the population is stable, but noted “harvest has been increasing at a higher rate than population growth.”

Zickefoose argues the harvest amounts to taking 6% of the Central Flyway population every year and that it’s just too high a toll on a bird that has such a hard time reproducing.

Hunters kill about 15,000 birds in the Central Flyway; about half of which die in TX. Hunters in AK, AZ and NM shoot another 1,000. Canadians take down 5,000 to 10,000, the FWS says. They claim the Mexican crane hunt is tiny–about 2,000 to 3,000.  Zickefoose says it’s much worse: “the crane take in Mexico is a free-for-all: neither regulated nor recorded.”

Across the country birders and animal tourists far outnumber and outspend hunters. Even in Texas. Nebraska, which attracts thousands of birders from around the world to the Rowe Sanctuary and Kearney each spring to see the cranes, is the only state that recognizes who’s paying the bills.

Imagine how many more people would be able to enjoy sandhill cranes if we didn’t keep shooting them. From 1975 to 2008, the Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that North American hunters shot 27,000 sandhill cranes each year. That’s a total loss of about 900,000 birds.

For hunters, it’s a fleeting amusement–even if you consider they spend an average three days in the field. The FWS says that in the 2000-1 season only about 7,000 of those licensed to kill cranes went out even once. (It’s stale data, but its the best they offer, sorry. Game managers have a hard time tracking how many people are actually hunting cranes because the license can be pretty general.) Obviously not all those specific 900,000 birds would be alive today, but its clear many would be–along with offspring and descendants. If you live in the middle of the country, odds are you’re one of the people who missed out on seeing a sandhill crane because somebody else thought it would be fun to shoot one.

Where to SEE WEIRD BIRDS (All the interesting birds: pelicans, puffins, prairie chickens, vultures, hummingbirds)

SEE ANIMALS IN THE PLAINS (KS, MO, NE, ND, OK, SD)

Read about the long history of hunters shooting whooping cranes

Check out the Fish and Wildlife Service report on Sandhill Crane hunting and populations

Source: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service The National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, 2006

Madelyne Tolentino in Canovanas, Puerto Rico, saw the movie Species then came up with an account that pretty much matches the beast in the film says Radford, who is managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine. There has been a free-floating farm myth of a creature that kills animals and then eats them in bizarre ways. But if you’ve ever watched the Discovery Channel, you know that it’s really insects.

I first heard of the Chupacabra where I learned most of my cryptozoology: from the X-Files. In the 1997 episode El Mundo Gira Mulder and Sculler confront “an old Mexican folk-tale of El Chupacabra.” Only, not so old. I hope this means we can stop hearing about it every time some Texan sees a mangy dog.

Where to SEE WEIRD ANIMALS Coait, Prairie Dog, Otter, kangaroo, skunk, porcupine, salamander, snake, squid, pretty much anything rare

SEE ANIMALS IN LATIN AMERICA

Epona Horse Rescue Customer

Young Nebraska State Sen. Tyson Larson, 24, has big plans to promote horse slaughter and horsemeat for human consumption. First he wants the cash-strapped state to divert $200,000 from grain inspection to horse meat inspection. Then bill he introduced would make it a misdemeanor for the state’s two remaining horse rescue groups to turn away any of the state’s 100,000 unwanted horses, which would put them out of business.

No charity animal rescue operation can survive if it has to take every animal dumped on its doorstep. It ceases to be a charity and becomes a public service. The only kind of city dog shelters, for example, that take all dogs are those that have a mandate and budget from the city.

Larry Guyton, vice president of Epona Horse Rescue, says if the bill passed he would close down the rescue group the next day. Epona used to take in horses from well-meaning people who couldn’t afford them anymore. Now they mainly get animals government cruelty and neglect investigations. “We’ve got 130 acres. We’ve got 40 horses now. We rescue the ones we can,” he says. “They’re painting us with the same brush they paint Peta.”

The counties that send horses to the rescue group don’t have to pay to maintain the animals if the case drags on. When a farm struck his main barn a few months ago, he got donations from farmers and governments across the region. They could get a tax write-off for giving him old supplies that were not useful to them but that he and his horses really needed.

Larson, who wants to spend $100,000 to inspect NE horse meat

So, who is this Larson? Larson only graduated from college in 2008. TheBallot.org said he “barely meets the rule in the state constitution that a candidate must be a resident in a district for a year before representing it. Larson’s a former campaign aide for [conservative Republican Congressman] Adrian Smith, pro-death penalty and loves the flat income tax. We like his enthusiasm, but we are not sure he is ready to lead.” He fully answered a series of policy questions at VoteSmart, which puts him way to the right but not completely off the edge (he’d support abortion in cases of rape or incest and license and registration for guns).

In his official biography, his main experience is working for three Nebraska politicians while in college. He describes himself as “a successful small-business entrepreneur,” claiming he is “head of business operations and risk management for Art Research Technologies, a small art-consulting firm.” Unlike his official bio, that company says he used to work at Sotheby’s and that “as a member of the Business Intelligence Group, Tyson provided market analysis for over 20 departments.” Now he also does PR for rodeos and works as a substitute teacher. I’m just going to go out on a limb and guess that Jim Korkow, the rodeo contractor quoted in the North Platte Bulletin was one of his clients.

Korkow told the paper, seemingly thinking he was going to get sympathy, that he wants to take horses he’s used for years and send them to slaughter and get paid for their meat.“Each year, I have horses that are ready to retire. They are done,” he said. “I’m running a ranching rodeo operation, and the dammed thing is turning into a retirement home for old horses. Consequently, I just watch them here and no matter how much you feed them, you can’t help them. They deteriorate and lose muscle mass. Its saddening.”

Thing is, it’s perfectly legal and ethical–and sometimes morally necessary–for Korkow to euthanize the horses. He’d just have to pay for it instead of getting paid. Who does this guy’s PR? Oh…yeah, right.

Horse slaughter was effectively banned in 2006 and then, after the recession, a horse glut hit the country. Since then overbred horses are sold at auction, then trucked to Canada and Mexico, where they are treated far worse than they would be here, and eventually sold as meat in places like Japan or France.

Larson says he hopes to slaughter his own quarterhorses some day right in Nebraska. His bill would authorize the Department of Agriculture to hire a program administrator. The program “will initially be funded by $200,000 [over two years] from the Commercial Feed Administration Cash Fund and thereafter by use fees for the inspection services provided.”  What’s the feed fund? That’s the tax that elevators and feed manufacturers pay per ton on feed for inspections. It’s only supposed to be used for feed inspections, but, according to the Nebraska Grain and Feed Association, it “has over NGF’s objections repeatedly been raided over the past several years by the legislature and diverted to certain unrelated programs or the general fund in times of a tight budget.”

Right now Nebraska has an $18 million agriculture department and a budget gap of $750 million along with $1.1 billion of cumulative debt. Do they really want to spend money so that horse owners can get paid for horsemeat instead of decently euthanizing old horses?

Sponsor one of Epona’s Horses

Donate to Epona

Where to See Animals in the Midwest

Where to See Horses in the Wild or at Sanctuaries

“I’ve seen for years how cattle business people misuse the land: they never ever think of anything else but cattle,” says Carlos Robles Elias, who inherited the land from his cattleman grandfather. “They do not know that we need wild animals to keep the world moving.”

Instead of producing beef, Elias believes the ranch is helping “’export’ new ways to think and live.”

Rancho El Aribabi, a conservation ranch about 30 miles (45 minutes) south of Arizona in the Mexican state of Sonora, is a popular spot to watch birds (Montezuma Quail, eagles, hawks, egrets, the elf owl, hummingbirds, among others). Coatis live here, too. But the biggest excitement is the ranch’s work with the Sky Alliance to help save the jaguar. Photos of the big cat have been taken on the ranch. Over 35 threatened or endangered species of plants and animals live on the ranch. You can help support it by coming to visit. They have facilities and guest rooms for up to 12.

Here’s what you can expect to see:

Mammals              Daytime Chance                      Nighttime   Chance

White-tailed deer………100%                                      100%

Javelins…………………….100%                                      100%

Coatis……………..….……. 60%                                        60%

Mountain Lion….……… 30% (tracks 100%)               10%

Fox…………………………..10%                                        60%

Badger………..…………….10%                                       10%

Coyote……………………….50%                                       60%

Birds

Moctezuma Quail……90%

Eagles………………..60%

Trogon elegans………60%

Hawks……………….100%

Falcon……………….100%

10 Important Birds of Rancho Aribabi, Sonora, Mexico

Golden Eagle (Águila Real, Águila Dorada, Aquila chrysaetos).
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Cucú Pico Amarillo o Cuclillo Ala Rojiza, Coccyzus americanus ).
Buff-collared Nightjar (Tapacaminos Préstame-Tu-Cuchillo, Caprimulgus ridgwayi).
Elegant Trogon (Trogón Elegante, Trogon elegans ).
Green Kingfisher (Martín Pescador Verde, Chloroceryle americana).
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (Tirano Tijereta Rosado, Tyrannus forficatus).
Rose-throated Becard (Mosquero Cabezón Degollado, Pachyramphus aglaiae).
Sinaloa Wren (Chivirín Sinaloense o Saltapared Sinaloense, Thryothorus sinaloa).
Black-capped Gnatcatcher (Perlita Gorra Negra, Perlita Sinaloense, Polioptila nigriceps).
Streak-backed Oriole (Oriol Dorso Rayado, Calandria Dorso Rayado, Bolsero Dorso Rayado, Icterus pustulatus).

House (La Casona) Spring and summer rates:

a.- Weekend, two nights (fri-sun) or 3 nights (mon-thurs): 750 dlls.
(14 guests or less, extra guest camping 25 dlls.).
b.- Weekend, two nights (fri-sun) or 3 nights (mon-thurs): 950 dlls. all bedroom’s stuff (sheets, pillows and blankets included) and all essentials bathroom’s stuff (towel, soap).

The rates include:

Bird and wildlife list and Topo maps.

Extras may be arranged:

Bilingual field excursion guides with enough time of introduction of the ranch’s history, goals and current research and conservation activities………100 dlls per day.
Trucks or vehicles……………………………………………………100 dlls per day
Meals……………………………………………………………….. 12 dlls e/o.

Carlos

—–Mensaje original—–
De: Carlos [mailto:elaribabi@telcel.blackberry.net]
Enviado el: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 8:12 AM
Para: C. Robles, hunting; Organización Ooshat
Asunto: RV: animal tourism blog about jaguars at El Rancho Aribabi

Enviado desde mi oficina mvil BlackBerry de Telcel

From: Carol Vinzant
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:55:10 -0400
To:
Subject: animal tourism blog about jaguars at El Rancho Aribabi

Hello Mr. Elijah–

I run the website animaltourism.com, which guides people about where to go to see animals.
After I ran a story on the jaguar photos at your ranch, Sergio Avila suggested I list you.
Is the listing below correct? Would you let me interview you for a small article about your ranch and what people could do there?

My basic questions would be:
What animals can people see most reliably at your ranch?
Is it easy to see coatis? (I saw them on a trip to Costa Rica and am fascinated.)
What birds do people find most interesting there? (I’m not really a birder, so I couldn’t recognize in your species list what would be exciting to birders.)
Do you offer tours?
Can just regular people (as in, not scientists) stay at night? What are your rates?
What was the ranch before? How did you become a conservation ranch?
Have you ever seen the jaguar?

Ms. Vinzant:

With my respect, I apologize about my delay, but I’m here to answer all your questions, I hope it will be useful for you.

What animals can people see most reliably at your ranch?

Attached you will find a list of birds and protected animals we have at the ranch.

The list below is an example with some mistakes but it comes from my experience at the ranch.

Day time                                                                Night time

Mammals                  Chance                                    Chance

-White-tailed deer…..100%                                      100%

-Javelins…………….100%                                      100%

-Coatis………………. 60%                                       60%

-M. Lion…………….. 30% (tracks 100%)                10%

-Fox…………………..10%                                        60%

-Badger……………….10%                                       10%

-Coyote……………….50%                                       60%

Birds

-Moctezuma Quail……90%

-Eagles………………..60%

-Trogon elegans………60%

-Hawks……………….100%

-Falcon……………….100%

Here’s what they’ve come up with so far:

Pretend that animal welfare groups support them, too.

The post-Murdoch Wall Street Journal preposterously claims in a headline that “Horse Slaughter Is Reconsidered: Animal-Welfare Groups Are Joining Ranchers in a Push to Revive an Industry That Died in 2007.” The evidence? Stephanie Simon cites tentative support from Hope for Horses in NC (which has a big Help Us Stop Horse Slaughter page on its site) and American Humane Association, which is best known for protecting animals in movies (and also works with farm animals).

Along with the usual roundup of horsemen, livestock owners, they also had “Mindy Patterson – Alliance for Truth, campaign to defeat HSUS Missouri Prop B,” the pro-puppy mill group that lost.

Meanwhile the actual HSUS says no way. Here’s Wayne Pacelle: “It’s a predatory industry, causing untold suffering for so many healthy and young horses funneled into this international meat trade, to satisfy the palate of gourmands in Belgium, France, and Japan. These horse-slaughter mercenaries claim they’re helping horses by killing them, but we know they’re just out for more profits for themselves.”

Pretend they have Temple Grandin on their side

Temple Grandin, who has humanely redesigned the American slaughter industry, spoke at the convention but as RateMyHorsePro writer John Holland (who has the most thorough coverage) points out, Grandin told the group to stop using her name. In an interview with Horseback Magazine, Dr. Grandin said “They kind of were misrepresenting my involvement.”

Grandin told Horseback that she would only support a proposed Wyoming horse slaughterhouse if it had independent video monitoring 24/7, instantly kill between 95 and 99% of horses with the “first shot,” and have “management that cares about what they are doing.”

Grandin disappointed the group, saying she was neutral on legalizing US horse slaughter, the Animal Law Coalition says.

Pretend that they’re just looking out for the horses

It’s true that American horses are being sent to Mexico and Canada for slaughter in worse conditions that they would face here. So, let’s just stop shipping them there. There are too many horses because they were overbred, just like cats and dogs.

The whole summit was just to support “a horse slaughter facility in Wyoming that would be owned and operated by WY state Rep. Sue Wallis, who threw a reporter out of the event.

Pretend they are just supporting “free enterprise”

Sue Wallis, vice president of United Horsemen, tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal to let free enterprise offer a solution to too many horses.

Hey, I love free enterprise, too. That’s why I hate that the federal government blows $132 million a year (and that’s only as of 2005) giving cattlemen a discount on grazing fees. Why couldn’t they do it with an old-fashioned free enterprise auction–like the forest service does with logging?

Pretend not allowing horse slaughter will make horses “only for the rich” because euthanizing horses costs too much

There’s a glut of horses, from the boom days when aspiring horsey people bought them, and that drives the price of all horses down. Horses hemorrhage cash. People who can’t afford their horses are desperately trying to sell them at discount prices, give them away, send them to a rescue group or just let them go feral.

The horse slaughter industry’s spokesman (the WSJ) bemoans how unfair it is that “Hiring a veterinarian to euthanize and dispose of a horse can cost hundreds of dollars.” How expensive is that to a horse owner? AllAboutHorses says that the average  total cost to keep a horse for a year is $3,728. So let’s forget the notion that horses are for the commoners. Unless it’s a working horse, it’s not a working man that owns it.

Pretend people who oppose horse slaughter are either

• a) hypocritical eaters of cows and pigs
• b) Besotted by Disney animal tales
• c) animal rights terrorists

RateMyHorsePro writer John Holland shows crazy emails from the group deriding anyone one opposes horse slaughter–even a George Bush associate–as too young, too dangerous and too radical to attend.

United Horseman’s President Dave Duquette: “We have ALL the parties we need and as your Youth shows, there are many more than just two in this. You are not part of the rational Anti slaughter side so when you grow up a little and get some real life experience maybe you will join with a group that is, but then you wouldn’t be the ‘Star’ anymore.”

Horseback Magazine writer Steven Long outlined the other problem with the other red meat: U.S. horses are on way too many drugs for people to eat them. He asked how she could ensure humans wouldn’t end up eating “bute, banamine, Ace, and wormers..[since] almost all American horses are routinely given these drugs, many of which are carcinogenic.” She said it would pass out of their system.

Long found that untrue, especially given recent scientific papers showing chemicals turning up in American horsemeat. “Dr. Nena Winand of the Cornell University vet school [told him,] “ Phenylbutazone is completely banned for use in food producing animals in the US and EU, and there is no established, acceptable withdrawal time is any class of food animals (including horses in the EU).”

Pretend the west is overrun with wild horses

The US government is spending way too much money to keep wild mustangs in holding pens so they don’t compete with livestock on federal grazing lands. So don’t capture them.

As Ginger Kathrens, volunteer executive director of the Cloud Foundation, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal: “You would think there are millions of wild horses roaming the West. It’s pathetic how small the herds are, how underpopulated they are.” In the 1.3 million acres of Antelope Valley, 407 wild horses graze alongside 7,700 cows. “That’s the statistic that’s common to all their management. The pie is so slender for wild horses,” she said.

Where to Go See Wild Horses

Where to See Wildlife Out West

Buffalo Bailey Rides--notice both bison and spaniel have food bowls

Canada

Buffalo Whisperer: Jim Sautner, rancher, Spruce Grove (near Edmonton), Alberta

Buffalo: Bailey, Jr.

Age: 2

Weight: 1,600-pound male

Consolation for: Tragic death of first pet bison, Bailey, Sr., in 2008.

Special Skills: Rides in Car

Jim and Linda Sautner first had a pet bison in Bailey, but Bailey at a young age 4 (bison can live to 40) when his foot got stuck in a grate and he fell over and crushed his organs. Just weeks later a neighbor called with an orphaned bison. The couple met the youngster and pronounced him “sensible.” Bailey rides in his converted car along with a cocker spaniel. He drinks beer in bars and goes to charity events.

United States

RC Dances with Buffalo

Buffalo Whisperer: RC Bridges, 61, Quinlan (near Dallas), TX

Buffalo: Wildthing, Age 5, 1,300 pounds

Consolation for: Losing eye to parasites

Special Skills: Dances, Pulls Chariot, Plays Basketball, Rounds up livestock, Sets world records

Life-long cowboy and horse trainer RC Bridges lost an eye to an exotic parasite in 2004, went through surgeries to regain sight and in 2005 took in a baby buffalo. He and his wife Sherron and their kids made Wildthing a member of the family with his own room.

Luke gets a buffalo kiss

South Africa

Buffalo Whisperer: Luke Michaelides, 13, Limpopo (near Kruger), South Africa

Buffalo: Hop-a-long, 6-8 year old female, 1,100 pounds, Skip-a-long, 1 year old male

Consolation for: The family started taking care of Hop-a-long since she was injured by a male

Special Skills: Cape Buffalo are a completely different species–the one settlers mistakenly named North American bison after. They’re wild and dangerous, killing hundreds of Africans a year. So, it’s quite a feat that Luke gets close, earns their trust and gets kisses.

Luke is planning on writing a book about gradually getting the buffalo to trust him, the Daily Mail says.

Where to Go See Buffalo and Bison Around the World