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<\/a>\nSent to the Washington Post magazine features editor, WaPo corrections, Star-Tribune corrections and Chron.com help and reader representatives on December 1, 2020. No response. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear Editors: \u201cIn the West, wild horses are an out-of-control problem<\/span>\u201d<\/p> \u201cranchers and animal rights activists <\/span>are locked in conflict over their fate\u201d<\/p> \u201cthe debate between ranchers and animal rights activists\u201d<\/p> \u201cthe\u2026Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which owns the majority of the country\u2019s wild horses<\/span>\u201d <\/p> \u201can emotional battle over livelihood<\/span>, \u2026 ranchers see the mustangs as an overpopulated invasive species that competes for the public land their livestock grazes. Animal rights activists<\/span> see an icon of the American West that deserves better protection.\u201d <\/p> \u201cThere are over 100,000 wild horses and burros on \u2026 BLM land, according to the agency.\u201d<\/span><\/p> \u201cthough widely taboo, eating horsemeat is technically legal federally;<\/span> some consider it a cheap source of protein\u201d<\/p> \u201cwild horses and burros are still the only species under [the BLM\u2019s] jurisdiction\u201d<\/span><\/p> \u201cLisa Jacobson,<\/span> an equine veterinarian in Colorado\u2026\u201d<\/p> Photos\/photo captions in article are more than eleven years old.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m a journalist specializing in wild horse policies and politics; public lands ranching; and the horse slaughter industry \u2014 three of the topics intersecting in Ms. Lokting\u2019s reporting. \u201cIn the West, wild horses are an out-of-control problem\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n By government definition, \u201cthe West\u201d is made up of 753 million acres in 11 states in the lower 48 (AZ, CA, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, OR, UT, WA, WY), 346 million of them public-owned. Wild horses are present on just 4% (31.6 million acres) of that acreage. 4% does not equal \u201cthe West.\u201d It does not represent \u201can out-of-control problem.\u201d That is a mathematical impossibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cranchers and animal rights activists <\/span>are locked in conflict over their fate\u201d; \u201cthe debate between ranchers and animal rights activists\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Data on the BLM\u2019s Livestock Grazing Program is a much-needed fact-check of false and unsupported claims driving the conflict (debate, battle etc.) reported on in \u201cThe Wild Horse Wars.\u201d The Livestock Grazing Program is the conjoined but hidden twin to the Wild Horse and Burro (WHB) Program on the BLM\u2019s website. Here\u2019s what program data shows: <\/p>\n\n\n\n BLM-MANAGED PUBLIC LANDS: 245 million acres <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cthe\u2026Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which owns the majority of the country\u2019s wild horses<\/span>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Per the BLM website: \u201cThe Bureau of Land Management manages, protects, and controls wild horses and burros<\/em>\u201d \u2026 but does not own them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201can emotional battle over livelihood,<\/span> \u2026 ranchers see the mustangs as an overpopulated invasive species that competes for the public land their livestock grazes. Animal rights activists<\/span> see an icon of the American West that deserves better protection.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Yes, it\u2019s an emotional battle over livelihood \u2014 but it\u2019s the public\u2019s<\/em>, not the ranchers\u2019, that matters. Every year, the Federal Grazing subsidy program loses $120 million in direct<\/em> costs while expanding Kevin Borba\u2019s Fish Creek Ranch (a primary source for the article) to over 300,000 acres and providing water rights to Ramona Hage Morrison (a secondary source) on the public\u2019s land and dime so she can cheaply water her cattle. Losses due to indirect costs are many times higher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lokting doesn\u2019t divulge why Borba and Morrison \u2014 two of her sources \u2014 have a voice at all on wild horses: those cheap grazing allotments costing them $1.35 per month to feed a cow and her calf \u2014 less than the cost to feed a hamster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other perks come with it: the ability to collateralize their grazing leases to secure bank loans; a boost in value of their base ranching property; half of the $1.35 they pay per calf\/cow returned to them to fund rangeland improvements; removal of endangered species (wolf dens and pups, bison). Add to that the ability to monetize wild horses under propositions that Dave Duquette, another source, is pushing: spaying fillies; selling to slaughter; opening\/operating slaughterhouses to dispose of unsaleable breed stock. \u201cThere are over 100,000 wild horses and burros on<\/span> \u2026 BLM land, according to the agency.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n BLM press release cites: \u201cmore than 95,000<\/em>\u201d estimated WHBs on 11\/19\/20. \u201cthough widely taboo, eating horsemeat is technically legal federally;<\/span> some consider it a cheap source of protein\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n While it is technically legal to eat horsemeat, Congress banned it from inspection that would allow it to be legally sold and eaten. The reason is food-safety (not taboos). Formally designated as non-food livestock, horses are legally allowed to take all the drugs deemed hazardous to human health that are prohibited in food-livestock (cattle, hogs, etc). An instruction memorandum on the BLM website (\u201cWild Horse and Burro Vaccinations in Short-Term Holding Facilities\u201d) details the vaccinations and deworming of wild horses after roundup including foals. None of them are food-safe protein. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The ban on USDA inspections (and by extension, the production, distribution, sale and service of horsemeat), keeps a food product that failed the government\u2019s drug protocol out of the food chain. The health risks of eating horsemeat are unreported by the media and unknown to the public. The Washington Post has a duty to inform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cwild horses and burros are still the only species under [the BLM\u2019s] jurisdiction\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Obviously, cattle are also under its jurisdiction \u2014 and also 3000 species of wildlife. \u201cLisa Jacobson, an equine veterinarian<\/span> in Colorado\u2026\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Her title is Dr. Lisa Jacobson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photos\/photo captions] are from February 2009 National Geographic feature: MUSTANGS \u2014 SPIRIT OF THE SHRINKING WEST. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This story\u2019s complicated and misreported by the media. The Livestock Grazing Program data isn\u2019t publicized by the BLM (the way WHB Program data is) and the roadmap to finding it gets journalists lost rather than leads them to fact-based conclusions \u2014 all the more reason for an esteemed outlet like the\u00a0Washington Post to publish a factually correct account that informs the public, and to keep reporting on it. This will lead other media outlets to do so, as well.\u00a0 Please leave a comment below,<\/strong> follow me @viglet on twitter and read these other Daily Pitchfork posts pushing mainstream news outlets to correct their errors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fact-checking 13-year old photographic images in the Washington Post<\/a><\/strong> (1\/22\/21) Fact-checking The New York Times: Sources claim wild horse damage, but photos show cattle did it.<\/strong><\/a>(12\/12\/20)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fact-checking the New York Times: Maps and data expose cattle, not wild horses, as looming crisis.<\/a> <\/strong>(12\/15\/20)<\/p>\n The Washington Post, Seattle Times and the Houston Chronicle all have a duty to inform the public \u2014 not disinform it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,98],"tags":[26,27,153,83,23],"class_list":["post-1481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-corrections_watch","tag-blm","tag-bureau-of-land-management","tag-livestock-subsidies","tag-public-lands-ranching","tag-wild-horses"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p54Vzk-nT","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.dailypitchfork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-12-at-9.31.30-AM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypitchfork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypitchfork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypitchfork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypitchfork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypitchfork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1481"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypitchfork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1702,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypitchfork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481\/revisions\/1702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypitchfork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypitchfork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypitchfork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypitchfork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I\u2019m writing to request corrections for errors (underlined below) in Britta Lokting\u2019s article, \u201cThe Wild Horse Wars\u201d<\/a><\/strong> (Washington Post Magazine \u2014 Nov. 18). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Errors and documentation:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Sources: Ballotopedia; BLM \u201cWild Horse and Burro Program\u201d web page)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WESTERN PUBLIC LANDS OVERSEEN BY 10 GOV\u2019T AGENCIES: 346 million acres<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s biologically impossible for a single wild horse to outgraze 25 head of beef cattle. It\u2019s also absurd for a handful of ranchers and wild horse advocates (or, as \u201cThe Wild Horse Wars\u201d calls them more than 20 times: \u201cactivists\u201d \u201canimal activists\u201d \u201canimal rights activists\u201d) to be singled out as main stakeholders to an issue on public lands that the public pays for. The public\u2019s interest \u2014 all 382 million Americans \u2014 isn\u2019t even acknowledged on its own lands<\/em> in the Washington Post\u2019s reporting. That interest overrides every other. But the public doesn\u2019t know what it owns or how much it\u2019s costing them. The Washington Post has a duty to inform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taxpayers fund all of it, but have no clue. The Washington Post has a duty to inform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BLM website cites: \u201c95,114\u201d WHBs. (79,568 wild horses \/ 15,546 burros)<\/em> on 11\/29\/20. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Per the BLM\u2019s Fish and Wildlife web page:
\u201cThe BLM’s Division of Fish and Wildlife Conservation provides national leadership to promote restoration, enhancement, and protection of fish, wildlife, and invertebrate species and their habitats. This includes supporting a diversity of fish, wildlife and plants, including threatened, endangered, \u201cat risk\u201d, migratory, and game species. In fact, the BLM manages more fish, wildlife and plant habitat than any other federal or state agency in the country; more than 3,000 species of wildlife live on BLM-managed public lands.<\/em>\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please call me with any questions you may have and let me know what you plan to do.
Thanks so much for your time.
Sincerely,
Vickery Eckhoff<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fact-checking errors and omissions in the New York Times<\/a><\/strong> (12\/12\/20)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Facebook\"](\"https:\/\/www.dailypitchfork.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" "\\"Share")
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